US20080150232A1

US20080150232A1 - Game With Bonus Jackpot

Info

Publication number: US20080150232A1
Application number: US11/615,836
Authority: US
Inventors: Karlo Deza; Stephen A. Miller
Original assignee: NORMANDIE CLUB LP
Current assignee: NORMANDIE CLUB LP
Priority date: 2006-12-22
Filing date: 2006-12-22
Publication date: 2008-06-26

Abstract

There is disclosed a method of playing a card game involving a dealer and a banker, who may be the same person or may be a computing device, and at least one player. Each player first may determine whether to pay a collection allowing the player to participate in a bonus jackpot game. The collection may be added to the bonus jackpot pool. The dealer may deal a hand of two or more cards to the banker and to each player. Predetermined rules define a plurality of hands eligible for a bonus jackpot payout and the amount of payout for each eligible hand. Each player who paid the collection and who was dealt an eligible hand may receive a bonus jackpot payout from the bonus jackpot pool.

Description

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHTS AND TRADE DRESS

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. This patent document may show and/or describe matter which is or may become trade dress of the owner. The copyright and trade dress owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright and trade dress rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

1. Field
This disclosure relates to card games which are particularly suitable for use in gaming establishments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Card games may be played for enjoyment and profit. Traditional poker is played by two or more players who are competing against each other to win a pool of money accumulated by multiple rounds of betting. Each player is dealt a hand of five to seven cards, which may include community cards common to all players' hands. Traditional poker games include multiple rounds of betting, or opportunities to bet as the hands are dealt. In some variations of poker, players may bet before the first cards are dealt and after the complete hands are dealt. In other variations, players may bet at intermediate points when only some of the cards constituting a hand have been dealt. Each player must either match, or call, every bet made by other players or fold (withdraw from the hand), losing any money already wagered on the hand. The objective of poker is to either have the highest hand, according to well-established definitions, of the players who have not withdrawn after the last round of betting, or to be the only player who does not fold. Poker can be exciting but time-consuming due to the time required for multiple players to make call/fold decisions each round of betting.
Casinos and other gaming establishments continually offer new games to their clientele. In the interest of maintaining a quick pace to the game, many such games are limited to one or two rounds of betting. To increase player interest and excitement, such games may offer the opportunity to concurrently bet on different outcomes or, in effect, to play multiple games at the same time using the same dealt hands. Many popular games enable each player to play against a banker, rather than against other players. In a casino, the banker, who usually functions as dealer, may be an employee playing on behalf of the establishment. Alternatively, in a “card room” game each player may have the option to act as banker or the banker may be a licensed third-party service provider or the banker may be a player trust or pool fund. The card room establishment may provide a dealer to manage the game and collect fees from the players.
Players typically enjoy games which can be played rapidly and which offer players a number of wagering choices. Players also may enjoy games that provide the possibility of very high odds or a high ratio of the potential winnings to the size of the initial wager.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method of playing a card game.

