Patent Application
20160346670
The present invention is directed to methods of playing games and, more particularly, to a multi-player wagering game for all ages using chips and a determination element.
Board, card and other types of parlor games have been a popular pastime for many years. While consumers have many choices when purchasing a game, most games have age restrictions. Games that are designed for children are often found boring or juvenile to adults, whereas games that are designed for adults are not appropriate for children because of the skill level needed or their content. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a family-friendly game that can be played and enjoyed by all ages.
Many commercial games sold in the United States require that the players be able to read English to play. This is not advantageous because it precludes the inclusion of children who have not yet learned to read as players. The potential market for these games is also limited because it will not appeal to immigrants who speak another language or exporters who may wish to sell the game abroad. It is an object of this invention to provide a game that can be played by anyone, regardless of the language he or she speaks.
A further drawback of some games in the art is that they must be played until the end of the game to determine a winner. Thus, a game that can be concluded at any point during the game with a definitive winner is desirable.
It is with respect to these problems that the present invention is addressed.
The invention described herein is a game called PHAN. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method of playing a multi-player game is disclosed. In this method, a plurality of chips and a determination element are provided. The determination element comprises at least four different indicia. The plurality of chips is distributed equally among the players so that each player has a set of chips. The players determine a wager of chips for at least one round of the game. Based on this wager, a pot is created with chips from each player that is equal to the wager. A player then manipulates the determination element such that it identifies one of the determination element's four indicia (i.e. winning the pot, winning half the pot, not winning the pot, or putting the wager into the pot). Based on the indicia identified, the player makes an adjustment to the player's set of chips. For winning the pot, the player adds the chips from the pot to the player's set of chips. For winning half the pot, the player adds half the chips from the pot to the player's set of chips. If there is an odd number of chips in the pot, one chip more will be left in the pot. For not winning the pot, the player does not add any chips from the pot to the player's set of chips. For putting the wager into the pot, the player puts chips into the pot equal to the wager for the round. Each player manipulates the determination element and adjusts his or her set of chips as described above to complete a round. Additional rounds of the game are played until one of the players has all of the chips.
In other aspects of the method, the determination element is a die with six sides and has rounded corners. Each side of the die corresponds to an indicia of the determination element, where a first side has a first indicia, a second side has a second indicia, a third and fourth side have a third indicia, and a fifth and sixth side have a fourth indicia. The first indicia corresponds to winning the pot. The second indicia corresponds to winning half the pot. The third indicia corresponds to not winning the pot. The fourth indicia corresponds to putting the wager into the pot. Each indicia is uniquely identified on the die by at least a letter, color, or both a letter and color. The manipulation of the determination element in this aspect of the invention consists of rolling the die so that it can land on one of its six sides.
In a second embodiment of the invention, the determination element is a board with a plurality of recesses and a ball that is sized to rest in a static position in any one of the recesses. There are at least four recesses, and at least one recess corresponds to a first indicia, a second indicia, a third indicia and a fourth indicia. The first indicia corresponds to winning the pot. The second indicia corresponds to winning half the pot. The third indicia corresponds to not winning the pot. The fourth indicia corresponds to putting the wager into the pot. In various arrangements of the invention, the recess size and count for one of the indicia is different from the recess size and count for at least one of the other indicia. In some configurations, the recess size for the first indicia is the smallest, the recess size for the second indicia is larger than the first indicia but smaller than the third and fourth indicia, the recess size for the third indicia is larger than the first and second indicia but smaller than the fourth indicia, and the recess size for the fourth indicia is the largest. Where this board with recesses is used, manipulation of the determination element can comprise receiving the ball onto the board and permitting the ball to come to rest in a static position within one of the recesses on the board.
In a third embodiment of the invention, manipulating the determination element can consist of initiating a disturbance on the surface of the board to cause the ball to move until it seats within one of the recesses. In various arrangements, the disturbance to the board is caused by a vibration device.
A further aspect of the invention relates to a game comprising a determination element with at least four indicia, a first plurality of chips divided among the game's players, a second plurality of chips in a pot from a wager of an equal number of chips from each player, a manipulation apparatus, a set of instructions governing the interactions among the game pieces, and a box containing the game pieces. The instructions govern the interaction between and among the determination element, chips and the manipulation apparatus. They provide for distributing the first plurality of chips among the players equally, predetermining a wager of chips for at least one round of the game, creating the pot with chips from each player equal to the wager, using the manipulation apparatus to produce a response from the determination element that identifies one of at least four indicia, and adjusting the player's set of chips in response to the indicia (i.e. winning the pot, winning half the pot, not winning the pot, or putting the wager into the pot). As described above, for winning the pot, the player adds the chips from the pot to the player's set of chips. For winning half the pot, the player adds half the chips from the pot to the player's set of chips. If there is an odd number of chips in the pot, one chip more will be left in the pot. For not winning the pot, the player does not add any chips from the pot to the player's set of chips. For putting the wager into the pot, the player puts chips into the pot equal to the wager for the round. Each player manipulates the determination element and adjusts his or her set of chips as described above to complete a round. Additional rounds of the game are played until one of the players has all of the chips.
In another aspect of the game, the determination element is a die with six sides. Each side of the die corresponds to an indicia of the determination element, where a first side has a first indicia, a second side has a second indicia, a third and fourth side have a third indicia, and a fifth and sixth side have a fourth indicia. Each indicia is uniquely identified on the die by at least a letter, color, or both a letter and color. The manipulation apparatus in certain aspects of the game is a cup, spring, or vibration device.
