The present invention is best understood by reference to the Figures and the subsequent recitation of the play of an example game.
In front of the dealer's position and each of the players' positions is a computer monitor screen 22 or 24 built into the tabletop. All the players' screens 24 have the same configuration, which includes a card viewing portion 25 in which images of the player's cards appear. It is preferred that at all times during a hand five card images remain on each player's screen in portion 25 so that each player can easily follow the play of the game. At the start of a hand all cards will be face down, so the screen image will show only the backs of all five cards, as indicated in
In other regards, however, the dealers screen 22 is significantly different from the players' screens. The dealers screen 22, which is shown in
The overall configuration and interconnection of the electronic devices used in the apparatus are illustrated in
In the exemplary play of a game described herein, a game with four players present, seated at positions 2-5, is illustrated. Each player's screen 24 prior to dealing of a hand is normally blank or merely shows the backs of up to five cards, as illustrated in
The game is started by each of the players anteing by placing one or more chips 50 on the 1 marker in front of each player position, as illustrated in
Once all players have anteed the dealer moves the pot chips from the P markers in front of the players to the “Pot” area 28 of the table close to the dealer and then presses the “start game” button 40 on the dealer's control screen so that the apparatus “deals” the first two cards electronically to the dealer and each player face up. The deal may be a regular poker deal or it may be a biased deal as will also be discussed below. At the end of this first deal the dealers screen changes to the configuration shown in
Customarily as in other poker games the player with the highest ranking hand shown (in the example this is Player 3 with cards A-K) starts the betting for the deal of the next card, by placing the appropriate chips on the 2 position marker. Each of the other players in sequence around the table then decides whether to call the bet, raise the bet or fold his/her hand, depending on the rules of the game. The dealer neither bets nor folds throughout the hand. In the example game each of the player is shown as continuing with a bet (but no raise) in order to obtain a third card in this round. If a player betting also bets into the pot by placing additional chip(s) on the letter P in front of him/her all other players must also bet into the pot if they wish to continue in the player pool pot. A player may at any time stop placing any further chips into the pool pot but if he/she does so his/her chips already played into the pot in this game are forfeited and he/she is not permitted to reenter the pool pot on subsequent card rounds in this game. However, the player continues to play against the dealer unless he/she subsequently folds.
When all bets are placed the dealer again collects the pot chips placed on the P markers, moves them into the “pot” 28 and then presses the “deal” button 48 on his control screen 22 and the apparatus deals a third card to the dealer and each of the continuing players. The configuration of the screens after this second deal is shown in
The last two rounds follow in the same manner with the status of the hands being as shown in
Normally there will be a definite “high hand” among the players so that, preferable assuming that the high hand has beaten the dealer's hand, the player with the high hand will be the sole winner of the players' pot. In the rare instance where two players have equally high hands (for instance, two equal straights or flushes), the pot can be split between them. It is also contemplated that house or table rules can provide for split pots in other situations or even in every game in which two or more players complete the game (and, preferably, also beat the dealer). Pots may be split into equal shares to each player who beats the dealer, or they may be split into graduated-size shares according to the relative rankings, of the winning hands. In this regard, house or table rules may permit all players who complete the game (i.e., have not folded during the game) and who have also bet into the pot at each round of the hand, to participate in a split of the pot, even if they have not also beaten the dealer. The latter variation is not preferred, however, and should be considered only if the shares are graduated and the shares returned to players who did not beat the dealer are less than the amounts they bet into the pool pot, to discourage players with weak hands from continuing to play in a game in effect just to get some portion of their bet back.
The hand now being over, the dealer's screen for a period of time shows the configuration illustrated in
The software which runs the game is illustrated schematically in
It is also contemplated that preferably a “qualifying hand” will be established by house or table rules in order for a player to win against the dealer/house. For instance, the qualifying hand could be defined as a pair of sevens. If the dealer's hand upon completion of a game does not rank above a pair of sevens, all players that have not folding during the course of the game will win only a single bet against the dealer, rather than winning all four bets (on the 1-4 markers) against the dealer. Alternatively, the win against a non-qualifying dealer's hand for a player completing the game could be defined by rules as return of the player's ante bet placed on the 1 marker, with no winnings from any of the 2-4 marker bets. In either case all of the non-folded players wins the single- or ante-bet from the dealer, regardless of whether a player's hand does or does not beat the dealer's hand. Also, the ante and all 24 marker bets made by the non-folding players are retained by them.
The software system may also incorporate various functions common to other electronic games and game tables. For instance, for times when there may be no players at the table, the normal dealing and card displays on the monitors may be replaced by screen savers, displays of casino logos, game demos or teasers, or other displays of visual images and/or indicia. Such displays will usually be designed to attract players to the game and table. The system preferably will also have the capability of full recording all hands and the play of those hands during each game, and retaining such records for all or a series of games (usually at least a moving ten-game sequence). In practice, such function is intended to be present as a standard feature with complete recording, since it is commonly required by the governing gaming authorities that all games must be fully recorded and the records retained indefinitely of for a prescribed period for audit purposes, investigation or surveillance if cheating may be suspected, and similar regulatory purposes.