FIG. 2 is a payout table.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a computing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Throughout this description, the embodiments and examples shown should be considered as exemplars, rather than limitations on the apparatus and methods disclosed or claimed.
Description of Processes
A bonus jackpot game may be played using a conventional 52-card deck of playing cards. The game may be played by a dealer and an optional banker, who may be the same person or a computing device, and at least one additional player. The game can be played on any surface that allows the cards to be shuffled and dealt. A casino or card club may provide a specialized table having markings that define the player locations and the positions on the table for the players to place their bets, commissions, and collections.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a flow chart of a bonus jackpot game 105 begins at 100, proceeds through blocks 110, 120, 130, and 140 and ends at block 150. At block 110, each player has the option to pay a collection to participate in the bonus jackpot game 105. The collection may be a fixed amount per hand such as $0.50 or $5.00 or some other amount. The amount collected from the one or more players who have opted to pay the collection is added to the bonus jackpot pool at block 120. The bonus jackpot pool may be a separate pool of money maintained to pay bonus jackpot payouts to players who elect to participate in the bonus jackpot game 105 on any specific deal. In the event that a player who pays the collection does not win a bonus jackpot payout on a particular hand, the collection is not won by the banker or the establishment, but is added to the bonus jackpot pool for payment of bonus jackpot payouts on future hands.
The bonus jackpot pool is held by the casino or card club establishment for the benefit of the participating players. The funds in the bonus jackpot pool are not the property of the casino or game room establishment and are not the property of the banker participating in the game. The casino or card room establishment may provide seed funds to initiate the bonus jackpot pool and may recover the seed funds when the bonus jackpot pool has grown to sufficient size to assure payment of bonus jackpot payouts. The casino or card room establishment may receive a management fee from the bonus jackpot pool.
The casino or card room establishment may also require a house collection, a commission or a fee from each player for participation in the game. The house collection, commission or fee is separate from the bonus jackpot collection.
At block 130 each player and the banker may be dealt a hand of two cards or more. At block 140, each player who elected to pay the bonus jackpot collection and who was dealt a hand equal to one of a number of predetermined hand types may receive a bonus jackpot payout from the bonus jackpot pool in accordance with a predetermined payout schedule. The predetermined hand types and payout schedule may vary between gaming establishments, and will vary with the number of cards used for the bonus jackpot game. The predetermined hand types and payout schedule may be determined in advance of the playing of the game and may be subject to approval from state or other regulatory agencies. The predetermined hand types and payout schedule may be posted in the gaming establishment, may be used in advertising, and may be made available to the players in other ways.
The bonus jackpot game 105 may be played concurrently with one or more other games that make use of the same hands dealt to the banker and each player. For example, the bonus jackpot game may be played concurrently with a traditional poker game such as draw poker or stud poker, low-ball, Texas Hold-em, Omaha, blackjack, baccarat, pai-gow poker or pai-gow tiles, Caribbean Stud, Easy Poker, three-card poker, pan nine or super nine, thirteen card, or other games using dealt hands of two or more cards. The bonus jackpot game could be played with all or a portion of the cards dealt for the concurrent game. For example, a bonus jackpot game could be based on the two down cards dealt to each player in Texas Hold-em or seven-card stud poker.
An example of a bonus jackpot game played concurrently with three-card poker is shown in FIG. 1. Three-card poker is a known card game that has become popular in card rooms and casinos. While the rules for three-card poker may vary in different venues, the general methods of the three-card poker game 155 are shown in FIG. 1 from block 160 thru block 180.
At block 160, each player participating in the three-card poker game may make a first bet, commonly termed an “ante” bet. A player may elect to participate in the three card poker game 155 by making the ante bet 160, may elect to participate in the bonus jackpot game by paying the collection 110, or may elect to participate in both games.
Each player and the banker are dealt a three-card hand at block 130. The same three-card hand may be used for both the bonus jackpot game 105 and the concurrent three-card poker game 155.
At block 170, each player participating in the three-card poker game 155 may inspect their cards. Each player has the option to fold, or withdraw, if they believe that their hand does not outrank the unknown hand held by the banker. Alternately, each player may make a second bet, commonly called the “play” bet if they believe their hand will outrank the dealer's hand. Players who elect to fold forfeit their ante bet to the banker.
At block 180, the banker inspects his cards and the banker settles with each player who had not previously folded, in turn, as follows:

- a. In the event that the banker's hand does not meet a minimum criteria, typically queen high, the banker pays each remaining player even money (one-to-one) on the ante bet, and the player retains their play bet;
- b. In the event that the banker's hand meets the minimum criteria, the banker wins both the ante bet and the play bet if the banker's hand is higher than the player's hand according to a predetermined hand ranking, and the banker pays the player one-to-one on the ante bet if the player's hand is higher. If the player's hand is higher than the banker's, the banker will also pay the player a multiple of their play bet according to a play bet payout schedule which varies between gaming establishments.

