| 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,[1] although a variant called Huckley Buck is recorded in Nevada.[2] 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.[1]
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."[3]