The game is popular in many communities throughout Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island) as well as the Gaspé Coast in Québec.

Forty-fives is also played in parts of Massachusetts[a] and southern New Hampshire in New England, United States, as well as in the South Island of New Zealand.

Auction Forty Fives is closely related to the game One-hundred and ten.

Scottish emigrants to Atlantic Canada may explain the reason for the popularity of the game there.

[4] James VI was recorded playing "Maye" at Kinneil House at Christmas 1588.

[5] The daughters of Elizabeth Kitson, Meg and Mary played Maw at Hengrave Hall at Christmas 1572.

[6] By 1831, the game had reached America because Eliza Leslie records a simple version that year of what she calls Five and Forty in a book for American girls.

Any number may play and the first dealer is chosen by cutting; highest deals (Aces high).

In this region the game is most popular in southern New Hampshire and the Merrimack Valley of northeastern Massachusetts.

At the community level a popular pastime on Dog Beach in Newbury, Massachusetts, is to play auction Forty-Fives at low tide during green head season.

In New Brunswick Forty-Fives was a popular evening pastime at lumber camps during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as with men congregating at general stores.

The Auction Forty-Fives variant is popular through the province at community "card parties".

For example, in the greater Harvey Station, New Brunswick area (GHA) biweekly card parties are popular with cottagers and local residents alike during the Spring-Fall months at the Lodges of the Ladies' Orange Benevolent Association (L.O.B.A) Tweedside.

On Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, notably in Richmond County, there are 45-Card-Games in almost all communities.

This may involve tens or hundreds of people depending on the size of the jackpot.

Ties may be broken by splitting the prize, cutting the deck for low card win, or playing off.

Sometimes there is a cookie jar, where a couple can attempt to win eight or ten randomly chosen games.

Forty-fives is popularly played on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

Regular 45's Tournaments are held as a fun night out in locations like Workingman's clubs and RSA buildings.

Instead of the top card being turned over after the deal and determining trump, players bid based on the strength of their hand.

Reneging is very powerful in playing partners or trying to take the last two tricks of a hand.

One version of the game also states that if you do not trump into an off-trump hand, you are supposed to follow the suit of the card being led.

If these two players are tied after this hand, the game (and dealing order) continues as normal.

Once all hands have been dealt the "bidding" begins with the player to the dealer's left, and proceeds in turn around the table.

Meanwhile, the remaining players are entitled to draw up to three cards from the deck, first discarding from their own hand.

All other players often co-operate (without collusion) to prevent the bidder from reaching his bid, though selfish interests can supersede this.

Scores can reduce below zero, it is common to set a cut off point (often minus 80) at which a player is removed from the game.

Thomas Cockson's 1609 engraving The Revells of Christendome includes a description of the game maw being played:[9] Hopes to winn something too, Maw is the game at which hee playes, & Challengeth at the same A Monk, who stakes a Challice : France setts gould, & shuffles: the Monk cutts: but France (being bould) Deales freely: Rubs : and the first card hee showes, is the Five Finger, which being tourn’d up, goes Cold to the Moncks hart : the next card, France sees in his owne hand, is the Ace of hartes, "I Leeze" Cryes out the Monck; sayes France, "Show what you have," the Monck could show France nothing but the Knave.

Forty-fives appears in Thomas Head Raddall's 1950 novel The Nymph and the Lamp, where it is described as "practically the national game of Nova Scotia.

In an episode of Bob and Margaret, a passing motorcyclist strikes up a game while characters are stuck in traffic.