The Old Maid (ばばぬき, Babanuki) is a game featured in Episode 1 (Season 3) of Alice in Borderland.
Participants have to discard their cards gradually and finish the game with a Joker card in their hands.
Overview[]
Set-up[]
- Location: Koto Side Office
- Player Limit: 7
- Time Limit: None
- Starting Condition: Players have to take a seat at the table
- Starting Items: Seven playing cards
Rules[]
- From the cards dealt, any pairs of numbers have to be discarded.
- The Joker card acts as the "old maid", and the player holding it at the end wins.
- Players take one card from the player on their right (moving counterclockwise).
- It is GAME CLEAR if the player holds the Joker card by the end of the game.
- It is GAME OVER if the Joker card is taken from the player.
- It is GAME OVER if the player leaves their seat.
- It is GAME OVER if the player runs out of cards.
Details[]
The table is equipped with an electric device connected to each chair by a wire. Players who receive GAME OVER get electrocuted.
Strategy[]
The game is mostly up to chance, but reverse psychology can be used to make people avoid picking the Joker card.
Game Result[]
Ryuji 
|
GAME CLEAR
Had the Joker card at the end of the game |
Unnamed Player 1 
|
GAME OVER
Got electrocuted after losing the Joker card |
|---|---|---|---|
Unnamed Player 2 
|
GAME OVER
Got electrocuted after leaving the designated seat |
Unnamed Player 3 
|
GAME OVER
Got electrocuted after running out of cards |
Unnamed Player 4 
|
GAME OVER
Got electrocuted after losing the Joker card |
Unnamed Player 5 
|
GAME OVER
Got electrocuted after running out of cards |
| Unnamed Player 6
|
GAME OVER
Got electrocuted after running out of cards | ||
Trivia[]
- The game is new to the story and has no prototype in the original manga series.
- This is the only game played in the real world instead of the Borderland, therefore it is not part of the Joker Tournament.
- "Old Maid" is a traditional card game. The rules of the game are first recorded in a book for girls by Eliza Leslie, who published them in America in 1831 and England in 1835 under the names Old Maid (when played by girls) or Old Bachelor (when played by boys). In older versions of the game, three out of four queens were removed from the deck, leaving the fourth queen card as the "Old Maid". When the game was played by boys, the same was done with jacks instead. Nowadays, it is common to use the joker card as the "Old Maid" instead.
See also[]
| Games featured in the Netflix Adaptation | |||||
| Season 1 |          
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| Season 2 |             
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| Season 3 |
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