Amusement devices: games – Card or tile games – cards or tiles therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-04
2001-02-06
Layno, Benjamin H. (Department: 3711)
Amusement devices: games
Card or tile games, cards or tiles therefor
Reexamination Certificate
active
06182968
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pseudo-blackjack games, as the term pseudo-blackjack is defined in the Glossary which is a part of this specification.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pseudo-blackjack games are well known to those having ordinary skill in the card game art.
As is also well known to those having ordinary skill in the art, certain prior art casino and card room card games are relatively complicated, and require knowledge and ability which is beyond the scope of an unskilled card player, especially with respect to the determination of hand values.
Among the known pseudo-blackjack games is the card game of U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,415, which was issued to Roger L. Wisted on Jan. 4, 1994 (hereinafter called “Wisted”). The game of the Wisted patent is sometimes commercially called “Wisted Aces” or “Wisted's California Blackjack”. The card game of Wisted is played with a fifty-six card deck and played to a predetermined unique point total on a table having a playing surface and several player stations surrounding said table and a card dealer station located between two of the players, and said dealer does not play hands, in which each station where a player is located initially receives two cards face down with the player adding the value of said cards and each player in rotation to receive one or more cards face up or to stand on the original cards in an endeavor to reach the point total or optimum point count, each player playing against the others of said players, and a winning player having the point total or a total less than or greater than said point total.
The hand ranking method of Wisted, in which the possible hands, in order, rank in value alternately above and below 22, has been found by some players to be unduly cumbersome, complex, and unfamiliar.
Further, the combination of two aces, which is defined by Wisted as a natural, i.e., a combination which immediately takes the hand being played, occurs infrequently, and thus limits the complexity, challenge and excitement of the game of Wisted. The same objection would be true of a game in which the only natural was a pair of Jokers.
Yet further, Wisted excludes the practice of “doubling down”, i.e., increasing the player's wager after receiving his or her first two cards in certain stated circumstances, from the play of his game, and thus limits the complexity, challenge and excitement of his game.
Also, Wisted does not specifically recommend the treatment of ties to be varied in order to adjust the advantage to the players or the player-banker.
Yet again, the point valuation of jokers as one or eleven, found in the game of Wisted, limits the number of naturals occurring, and thus limits the complexity, challenge and excitement of the game of Wisted.
Other card games of the modified Blackjack type, i.e., pseudo-blackjack games, are also known to those having ordinary skill in the gaming art, such as “Catch-22”, “California Catch-22”, and “New Jack”. Copies of literature relating to these games are supplied herewith.
“Catch-22”, for example, shares many of the deficiencies of the Wisted game, principally differing therefrom in the ranking of the hands.
Another casino card game is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,087, hereinafter sometimes called “Shen”, which was issued to Margaret Shen and Barry R. Forrester on Apr.21, 1987, and requires players to maintain two pairs of cards while playing.
The term “prior art” as used herein or in any statement made by or on behalf of applicant means only that any document or thing referred to as prior art bears, directly or inferentially, a date which is earlier than the effective filing date hereof.
An Information Disclosure Statement and copies of prior art are supplied to the United States Patent and Trademark office herewith.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide pseudo-blackjack games which are more complex, more challenging and more exciting than the pseudo-blackjack games of the prior art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide pseudo-blackjack games which will be accepted by a wider audience than the pseudo-blackjack games of the prior art.
A further object of the present invention is to provide novel pseudo-blackjack games which are superior in their playability to the pseudo-blackjack games of the prior art.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide pseudo-blackjack games in which the rank determination function (see Glossary) makes the game easier to learn, and thus more acceptable to both new and experienced players than pseudo-blackjack games of the prior art.
A further object of the present invention is to provide pseudo-blackjack games in which naturals occur more frequently than in the pseudo-blackjack games of the prior art, and which thus are more exciting than the pseudo-blackjack games of the prior art.
A yet further object of the present invention is to provide pseudo-blackjack games in which “doubling down” is permitted, and which are thus characterized by more variety, complexity and excitement than the pseudo-blackjack games of the prior art.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide pseudo-blackjack games in which ties are handled in such a manner as to permit the varying of the advantage between the ordinary players and the player-banker, whereby to provide more variety, complexity and excitement in the playing of the games of the invention than in the playing of such games of the prior art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide pseudo-blackjack games in which the splitting of pairs of initially dealt cards, e.g., two Kings, is permitted.
Other objects of the present invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.
The present invention, accordingly, comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others, and the apparatus embodying features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts which are adapted to effect such steps, all as exemplified in the following disclosure, and the scope of the present invention will be indicated in the claims appended hereto.
In accordance with a first principal feature of the present invention, four or less classes of participants may participate in the playing of certain embodiments thereof, viz.: one non-playing “dealer”, also sometimes called the “house dealer”; one “player-banker”; (sometimes called “player-dealer”) and at least one “ordinary player”. The term “player” as used herein is generic, and denotes both player-bankers, player-dealers or ordinary players. However, where the distinction is clear from the context the term “player” is sometimes used as synonymous with the term “ordinary player”. It is also to be understood that in certain other embodiments of the present invention the house dealer plays each round, and the other players play against the house dealer.
In accordance with a second principal feature of the present invention the deck or decks of cards utilized in playing the games of certain embodiments of the present invention each consist of a standard fifty-two card deck to each of which four jokers may be added, the point value of each joker being 2 or 12 at the receiving player's election.
In accordance with another principal feature of the present invention a novel hand ranking method is employed in which the combination of a face card and a joker, initially dealt, constitutes a natural.
In accordance with yet another principal feature of the present invention novel pseudo-blackjack games are provided in which “doubling down” is permitted.
In accordance with an additional principal feature of the present invention novel pseudo-blackjack games are provided in which the splitting of pairs of initially dealt cards is permitted.
In accordance with a further principal feature of the present invention, prior to the dealing of any cards in certain games of the invention the house has the option of handling
Layno Benjamin H.
Townsend and Towensend and Crew LLP
LandOfFree
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