While it is mentioned above that the players' monitors 24 are for the purpose of the present game dedicated in their touch screen functions primarily to allow the player to communicate folds or similar game-related information to the dealer, it is contemplated that such dedication limits will be part of the software, so that if desired other functions may be present in the software that override or supplement those dedication functions. Such changes would be under control of the casino and not the players. For instance, the software may include functions that allow the touch screens of the monitors to be used for the playing of other games, the selection of various video or other visual images or indicia to be displayed on the monitors, or as general purpose monitors.
Each game can be played with a regular deal, as in a conventional poker game, so that the cards as dealt can be any five-card combination within a deck of cards from the lowest possible ranking hand (2-3-4-5-7, assuming A is high only) to the highest possible ranking hand (an A-high straight flush). However, it is preferred that biased dealing be used to enhance the game experience for the players. The purpose of a biased deal in the present game is to increase the likelihood that each of the players will be dealt a reasonably good poker hand. This reduces the chance that players will get poor early cards and fold at an early round, leaving only one or two continuing players and substantially reducing the amount of the player pot available. Numerous types of biased deal methods are known and most are likely to be suitable for use in the present game. The specific type of biased deal is not critical. However, a particularly preferred biased deal method for use in the present game is one in which the biasing comprises first selecting as an initial single hand rank a first random number between 0 and the number of possible hands and then utilizing the initial single hand rank with a deviation multiplier to determine a range of possible hand rankings for each of the players in the card game. Each player will have assigned a hand rank within that range. The effect of the biased deal is therefore to concentrate the values of hands dealt to all players around an initial hand value and decrease the proportion of hands of significantly lower or higher rank than the initial hand value which would otherwise have resulted from non-biased dealing of the hand. The players will not know each others' actual hand ranks, but will know that all of the hands will be within that range, and thus each player can play accordingly.
The process is best illustrated by first considering the number of hands (card combinations) possible in a conventional five-card poker game. There are nine types of hands, which are listed in the Table below in order from lowest value to highest value:
Within each type of hand, the individual hands are further ranked by the face value of the specific cards, from the deuce (2) as the lowest value card and the ace (A) as the highest. Numerous gaps occur in the ordering within the various types, since some combinations nominally within a type may constitute a different type and thus have a higher value since the highest type prevails when evaluating a poker hand for instance, the lowest ranking five-card hand (hand rank=1) in poker is a 7-high, “high card” hand. While a 6-high hand would seem to be lower in value, the 6-high, five card hand actually comprises a 2-3-4-5-6 straight, a higher value combination. On the same basis, the lowest ranked flush is the 7-high flush, since the 6-high flush is the higher ranked 2-3-4-5-6 straight flush. Other such situations will be obvious to those skilled in the art, such as that a hand containing a pair must not also have a third card of the same value, since that would comprise three-of-a-kind, a higher ranked combination than a pair. When the gaps in sequence in the different hand types are taken into account, the result is that the actual number of hand ranks differs among the different hand types. For instance, there are thirteen four-of-a-kind hands (ranked 78-90), but only eight “high card”hands (ranked 1-8). In all cases of the hand rank range in the Table, however, regardless of the number of entries and gaps in each type, the specific rank numbers increase in the 2-A direction. (Note that while the order numbering of 1-100 is preferred as being common and easily understood, any numbering system that maintains the proper playing order of the hands and properly accounts for the increments between their respective value ranks can be used. In such cases corresponding adjustments may be needed in the formula, deviation multipliers and initial hand rank selection, which adjustments will be readily apparently to those skilled in the art.