These and other aspects, features and advantages shall be apparent from the accompanying drawings and description of certain embodiments of the invention.
The present invention is described in connection with several embodiments for a wagering game with chips. The game is played according to the method shown in
As described in
After the chips are distributed and the wager is determined, the players create the pot 130. The pot is created by each player putting in a number of chips equal to the wager. For a game with 4 players each having 50 chips and a wager of 10 chips, for example, the pot will comprise 40 chips.
A game round consists of each player manipulating the determination element to identify an indicia 140, and adjusting his or her respective set of chips 160 according to the identified indicia 150. In the preferred embodiments, the player that starts the round is decided by either manipulating the determination element to see which player gets a certain indicia first, or upon agreement of the players. Rotation to the next player is decided by the players, but is generally either in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction.
Each player must manipulate the determination element such that it identifies only one of the indicia 140 when the manipulation is complete. If no or multiple indicia are identified, the player must manipulate the determination element again. Based on the indicia identified 150, the player adjusts his or her set of chips 160. The indicia on the determination correspond to one of the following: winning the pot 161, winning half the pot 162, not winning the pot 163, or putting the wager into the pot 164.
If a player's manipulation of the determination element identifies the first 151 “winning the pot” indicia 161, the player adds the chips from the pot to the player's set of chips. In a preferred embodiment, this corresponds to the player getting all of the chips in the pot, minus his or her first wager. The remaining players (excluding the player that won the pot) must put another wager in to refill the pot. Using the example above of four players with a 10-chip wager, the player that won the pot would have 70 chips, the three other players would have 30 chips each, and the pot would have 40 chips after adjusting the chips in response to the identified indicia 151, 161.
If a player's manipulation of the determination element identifies the second 152 “winning half the pot” indicia 162, the player adds half of the chips from the pot to the player's set of chips. In the event that the pot has an odd number of chips, the extra chip is left in the pot. In a preferred embodiment, winning half the pot corresponds to the player getting half of the pot and the remaining players (excluding the player that won half the pot) putting in half of the wager to refill the pot. Using the example above of four players with a 10-chip wager, the player that won half the pot would have 60 chips, the three other players would have 35 chips each, and the pot would have 35 chips after adjusting the chips in response to the identified indicia 152, 162.
If a player's manipulation of the determination element identifies the third 153 “not winning the pot” indicia 163, the player does not add any chips from the pot to the player's set of chips. No adjustments are made to the pot or the other players' sets of chips. Using the example above of four players with a 10-chip wager, the player that got “not winning the pot” would have 40 chips, the three other players would have 40 chips each, and the pot would have 40 chips after adjusting the chips in response to the identified indicia 153, 163.
If a player's manipulation of the determination element identifies the fourth 154 “putting the wager into the pot” indicia 164, the player must put chips from the player's set of chips into the pot in an amount equal to the wager. No adjustments are made to the other players' sets of chips. Using the example above of four players with a 10-chip wager, the player that got “putting the wager into the pot” would have 30 chips, the three other players would have 40 chips each, and the pot would have 50 chips after adjusting the chips in response to the identified indicia 154, 164.
A game round is completed when each of the players manipulates the determination element 140 and adjusts the chips 150, 160 as described above once. At the end of the game round, the game can be ended or another round can be played. If another game round is played 180, the players can use the same wager as the previous round 130, or agree upon a new wager 120. It is advantageous to be able to adjust the wager after a game round because a player may not have enough chips to put the wager from the previous round into the pot. Or, the wager can be adjusted to make the game more competitive. In the preferred embodiment, when a player runs out of chips either during a round or at the end of a round, that player is eliminated from the game. Rounds of the game are played until one player has all of the chips 170, 190, or when the players decide to stop.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the determination element is a six-sided die, as shown in
Referring to
It is preferred that the blue “N” and the red “P” both appear on two sides of the die, while the green “A” and the yellow “H” only appear on one side of the die. It is preferred that two blue “N's” are on opposite sides of the die, and the two red “P's” are on opposite sides of the die, as shown in
A game constructed in accordance with the above embodiment is referred to as PHAN, named after the letters depicted on the die in the preferred embodiment.
In a third embodiment, the manipulation device of the second embodiment comprises initiating a disturbance of the surface of the board to cause the ball to move until it seats within one of the recesses. This disturbance can be caused by a vibration device, including one that can be manually initiated to continue for a proscribed period of time. As generally known in the industry, the vibration device can be mechanical or motor-driven. One mechanical vibration device consists of using a cantilever weight and a gear with a peg, where the gear's peg is positioned to hit the cantilever weight and cause it to oscillate. The cantilever weight is positioned so that it hits the game board when it oscillates, causing a vibration. The Hasbro® Perfection game, for example, utilizes a mechanical vibration device known in the art to cause the board to pop up after a proscribed period of time. A similar vibration device can be used with the present invention. Alternatively, a small vibration motor device can be used. Similar small vibrating motors are used in massaging products, cell phones, and video game controllers utilizing haptic feedback. To reduce the manufacturing costs of the game and the requirement for batteries, utilizing a mechanical vibration device is preferred.
Further configurations of the board in the second embodiment of the invention are shown in
While the invention has been described in connection with certain embodiments, it is defined by the claims that accompany this description and is not to be read as being restricted to any one embodiment thereof.
