1. Field of the Invention
This invention discloses a new and improved set of five poker dice, and has for a set of objects the provisions for a die which in association with four others of similar style and method of surface marking can be used in many forms of dice, card, and casino games like Blackjack and Poker.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As known, Poker is a card game played with five cards from a standard deck of playing cards containing fifty-two numerical and face value attributes divided amongst four suits being: Diamonds (D), Spades (S), Hearts (H), and Clubs (C). Each suit having nine (9) numerical attributes two (2) thru ten (10), and four (4) face value attributes Jack (J), Queen (Q), King (K) and Ace (A) for a total of thirteen (13) attributes. By adding one wild card, commonly referred to as a Joker, or other attribute per suit a total of fourteen (14) attributes per suit is achieved.
Numerous attempts have been made at applying the playing card indicia on dice having 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, or 20 sides—for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 244,520 (1881) Bacon, 1,481,628 (1924) Souza, 2,024,541 (1935) Silkman, 4,258,919 (1981) Martelli, 5,125,660 (1992) Stahl, and 6,428,005 (2002) by Au-Yeung are claiming the use of 6 sided die. Using five die with six sides, will only provide thirty sides for the possible fifty-two attributes, allowing for only a few possible poker hands as claimed.
U.S. Pat. No. D25,701 (1896) by Patten, claimed a single eight sided die design, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,875 (1991) Capy is for an eight sided die, played by varying the number of die used in a given game. The use of five-eight sided die can only provide forty sides for the fifty-two possible attributes as found in a deck of playing cards.
Several attempts have been made marking a single die or a set of die with ten (10) sides as outlined in U.S. Pat. Nos. 614,524 (1898) Yardley, 809,293 (1906) Friedenthal, and twelve (12) sided die as in 645,112 (1900) Mapes. The twelve (12) sided die patented by Edison U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,905 (1971), claims to use 10 and at most 11 of the possible thirteen attributes as used in a given suit, therefore allowing for only a few of the possible straight flush combinations.
In 1922 Kaufman patented a single fourteen (14) sided game die, U.S. Pat. No. 1,419,056, he claimed the use of numerical and letter attributes without suit on a single die. A player using five die of this design, would roll five of the same attribute, an example being five letter Q attributes of no suit, this design offers no possibility of rolling poker hands like a flush or straight flush.
The two patents by Gathman U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,145,175 (1992) and 5,224,708 (1993), claim using 3 or more identically marked 12 or 20 sided die, therefore a set of five 12 sided die would have sixty total sides and a set of five 20 sided die would have one hundred total sides, both totals being incompatible for an even distribution of the playing card indicia. Dice having identical surface markings on all die in a set of die, will roll five of the same attribute and suit, examples being—five kings of clubs or five jacks of spades, neither of which are poker hands.
A cuboctahedron is a polyhedron with eight triangular faces and six square faces. A cuboctahedron has twelve (12) identical vertices, with two triangles and two squares meeting at each, and twenty-four (24) identical edges, each separating a triangle from a square. As such it is a quasi-regular polyhedron, i.e. an Archimedean solid, being vertex-transitive and edge-transitive.
A dual polyhedron is the rhombic dodecahedron.
The truncated octahedron is an Archimedean solid. It has 8 regular hexagonal faces, 6 regular square faces, 24 vertices and 36 edges. Since each of its faces has point symmetry the truncated octahedron is a zonohedron.
A hexagon is a polygon with six edges and six vertices. A regular hexagon has Schlafli symbol.
The currently known prior art limits the use of dice in a card game by the number of sides and respective artwork disposed thereupon. Accordingly, there is a desire for a set of dice having a configuration conducive to a card game.
The present invention defines a set of five (5) dice, each die having a total of fourteen (14) planar, playing surfaces, each planar surface having a single identifying indicia. The group of dice provides a total of seventy (70) total playing surfaces. This provides a configuration capable of randomly selecting five (5) unique card values from a series of card value images having values between 2 and Ace as well as a Wild Card, each series having its own unique suit for a total of five (5) suits.
By marking a set of five, fourteen sided dice according to a predetermined suit combination as shown in Table 1 in conjunction with the method of marking each die in a progressively descending order as shown in Table 2, a player can roll all combinations of the five card Poker hand. And by rolling one die at a time, Blackjack can be played with the same set of dice.
A suit combination is one of one hundred twenty (120) possible five die combinations the suits can achieve. Table 1 illustrates an exemplary five sets of a minimum possible one-hundred twenty (120) sets that the suit attributes Diamonds (D), Spades (S), Hearts (H), and Clubs (C) and further introducing a fifth suit, presented as an exemplary embodiment of No suit (N) as used with the fifth set of attributes as shown in Table 1. The table presents an exemplary embodiment of the initial suit for each die, having an initial face being the Ace. For example, the table below presents Die 1 of set 1 having a first face being an Ace of Diamonds.
The die may be constructed of any suitable material; the material that is preferred shall be of a character subject to fabricating and marking but being capable of maintaining its original configuration and appearance over time and extended usage. It is preferable that the die be fabricated of a material capable of having a relief formed thereon for receiving ink.
