U.S. patent application number 10/621768 was filed with the patent office on 2004-01-29 for poker game in which player can play on with a higher pay table.
Invention is credited to Moody, Ernest W..
Application Number | 20040017043 10/621768 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 30772663 |
Filed Date | 2004-01-29 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040017043 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Moody, Ernest W. |
January 29, 2004 |
Poker game in which player can play on with a higher pay table
Abstract
A player makes a wager on a first round of video poker. If the
player achieves a winning hand combination on the first round of
video poker, the player is offered the opportunity to play one or
more hands of video poker against a higher pay table on the next
round of video poker. The player may continue to play against the
higher pay table as long as the player continues to achieve winning
combinations during each round of play. If the player fails to
achieve a winning combination during a round of play, the game
resets to the initial lower pay table and the player starts
over.
Inventors: |
Moody, Ernest W.; (Las
Vegas, NV) |
Correspondence
Address: |
JOHN EDWARD ROETHEL
2290 S. JONES BLVD. #100
LAS VEGAS
NV
89146
US
|
Family ID: |
30772663 |
Appl. No.: |
10/621768 |
Filed: |
July 16, 2003 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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60319400 |
Jul 16, 2002 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
273/292 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63F 3/00157
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
273/292 |
International
Class: |
A63F 001/00 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method of playing a card game comprising: a) providing a first
pay table and having a player make a wager to participate in the
card game; b) playing a first round of play of the card game by
displaying a first initial hand of at least five cards all face up
to the player; c) the player selecting none, one or more of the
face up cards from the first initial hand as cards to be held,
discarding the unselected cards and displaying replacement cards
for the discarded cards resulting in a first final hand; d)
determining the poker hand ranking of the first final hand; e) if
the poker hand ranking of the first final hand results in a winning
hand combination, awarding the player a predetermined amount based
on the amount of the wager; and f) allowing the player to either
collect the award or to parlay the at least a portion of the award
into a second round of play of the game in which a second pay table
is used that has a different overall game return than the first pay
table.
2. The method of claim 1 in which the second pay table has a higher
overall game return than the first pay table.
3. The method of claim 1 in which the second round of play uses
multiple hands.
4. The method of claim 3 in which the award won in the first round
of play is allocated among the multiple hands.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is based on and claims the benefit of U.S.
Provisional Application Serial No. 60/319400, filed Jul. 16, 2002,
entitled "Poker Game in Which Player Can Play On with a Higher Pay
Table".
[0002] This invention relates to a poker game, and more
particularly to a poker game in which the player can utilize
winnings from his previous hand to play on with one or more
additional hands at a higher pay table.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] One of the classic casino games is video draw poker. A
player makes a wager to be eligible to play the game. After an
initial deal of five cards is displayed to the player on a video
display screen, the player is allowed to discard and replace
unwanted cards with replacement cards. The player attempts to
achieve the highest possible poker hand from the starting five
cards. Video poker games use poker hand rankings to determine
winning combinations and a payout schedule is used to determine the
amount awarded to the player for achieving a winning
combination.
[0004] Casino games such as video draw poker offer the player a pay
table that is based on the mathematical probabilities of the game
being played. Pay tables are generally classified by the
theoretical game return which is calculated by the payouts made to
the player for each of the winning hand combinations listed in the
pay table. For example, a pay table that has a theoretical game
return of 98% is a better pay table for a player than a pay table
that has a theoretical game return of 96%.
[0005] In traditional draw poker, a pay table has winning hand
combinations when the player achieves a Royal Flush, Straight
Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight,
Three-of-a-kind, Two Pair or a Pair of Jacks or Better.
[0006] Table 1 shows a typical draw poker pay table that has a
theoretical game return of approximately 96%.
1TABLE 1 DRAW POKER NUMBER OF COINS BET POKER HAND 1 2 3 4 5 ROYAL
FLUSH 250 500 750 1000 4000 STRAIGHT FLUSH 50 100 150 200 250
FOUR-OF-A-KIND 25 50 75 100 125 FULL HOUSE 8 16 24 32 40 FLUSH 5 10
15 20 25 STRAIGHT 4 8 12 16 20 THREE-OF-A-KIND 3 6 9 12 15 TWO PAIR
2 4 6 8 10 JACKS OR BETTER 1 2 3 4 5
[0007] Table 2 shows a typical draw poker pay table that has a
theoretical game return of approximately 98%.
