Amusement devices: games – Card or tile games – cards or tiles therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1996-12-26
2001-01-30
Layno, Benjamin H. (Department: 3711)
Amusement devices: games
Card or tile games, cards or tiles therefor
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179290
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention pertains to casino gaming, in general, and to a casino card game, in particular.
Casino card games having a jackpot feature have become common practice. Several different card games have been developed for casino application in which a progressive jackpot feature is added to increase the attractiveness of the game for players. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,861,041; 4,836,553, 5,288,077 and 5,364,105 describe card games having a progressive jackpot feature. Each of the games described in these patents has the common feature that a player wagers a first bet or ante to participate in the card game and must wager a separate second bet to participate in a jackpot feature of the game. Thus, the participation in the jackpot is always optional.
After the player has wagered the two bets, the cards are dealt. The player looks at his/her cards and must decide to either fold his/her cards, in which case, the player loses both his/her ante and second bets, or wage another bet which is a multiple of the first bet. If the player's hand beats the dealer's hand, the player wins an amount which is determined by the rank of his/her hand according to the game being played. If the player's hand is a predetermined rank, the player wins a portion of a progressive jackpot. The amount of money in the jackpot is determined by the number of players which have paid the optional second wager to participate in the jackpot. The second wagers for each hand are added to the jackpot.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a card game, in accordance with the principles of the invention, each and every player is automatically a participant in a jackpot component of the game. When a player wagers a first bet or ante, the player is a participant of the card game. Each participant is automatically eligible to win a jackpot component. The jackpot component includes a plurality of independent jackpots each of which is progressive. Each of the jackpots is funded from a predetermined amount which is withheld from each winning players' payouts for each round of hands. The withheld winnings from each hand are divided among the plurality of jackpots in accordance with a preselected formula.
Further, in accordance with the principles of the invention, each player which, after wagering a single bet or ante to participate in the game, is dealt a hand of cards. If the hand dealt to a player has a rank which is identified as a rank winning one of the plurality of jackpots, the player without any further betting immediately wins the corresponding jackpot. If the player does not have a jackpot winning hand, the player must decide to either fold or wage an odds bet. In the event that a player does not have one of the predetermined jackpot winning ranks, but has a hand which beats the hand of the dealer, the dealer pays the player even money on the first bet and predetermined odds on the second bet.
Still further in accordance with the invention, each game may include a qualifier hand which is formed for each round of hands dealt, and which each player must beat in order to qualify to play against the dealer's hand. In one embodiment of the invention, the dealer deals cards utilized to form a second highest hand, utilizing poker ranking, as a qualifier. In accordance with the invention, the dealer always qualifies but each player must have a hand with a poker rank which is at least higher than the qualifier hand. In the event that the player's hand is not higher than the qualifier hand, the player loses his/her first or ante bet.
Still further in accordance with the invention, in a third embodiment of the invention, the dealer always deals a predetermined number of cards in each game as a qualifying hand. After the players have waged their second bet, the qualifier hand is turned face up. Any player who does not beat the qualifier hand, loses his/her first or ante bet. If a player does, in fact, beat the qualifier hand, then the player qualifies to play against the dealer hand. In the event that the player's hand qualifies and is higher than the dealer's hand utilizing standard poker ranking, the dealer pays off the ante bet at even money and pays the odds bet at the predetermined odds. In accordance with the invention, a predetermined fixed amount from each and every winning of a player adds to the progressive jackpot.
In yet a fourth embodiment, a predetermined number of cards is dealt in each round as a qualifier hand. In this instance, however, the dealer must beat the qualifier hand utilizing poker ranking. If the dealer does not beat the qualifier hand, the dealer pays each player even money on the first or ante bet.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4836553 (1989-06-01), Suttle
patent: 5415414 (1995-05-01), Savage
Scarne, John, Scarne's Encyclopedia of Games, Harper & Row Publishers, 1973, p. 41.
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