Each Indicia consists of a unique combination of a card value and suit selection. It is preferable that each die present one of each card value, plus an optional blank or wild card for a total of 14 indicia. Each die would have at least one of each of the suits distributed across the card values in a manner to not replicate two of the same card value/suit combinations.
Once the suit combination for a set of five die has been chosen, thirteen of the fourteen sides of each die will be marked with a card series, the card series comprising nine numerical attributes two (2) thru ten (10) and four (4) face value attributes J, Q, K, and A. In addition to the standard card values, the card series can preferably include a wild card being disposed upon the fourteenth side. The wild cards can include or be void of a suit reference.
Now that each of the five dies has been marked with the attributes, the suits can now be applied to the set of five die. For exemplary purposes the five die will be marked using the suit combination of D, S, H, C, and N in a descending repeating order and starting with the same value attribute on each die as shown in Table 2.
Table 2 presents an exemplary distribution of card values and card suits across a set of dice. Since the geometry of each planar surface may impact the probability of that side being rolled, the location of each value may be adjusted.
The set of dice provides a unique apparatus having the inventive ability to play a five suit card game, allowing a player to achieve five of a kind (same face value); one of each suit. The inclusion of a wild card enhances play. The wild card can be further defined by including a suit enhancing the game providing the ability to have fourteen potential sets of a single face value. The wild card additionally introduces a variety of optional plays utilizing or independent of the suit.
A dice set carrier can be included, the carrier being formed in the shape of the dice. The carrier would have an upper portion and a lower portion being hingably coupled there between. A dice holder can be disposed within the interior of the lower portion. The dice carrier having a set of die holding openings formed via a plurality of slits having a peripheral shape similar to and slightly smaller than a cross sectional area of the dice. A latch is incorporated on an edge of the carrier opposing the hinge. A representative artwork can be applied to the exterior of the carrier, the artwork being similar to the indicia's disposed upon the die.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the attached drawings and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments, which follow.
The preferred embodiments of the invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings provided to illustrate and not to limit the invention, where like designations denote like elements, and in which:
Like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
The present invention is directed at a set of five dice, each dice comprising fourteen planar sides. The dice includes indicia consisting of fourteen unique markings representative of a card value series. The card value series consisting of nine numerical attributes two (2) thru ten (10); four (4) face value attributes Jack (J), Queen (Q), King (K), and Ace (A); and, optionally, one (1) wild card. Each of the nine numerical attributes two (2) thru ten (10), and four (4) face value attributes J, Q, K, and A would include a respective suit. The suits would be distributed between each of the dice. This provides a total of 13 attributes for each suit. This also allows for a roll of five values of the same suit, commonly referred to as “five of a kind”. The wild attributes could either include or exclude suit markings.
A representative fourteen sided dice 100 in the form factor of a cuboctahedron is presented in various forms being detailed in
Each of the individual planar surfaces is defined by a unique combination of a face value and a suit in the figures. The specific planar surface can have either or both the face values and respective suit changed to alter the odds of the potential roll.
The Dice are provided in a set, which can be carried in a dice carrier 200 as illustrated in
It is understood that although the initial teachings present a cuboctahedron shaped poker dice as an initial embodiment, other fourteen-sided shapes can be utilized. A truncated octahedron shaped poker dice 150 is representative of another die embodiment illustrated in
A modified octahedron shaped poker dice 160 is representative of another die embodiment illustrated in
A trapezoidal based, fourteen sided die 170 (having a shape referred to as hexagonal bifrustum) is representative of yet another die embodiment illustrated in
A spherical polyhedron die 180 is representative of yet another die embodiment illustrated in
A hexangonal truncated trapezohedron shaped die 190 is representative of yet another die embodiment illustrated in
Since many modifications, variations, and changes in detail can be made to the described embodiments of the invention, it is intended that all matters in the foregoing description and shown in the accompanying drawings be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. Thus, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.
This Continuation-In-Part Utility application claims the benefit of co-pending United States Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 11/763,425, filed on Jun. 14, 2007, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
614524 | Yardley | Nov 1898 | A |
803293 | Friedenthal | Oct 1905 | A |
1419056 | Kaufman | Jun 1922 | A |
1481628 | Souza | Jul 1922 | A |
1586429 | Kiesling | May 1926 | A |
2024541 | Silkman | Sep 1932 | A |
2922652 | Stange | Jan 1960 | A |
3208754 | Sieve | Sep 1965 | A |
3608905 | Edison | Sep 1971 | A |
3913919 | Carpenter | Oct 1975 | A |
4055348 | Marzoni, Jr. | Oct 1977 | A |
4258919 | Martelli | Mar 1981 | A |
4436306 | Sanders | Mar 1984 | A |
4546978 | David | Oct 1985 | A |
4989875 | Capy et al. | Feb 1991 | A |
5125660 | Stahl | Jun 1992 | A |
5145175 | Gathman | Sep 1992 | A |
5224708 | Gathman | Jul 1993 | A |
5342059 | Briem et al. | Aug 1994 | A |
5556096 | Eardley et al. | Sep 1996 | A |
5918881 | Kirby | Jul 1999 | A |
5947741 | Villarreal | Sep 1999 | A |
6428005 | Au-Yeung | Aug 2002 | B2 |
7871077 | Calvert | Jan 2011 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 11763425 | Jun 2007 | US |
Child | 12242127 | US |