01. To play Scabby Queen, obtain a standard pack of 52 cards.
02. Ensure the jokers are removed and the queen of clubs. (Leaving the queen of spades without a match).
03. Choose a dealer by cutting the pack.
04. Dealer deals all cards to all players including himself or herself one at time starting from the player on his or her left.
05. Dealer and players look at their cards and discard any pairs they have. A pair is two cards of the same value (of the same color if many players, of any color if a small number of players or you are playing with younger players).
06. Beginning with the dealer, each player takes turns offering their hand face down to the player on their left.
07. That player on the left selects a card without looking and adds it to their hand.
08. This player then sees if the selected card makes a pair with any of their original cards. If so, the pair is discarded face up as well.
09. The player who just took a card then offers their hand, face down, to the person on their left, and so on.
10. The game continues with players taking cards and discarding pairs until no more pairs can be made.
11. The player with the card that has no match is stuck with the scabby queen and loses.
12. The loser and receives a number of raps on the knuckles with the edge of the pack from the dealer.
The number of raps is decided by reshuffling the pack and having the loser draw a card. He, she, or them then gets the number of raps based on the face value of the card, or, if it is the scabby queen, 21 raps, a jack, other queen or king, 10 raps. An additional option for the raps is, if the loser draws a red card he or she receives soft raps; if a black card, hard raps.
Take your pick based on the level of hurt you want for the game.