Section 2: The Deck
Required Equipment
Old Maid requires one deck. The deck may be a purpose-made Old Maid deck containing matching picture pairs and one uniquely unmatched Old Maid, or it may be prepared from an ordinary fifty-two-card deck.
Preparing a Standard Deck
When using a standard deck, remove exactly one queen before dealing. The remaining fifty-one cards contain twenty-five rank pairs and one unmatched queen. That lone queen is the Old Maid. Which queen is removed does not matter, but the choice should be made before the deck is shuffled.
Pairs are formed by cards of the same rank and the same color: hearts pair with diamonds, and clubs pair with spades. For example, the seven of hearts pairs with the seven of diamonds, while the seven of clubs pairs with the seven of spades. Under this method, a red seven and a black seven do not form a pair.
Purpose-Made Decks
In a commercial or homemade Old Maid deck, each ordinary image must have exactly one matching partner. One additional card must have no partner and serves as the Old Maid. The pictures, names, or symbols should make every valid pair clear to all players before the round begins.
Count or inspect an unfamiliar deck before play. Missing cards can create extra unmatched cards and prevent the round from ending correctly. Jokers, advertising cards, instruction cards, and other unrelated cards are removed unless a chosen variation specifically uses one as the unmatched card.