2TABLE 2 DRAW POKER NUMBER OF COINS BET POKER HAND 1 2 3 4 5 ROYAL
FLUSH 250 500 750 1000 4000 STRAIGHT FLUSH 50 100 150 200 250
FOUR-OF-A-KIND 25 50 75 100 125 FULL HOUSE 9 18 27 36 45 FLUSH 6 12
18 24 30 STRAIGHT 4 8 12 16 20 THREE-OF-A-KIND 3 6 9 12 15 TWO PAIR
2 4 6 8 10 JACKS OR BETTER 1 2 3 4 5
[0008] An analysis of the two pay tables show that the payouts for
a Full House and a Flush are higher in Table 2 than in Table 1.
This simple change in the payouts for a Full House and a Flush are
all that it takes to increase the theoretical game return. As is
well known to sophisticated video poker players, it is to the
player's advantage to play a video poker game with a higher
theoretical game return.
[0009] In traditional video draw poker, a player typically wagers a
maximum of five credits on each hand played by the player. It is to
the advantage of the gaming establishment to provide players with
video poker games that result in the player wagering more than five
credits on each round of the game played. The higher the average
wager per round played, the higher the revenue generated by the
video poker gaming machine for the gaming establishment.
[0010] One of the reasons for the great commercial success of
TRIPLE PLAY DRAW POKER.RTM. is the game results in a high average
wager per round played. U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873 (Moody) (the
disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference)
describes TRIPLE PLAY DRAW POKER.RTM. which is an electronic video
gaming machine and method in which the player may play multiple
hands at the same time. In the most successful commercial version
of TRIPLE PLAY DRAW POKER.RTM., the player makes a wager for each
of three separate hands to be played by the player. One hand of
five cards is dealt all face up. The player selects none, one or
more of the face up cards from the first hand as cards to be held.
The cards that are held are reused from the first hand into all of
the other hands. Replacement cards for the non-selected cards are
dealt into the first hand and additional cards are then dealt to
the first hand, if needed, so that the first hand has five cards.
Additional cards are also dealt to all of the other hands so that
each hand is a five card hand. The poker hand ranking of each five
card hand is determined row by row. The player is then paid for any
winning poker hands based on a pay table and the amount of the
player's wager.
[0011] A typical TRIPLE PLAY DRAW POKER.RTM. round of play results
in the player making a wager of fifteen credits. It is a drawback
of this game that some players do not like to have to wager fifteen
credits to play all three hands. It is desirable to offer the
player an alternative to wagering fifteen credits on each round of
play while at the same time encouraging the player to increase the
amount of his wager for a round of play whenever the player has
achieved a winning hand on the previous round of play. In order to
encourage the player to increase the amount of his wager, the
player is offered a higher pay table when the player uses his
winnings from the previous round of play to increase the amount of
his wager.
[0012] Another multiple hand poker game is disclosed in U.S. Pat.
No. 6050568 (Hachquet) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,883 (Hachquet), the
disclosure of each of these patents being incorporated herein. In
the method of play disclosed in the Hachquet patents, a player is
dealt two identical poker hands. The player may discard and draw
replacement cards independently in each hand so that the player
may, if he were so inclined, employ a different hold strategy for
each hand. Winning hands will receive a payout according to a pay
table.
[0013] It is an object of the present invention to provide a video
poker game in which the player is offered the opportunity increase
the amount of his wager by playing one or more hands of video poker
against a higher pay table whenever the player has a winning event
on the previous round of video poker.
[0014] It is a feature of the present invention that the player
makes a wager on a first round of video poker. If the player
achieves a winning hand combination on the first round of video
poker, the player is offered the opportunity to play one or more
hands of video poker against a higher pay table on the next round
of video poker. The player may continue to play against the higher
pay table as long as the player continues to achieve winning
combinations during each round of play. If the player fails to
achieve a winning combination during a round of play, the game
resets to the initial lower pay table and the player starts
over.
[0015] It is an advantage of the present invention that the player
has the opportunity to increase his chances to have a winning video
poker session by playing multiple hands of video poker against a
higher pay table. It is to the advantage of the player to play as
many hands as possible against the higher pay table. It is to the
advantage of the gaming establishment to have players playing
multiple hands at one time as this increases the average wager per
round of play.
[0016] Other objects, features and advantages of the present
invention will become apparent from a consideration of the
following detailed description.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0017] A player makes a wager on a first round of video poker. If
the player achieves a winning hand combination on the first round
of video poker, the player is offered the opportunity to play one
or more hands of video poker against a higher pay table on the next
round of video poker. The player may continue to play against the
higher pay table as long as the player continues to achieve winning
combinations during each round of play. If the player fails to
achieve a winning combination during a round of play, the game
resets to the initial lower pay table and the player starts
over.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] FIG. 1 shows a gaming machine that has been configured for
the present invention and displays an initial deal of the
cards.
[0019] FIG. 2 shows the card display after the player has selected
which cards to hold and replacement cards have been dealt for the
discarded cards.
[0020] FIG. 3 shows the card display after the player has elected
to play on in the next round for three hands of cards.