In order to attract and maintain player interest, the bonus jackpot payout schedule for a three-card bonus jackpot game may include a payout of greater than 100 times the bonus jackpot collection amount for at least one possible three-card hand. The bonus jackpot payout for at least one possible three-card hand may be 200 times the bonus jackpot collection amount. The bonus jackpot payout schedule may be in accordance with Payout Table I, Payout Table II, or Payout Table III as shown in FIG. 2, or in accordance with some other set of payout rules.
In each of the Payout Table I and Payout Table II of FIG. 2, the highest payout is for a “mini royal flush of spades”, which is a hand containing exactly the queen, king, and ace of spades. Thus the highest payout for Payout Table I and Payout Table II is paid for exactly one of the possible three-card hands that may be dealt from a 52-card deck. Payout Table III provides the highest payout for any mini royal flush, or exactly four of the possible three card hands. The other bonus jackpot payout hands in these example payout tables are a mini royal flush of suits other than spades (queen, king ace of the same suit), a straight flush (three cards of the same suit in sequence, other than a mini royal flush), three of a kind (three cards of the same rank), a straight (three cards in sequence not of the same suit), a flush (three cards of the same suit not in sequence) and a pair (two cards of the same rank plus any third card).
Selecting a mini royal flush to receive the highest bonus jackpot payout is in keeping with traditional poker games where a five-card royal flush is the highest possible hand. However, the selection of the hand to receive the highest bonus payout is arbitrary, and the highest bonus payout could be made for a hand containing the 2, 3, 4 of spades; or the 3 of spades, 6 of diamonds and 10 of clubs; or any other single hand or group of one or more hands.
The payout tables of FIG. 2 are suitable for use with a bonus jackpot game in which the bonus jackpot is awarded based on a three-card hand. A bonus jackpot game using more or fewer than three cards would require a different payout table.
The bonus jackpot payouts come from the bonus jackpot pool. Optionally, to speed payment of the bonus jackpot payouts and maintain the pace of the game, a banker or a dealer may make the bonus jackpot payouts to the player. In this case, the banker or the dealer would be reimbursed from the bonus jackpot pool periodically, at the end of the game, or other times. The banker or dealer making the bonus jackpot payouts may be assisted by a computing device that records the bonus jackpot payouts and/or prints receipts to be used in documenting the reimbursement due for the bonus jackpot payouts
Description of Apparatus
A bonus jackpot game may be played between at least one player and a computing device in the form of a gaming machine. In this case, the computing device may fulfill the roles of both dealer and banker.
Referring now to FIG. 3, a computing device 100 may consist of a processor 110 and a memory 120 coupled to the processor 110. At least one storage device 130 may be coupled to the processor for the storage of data and instructions. As used herein, a storage device is a device that allows for reading and/or writing to a storage medium. These storage media include, for example, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and tape; optical media such as compact disks (CD-ROM and CD-RW) and digital versatile disks (DVD and DVD±RW); flash memory cards; and other storage media. Storage devices include, hard disk drives, DVD drives, flash memory devices, and others.
Computing device 100 may included a user interface 140. The user interface 140 may commonly be a display panel 150 with a touch-screen data entry device 160. The processor 110 may provide display content 155 to the display panel 150, and may receive user commands 165 from the touch-screen data entry device 160. The computing device 100 may include other user interface devices such as a keyboard, control panel, mouse or other pointing device, and other data entry devices.
Computing device 100 may include or be coupled to a payment device 170 for receiving bets and collections from the at least one player. The payment device may be a receptor for coins, bills, chips, or tokens; may be a financial card reader; or may be some other payment reception mechanism. Payment device 170 or some other device may be capable of providing payouts to the at least one player for winning hands. Payouts may be made in the form of cash, chips, tokens, credit against an account, script, or some other method.
Computing device 100 may perform the processes and steps attributed to the dealer and banker in the games described in FIG. 1. Computing device 100 may receive elections from at least one player via the user interface 140. Computing device 100 may receive any bet and/or collection elected by the player. Computing device 100 may include software to simulate the random dealing of hands. Computing device 100 may evaluate the hands and provide a payout to the player for a winning hand.
Computing device 100 may include software and/or hardware for providing functionality and features described herein. Computing device 100 may therefore include one or more of: logic arrays, memories, analog circuits, digital circuits, software, firmware, and processors such as microprocessors, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs) and programmable logic arrays (PLAs). The hardware and firmware components of the computing device 100 may include various specialized units, circuits, software and interfaces for providing the functionality and features described here. The processes, functionality and features may be embodied in whole or in part in software which operates on a client computer and may be in the form of firmware, an application program, an applet (e.g., a Java applet), a browser plug-in, a COM object, a dynamic linked library (DLL), a script, one or more subroutines, or an operating system component or service. The hardware and software and their functions may be distributed such that some components are performed by a client computer and others by other devices.
The processes and apparatus described herein may be implemented with any computing device. A computing device as used herein refers to any device with a processor, memory and a storage device that may execute instructions including, but not limited to, personal computers, server computers, computing tablets, video game systems, telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, and laptop computers. These computing devices may run an operating system, including, for example, variations of the Linux, Unix, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Palm OS, Solaris, Symbian, and Apple Mac OS X operating systems.
The computing device 100 may be implemented as hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. Additional and fewer units, modules or other arrangement of software, hardware and data structures may be used to achieve the processes and apparatuses described herein.
Closing Comments
The foregoing is merely illustrative and not limiting, having been presented by way of example only. Although examples have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art that changes, modifications, and/or alterations may be made.
Although many of the examples presented herein involve specific combinations of method acts or system elements, it should be understood that those acts and those elements may be combined in other ways to accomplish the same objectives. With regard to flowcharts, additional and fewer steps may be taken, and the steps as shown may be combined or further refined to achieve the methods described herein. Acts, elements and features discussed only in connection with one embodiment are not intended to be excluded from a similar role in other embodiments.
As used herein, “plurality” means two or more.
As used herein, whether in the written description or the claims, the terms “comprising”, “including”, “carrying”, “having”, “containing”, “involving”, and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of”, respectively, are closed or semi-closed transitional phrases with respect to claims.
Use of ordinal terms such as “first”, “second”, “third”, etc., in the claims to modify a claim element does not by itself connote any priority, precedence, or order of one claim element over another or the temporal order in which acts of a method are performed, but are used merely as labels to distinguish one claim element having a certain name from another element having a same name (but for use of the ordinal term) to distinguish the claim elements.
As used herein, “and/or” means that the listed items are alternatives, but the alternatives also include any combination of the listed items.