For each game, a deviation multiplier is randomly assigned to each player. Deviation multiplier values are selected from the range of 0.1-4.0, more preferably 0.5-3.5. While use of only integer values is not required, for ease of computation it is common for the multipliers in an individual game to be limited to the integer values 1, 2 and 3. The higher the multiplier value, the wider will be the range of allowable hands for a player. At least one value must be different from the others, and it is preferred that the values assigned be distributed among the players in approximately equal quantities; e.g., for five players a preferred distribution might be 1,1,2,2,3. The distribution to the individual players of these values is at random, so Player A might be assigned 2, Player B assigned 3, Player C assigned 1, and so forth, and each player is told only his/her own value, and does not know the values assigned to the other players. (Any correspondence between an assigned deviation multiplier value for a player and that player's poker skill level is entirely coincidental; the deviation multiplier values are not skill-based as a golf handicap is.) Also an initial hand rank value is randomly selected, being equal to or less than the total number of possible hands. From the Table above it is seen that the total number of possible poker hands is one hundred, so the initial hand rank value is selected within the range of 1-100. The hand value for each player is then determined by, the formula:
Hand value=Initial Hand Rank Value±(N×the Player's Deviation Multiplier)
where N is a number in the range of about 5.0-15.0, preferably 8.0-12.0. While integer values are not required for N, again for ease of computation in a game it is common for N to be designated as the integer 10. The higher the value of N, the wider the range of allowable hands for a player. In an individual-game, N will be held the same for all players. Application of this formula is straight-forward. For example, assume that the initial hand rank value selected is 50, which corresponds to an 8 high straight. If N=10, for Player A the hand value range would then be 30-70, which is equal to 50±(10×2). That range corresponds to all hands from two pair, J-high (lowest) through full house, 7-high, so in the biased deal for that game, Player A would not be dealt a hand outside that range; i.e., Player A could not be dealt a very low (value=0-29) hand nor a very high (value=71-99) hand. The players are aware that biased dealing is in effect, but they do not know what value has been selected for the initial hand rank value nor do they know what deviation values have been assigned to them. Therefore only as play progresses will each player be able to assess how his/her hand appears to compare to each other player. However, since all players enter the game aware that they have a reasonably good chance to win the game, there is a much enhanced tendency for all players to stay in the game through one or more betting rounds than would be the case in an unbiased deal, where it is much more common for very high and very low hands to be dealt and to become evident quickly, thus suppressing the competition in that unbiased game.
Whether a normal or a biased deal is used, the dollar value of the bets or raises permitted will be determined prior to the game by house or table rules. It is preferred, however, to keep bets and raises (if the latter are allowed) the same or within a narrow range in a hand, in order to encourage most or all of the players to stay in the hand and thus avoid having hands prematurely halted by a sudden overwhelming bet or raise by one player. By thus restricting bets and raises, the game experience is enhanced for all of the players. Thus, in a preferred mode the first player's ante or bet in the first round after the ante establishes the basic bet to the pot and thereafter all players must bet the same amount or raise by not more than a predetermined amount, which is preferably limited to no more than a low multiple of the basic bet. This prevents any player who has an apparently good hand based on early cards to bluff and attempt to “by the pot” by making a large early pot raise and thereby discouraging the other players from continuing. On the other hand, individual players' bets against the dealer may vary or may be determined by the initial player's bet, as predetermined by the house or table rules. Preferably each player's subsequent bet against the dealer (on the 2, 3 and 4 markers) must be the same as the player first bet at the beginning of the game (on the 1 marker). This is intended to protect the house, in that if a player after one or two card rounds senses that he/she is going to have a better hand than the dealer he/she cannot take advantage of the house by then increasing his/her bet substantially on the remaining rounds.
As mentioned above, the game is primarily intended to be played as an electronic casino game, using a specially configured table with computer monitors built into the table at the dealer's position and at each player's position. All of the monitors are connected to a central (usually dedicated) computer processing unit normally which may also be built into the table. The software which runs on the processing unit and operates the play of the game is controlled from the dealer's monitor which includes a touch screen controller. The players' monitors can also have touch screens to communicate with the processor, but only for the purpose of indicating that a player wishes to bet or fold prior to a deal round. Preferably the players' monitor will be for viewing only and players will announce verbally at the table whether they are betting or folding prior to each deal, and after each player has verbally announced the dealer will enter any folds into the system via his/her touch screen and then activate the deal of the next card, also from the touch screen.
The biased dealing function is normally incorporated directly into the software which otherwise operates the play of the game, although separate biasing software which runs in parallel with the game-play software is also contemplated. As indicated above, specific software coding to accomplish the deal biasing can be readily determined, installed and operated by those skilled in the art. The biasing function will normally be present as part of steps 72 and 78 in FIGS. 14A/B, since it controls the specific cards to be dealt to the dealer and the players at each point in the hand. It is also contemplated that two or more different biasing methods may be utilized and included in the software. This would effectively allow the play of the poker games to be varied subtly, with different hands being played with different deal biasing in effect, so that players would need to alter their betting and playing strategies for the different hands. In variations on this, two or more different tables in a casino could be run using different deal biasing, so that players could play under the type of biasing they preferred by choosing which table to play at, or, at a single table, the games could be run under one biased dealing method for a specified period of time—such as one hour—and then switch to running under a difference method for a subsequent time period.
It will thus be seen that this game allows the players to win either by playing against the dealer or by playing against the other players or both. Not only does this feature of the invention make for a much more profitable game for players, but it also raises the players' interest in the progress of each hand since each player must consider not only the status of the other players' hands but also the dealer's hand in determining whether to bet, call, raise or fold on a particular round.
It will be evident that there are numerous embodiments of the present invention which, while not expressly set forth above, are clearly within the scope and spirit of the present invention. The scope of the invention is therefore to be determined solely by the appended claims and the embodiments described in the above specification are to be considered exemplary only.
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 11/404,572, filed on Apr. 14, 2006, of like title.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11404572 | Apr 2006 | US |
Child | 11709486 | US |