Ten-Point Buck Rules

A Trick-Taking Game for Three to Five Players

Components Link to heading

  • 56 cards, including ten 1s, nine 2s, eight 3s, and so on, down to one 10-point card, the Buck, and also one 0, the Doe. One copy of each card in a rank is colored white; these are the trump cards.
  • A writing utensil and paper, to keep track of bids and Hunting Points.

Object Link to heading

Score more Hunting Points than anyone else after 5 rounds by winning tricks and getting as close to your bid as possible.

Setup Link to heading

Shuffle the deck of cards, and deal ten cards to each player. Set the rest of the cards aside. The dealer changes each round, proceeding clockwise around the table.

Bidding Link to heading

After dealing, the player to the dealer’s left places a bid.

Players are bidding how many points they think they will be able to take during the tricks played in the round. A bid can be any whole positive number or zero, but players are trying to get as close to possible to their bid, ideally making their exact bid.

After each player places a bid, play begins with the lead going to the player on the dealer’s left.

Tricks Link to heading

The leading player plays a card to the table, and then the next player clockwise, and so on until each player has played a card. Whoever plays the highest card of the trump suit wins the trick, and if a trick contains no trump cards, whoever played the highest normal card wins the trick; the winner gathers all the cards played to their score pile. If there is a tie between normal cards, whoever played the first card of the highest rank played wins the trick. Then whoever won the trick takes the lead for the next trick.

A player may not choose to play a card to the trick if there is already a card of that rank in the trick, unless it is their only available option. For example, if a player plays a normal card with a value of 8 to the trick, another player cannot play another 8 to the trick, including the 8 of trump, unless that player has no other option.

The Doe Link to heading

The Doe card is normally worth zero when playing to a trick; however, note that it is still a trump card that will take a trick if all the other cards played in the trick are normal. Also, if the Doe and the Ten-Point Buck are played to the same trick, then the Doe card wins the trick. The player who won this trick also immediately scores 2 Hunting Points.

Scoring Link to heading

After all ten tricks in a round have been played, players count how many points of cards they have in their score pile, then compare that to their bids. How close a player is to their bid determines how many Hunting Points they receive:

Exact Bid: 10 Hunting Points

1-5 Points Away: 5 Hunting Points

6-10 Points Away: 3 Hunting Points

11-15 Points Away: 2 Hunting Points

16+ Points Away: 0 Hunting Points

End of Game Link to heading

After 5 rounds of play, whoever has the most Hunting Points wins. If there is a tie, additional rounds are played until the tie is broken.

Credits Link to heading

Design: Sam Fragello

Layout: Scott Bennett

Art: Kathryn Rose, Page Ornamentation in public domain by Marie L. Danforth

Editing: Ragnarr Marksen and Scott Bennett

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