Claims

1. A method of playing a card game involving a dealer and optionally a banker, who may be the same person or may be one or more computing devices, and at least one player, the method comprising the steps of:

accepting a collection from at least one player who has elected to participate in a bonus jackpot game, wherein the collection is added to a bonus jackpot pool

dealing to each player a hand of two or more cards

paying a predetermined bonus jackpot payout from the bonus jackpot pool to each player who paid the collection and was dealt a hand equal to one of a plurality of hands eligible for a bonus jackpot payout according to predetermined rules.

2. The method of playing a card game of claim 1, wherein the dealer, banker and at least one player concurrently participate in at least one additional game using the same dealt hands.

3. The method of playing a card game of claim 2, wherein the at least one additional game is selected from the group consisting of draw poker, stud poker, low-ball, Texas Hold-em, Omaha, blackjack, baccarat, pai-gow poker, pai-gow tiles, Caribbean Stud, Easy Poker, pan nine, super nine, thirteen card, and three-card poker.

4. The method of playing a card game of claim 2, wherein the bonus jackpot game is played with a three-card hand

5. The method of playing a card game of claim 4, wherein the at least one additional game is three-card poker.

6. The method of playing a card game of claim 4, wherein the at least one additional game requires hands of more than three cards, and the bonus jackpot game is played with the first three cards dealt to each player.

7. The method of playing a card game of claim 4, wherein the predetermined bonus jackpot payout for at least one possible 3-card hand is at least 100 times the collection amount.

8. The method of playing a card game of claim 7, wherein the predetermined bonus jackpot payout for at least one possible 3-card hand is at least 200 times the collection amount.

9. The method of playing a card game of claim 8, wherein the bonus jackpot payouts are made according to the following pay-out table:

mini royal flush of spades: 200 times the collection amount

straight flush (not mini royal flush of spades): 40 times the collection amount

three of a kind: 30 times the collection amount

straight: 6 times the collection amount

flush: 3 times the collection amount

pair: equal to the collection amount.

10. The method of playing a card game of claim 8, wherein the bonus jackpot payouts are made according to the following pay-out table:

mini royal flush of spades: 200 times the collection amount

mini royal flush (not spades): 100 times the collection amount

straight flush (not mini royal flush): 40 times the collection amount

three of a kind: 30 times the collection amount

straight: 6 times the collection amount

flush: 3 times the collection amount

pair: equal to the collection amount.

11. The method of playing a card game of claim 8, wherein the bonus jackpot payouts are made according to the following pay-out table:

mini royal flush: 200 times the collection amount

straight flush (not mini royal flush): 40 times the collection amount

three of a kind: 30 times the collection amount

straight: 6 times the collection amount

flush: 3 times the collection amount

pair: equal to the collection amount.

12. A method of playing a card game involving a dealer and a banker, who may be the same person or may be one or more computing devices, and at least one player, the method comprising the steps of:

the banker accepting a first bet from a least one player that the player's hand will be one of a plurality of hands eligible for a bonus jackpot payout according to predetermined rules

the dealer dealing to the banker and to each player a hand of three cards

the banker paying a predetermined bonus jackpot payout to each player who made the first bet and was dealt a hand equal to one of a plurality of hands eligible for a bonus jackpot payout

wherein the predetermined bonus jackpot payout for at least one possible 3-card hand is greater than 100 times the collection amount.

