Hucklebuck
| Origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Alternative names | Huckley Buck, Sputnik |
| Type | Trick-taking |
| Family | Rams group |
| Players | 3–7 |
| Cards | 52 cards |
| Deck | French |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Playing time | 15 min. |
| Chance | Medium |
| Related games | |
| Rams • Bourré | |
| Basic features: 5 cards, exchanging, declarer chooses trumps, game is 11 or 15 points | |
Hucklebuck, also known as Huckly Buck and sometimes as Sputnik, is an American trick-taking card game of the Rams group for three to seven players (four to six are best). The game is native to the states of Nebraska and Iowa, although a variant called Huckley Buck is recorded in Nevada. The game appears to have arisen in the early 1900s in the Midwestern United States and may be based on Bourré, a Louisiana member of the Rams group. The rules given here are based on McLeod.
John McLeod notes that "in his article Die 100 Kartenspiele des Landes Salzburg in the 2004 edition of the journal Talon, Remigius Geiser includes a substantial section on the group of games... called the 'Rams group', after a famous 19th century French game... These are round games with a small number of cards dealt to each player. Players gain points or money by winning tricks, but anyone who takes no tricks at all suffers a penalty. Those who judge their cards too weak to be sure of winning a trick can avoid this penalty by dropping out of the play."