13. The method of playing a card game of claim 12, wherein the dealer, banker and at least one player concurrently participate in at least one additional game using the same dealt hands.

14. The method of playing a card game of claim 13, wherein the at least one additional game is a poker game.

15. The method of playing a card game of claim 14, wherein the at least one additional game is three-card poker.

16. The method of playing a card game of claim 15, wherein the at least one additional game requires hands of more than three cards, and the method of claim 12 is applied to the first three cards dealt to each player.

17. The method of playing a card game of claim 12, wherein the predetermined bonus jackpot payout for at least one possible 3-card hand is at least 200 times the collection amount.

18. The method of playing a card game of claim 17, wherein the bonus jackpot payouts are made according to the following pay-out table:

mini royal flush of spades: 200 times the collection amount

straight flush other than mini royal flush of spades: 40 times the collection amount

three of a kind: 30 times the collection amount

straight: 6 times the collection amount

flush: 3 times the collection amount

pair: equal to the collection amount.

19. The method of playing a card game of claim 17, wherein the bonus jackpot payouts are made according to the following pay-out table:

mini royal flush of spades: 200 times the collection amount

mini royal flush other than mini royal flush of spades: 100 times the collection amount

straight flush other than mini royal flush: 40 times the collection amount

three of a kind: 30 times the collection amount

straight: 6 times the collection amount

flush: 3 times the collection amount

pair: equal to the collection amount.

20. The method of playing a card game of claim 17, wherein the bonus jackpot payouts are made according to the following pay-out table:

mini royal flush: 200 times the collection amount

straight flush, other than mini royal flush: 40 times the collection amount

three of a kind: 30 times the collection amount

straight: 6 times the collection amount

flush: 3 times the collection amount

21. A computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game, the computing device comprising:

a user input device

a display device

a processor

a memory

wherein the processor and the memory comprise circuits and software for

receiving, via the user input device, an election from at least one player to participate in a bonus jackpot game

receiving a collection from each player who elected to participate in the bonus jackpot game, wherein the collection is added to a bonus jackpot pool

dealing to each player a hand of two or more cards

paying a predetermined bonus jackpot payout from the bonus jackpot pool to each player who elected to participate in the bonus jackpot game and was dealt a hand equal to one of a plurality of hands eligible for a bonus jackpot payout according to predetermined rules.

22. The computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game of claim 21, wherein the computing device and at least one player concurrently participate in at least one additional game using the same dealt hands.

23. The computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game of claim 22, wherein the at least one additional game is selected from the group consisting of draw poker, stud poker, low-ball, Texas Hold-em, Omaha, blackjack, baccarat, pai-gow poker, pai-gow tiles, Caribbean Stud, Easy Poker, pan nine, super nine, thirteen card, and three-card poker.

24. The computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game of claim 22, wherein the jackpot bonus game is played using three-card hands.

25. The computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game of claim 24, wherein the at least one additional game is three-card poker.

26. The computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game of claim 24, wherein the at least one additional game requires hands of more than three cards, and the method of claim 1 is applied to the first three cards dealt to each player.

27. The computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game of claim 24, wherein the predetermined bonus jackpot payout for at least one possible 3-card hand is at least 100 times the collection amount.

28. The computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game of claim 27, wherein the predetermined bonus jackpot payout for at least one possible 3-card hand is at least 200 times the collection amount.

29. The computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game of claim 28, wherein the bonus jackpot payouts are made according to the following pay-out table:

mini royal flush of spades: 200 times the collection amount

straight flush (not mini royal flush of spades): 40 times the collection amount

three of a kind: 30 times the collection amount

straight: 6 times the collection amount

flush: 3 times the collection amount

pair: equal to the collection amount.

30. The computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game of claim 28, wherein the bonus jackpot payouts are made according to the following pay-out table:

mini royal flush of spades: 200 times the collection amount

mini royal flush (not spades): 100 times the collection amount

straight flush (not mini royal flush): 40 times the collection amount

three of a kind: 30 times the collection amount

straight: 6 times the collection amount

flush: 3 times the collection amount

pair: equal to the collection amount.

31. The computing device for playing a jackpot bonus game of claim 28, wherein the bonus jackpot payouts are made according to the following pay-out table:

mini royal flush: 200 times the collection amount

straight flush (not mini royal flush): 40 times the collection amount

three of a kind: 30 times the collection amount

straight: 6 times the collection amount

flush: 3 times the collection amount

pair: equal to the collection amount.