[0021] FIG. 4 shows the card display after the player has selected
which cards to hold and replacement cards have been dealt for the
discarded cards.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0022] FIG. 1 shows generally at 10 a typical electronic video
gaming machine that is configured to provide to the player the
method of the present invention. The electronic video gaming
machine 10 includes a conventional coin head 50 into which the
player can insert coins or gaming tokens and a slot 52 which leads
to a conventional bill acceptor mounted on the interior of the
gaming machine and into which the player can insert paper currency.
The use of coins, tokens or paper currency is the mechanism by
which the player wagers on the poker hands the player wishes to
play. As is also conventional in electronic video gaming machines,
a credit meter display 22 is provided to show the amount of credits
that the player has accrued on the gaming machine 10--either by
inserting coins, tokens or paper currency or from winning plays
achieved by the player. Whenever the player makes a wager, the
amount of the wager is decremented from the credit meter display
22. Whenever the player achieves a winning play during the play of
the game, the amount of the winning play is incremented on the
credit meter display 22.
[0023] A conventional payout hopper is also located on the interior
of the gaming machine and is used to dispense coins or tokens to
the player into a payout tray 56 when the player wishes to collect
any winning amounts the player has accrued. Other suitable and
conventional payout mechanisms can be used, such as a ticket
printer or other cashless payout devices.
[0024] The gaming machine 10 also includes a video screen display
20 of any suitable type upon which representations of playing cards
are displayed. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
one or more hands can be displayed on the video screen display 20
at the same time. As shown in FIG. 1, a first hand: HAND ONE 60 is
shown. Each hand would preferably have five card locations
preferably from left to right in a horizontal row, although other
manners of displaying single or multiple hands can be used. The
video screen display 20 also contains a location at which the
amount wagered on each hand is shown, for example, "Bet Per Hand"
24.
[0025] A button panel 40 is also provided on the gaming machine 10
and the buttons mounted on the button panel 40 are used by the
player to control the operation of the gaming machine 10. Any
suitable configuration of the buttons on the button panel can be
used and, alternatively, conventional touch screen technology can
be used for any or all of the buttons mounted on the button
panel.
[0026] A typical button arrangement is shown on the button panel 40
in FIG. 1. A "BET ONE" button 42 is provided to allow the player to
wager one credit at a time. A "BET MAX" button 44 is provided to
allow the player to wager the maximum amount of credits permitted
by the configuration of the gaming machine 10. Any number of
credits can be set as the maximum amount that it is possible to
wager on each hand and, typically, five credits will be the maximum
number of credits for any particular hand. Alternatively, a BET ONE
location 26 and a BET MAX location 28 can be provided on the video
screen 20 to allow the player to wager by using conventional touch
screen technology.
[0027] A conventional "DEAL/DRAW" button 46 is also provided on the
button panel 40 which is used by the player to activate the initial
deal of the cards at the deal stage of the method of play or the
dealing of replacement cards at the draw stage of the method of
play as is appropriate. Similarly, a DEAL/DRAW location 47 can be
provided on the video screen 20 to allow the player to effect
either the deal step or the draw step by using conventional touch
screen technology.
[0028] The button panel 40 is also provided with five "CARD"
buttons 48A, 48B, 48C, 48D and 48E associated with each horizontal
card location on the video screen display: card button 48A is
associated with the left most card location, card button 48B is
associated with the second from the left card location, card button
48C is associated with the middle card location, card button 48D is
associated with the second from the right card location and card
button 48E is associated with the right most card location. Each
card button is preferably aligned below the card locations so that
the player can easily associate the appropriate card button with
the appropriate card location.
[0029] The method of play of the various versions of the present
invention will now be described.
Version #1
[0030] After the player has inserted an appropriate amount of
coins, tokens or paper currency to add a sufficient amount of
credits on the credit display meter 22, the player makes his
initial wager which can be any amount of credits from one credit to
the maximum number of credits allowed to be played on a single
hand, typically five credits. The player may press the BET ONE
button 42 one or more times to bet in single increments or the
player may merely press the "BET MAX" button 44 and the maximum
number of credits are applied, for example, five credits would be
wagered. The player can also use the touch screen locations to make
his wager as described above.
[0031] In this version of the present invention, the player begins
with a single hand of video poker and in the example shown in FIG.
1, the player has wagered five credits.
[0032] After the player has completed his wagering selections, an
initial five card video poker hand is displayed to the player. This
hand is randomly selected from the fifty-two cards that comprise a
standard deck of playing cards (unless one or more Jokers have been
added to the deck of cards which would increase the number of cards
in the deck). As shown in FIG. 1, for example, the player may be
dealt in HAND ONE 60 the Jack of Hearts, Jack of Diamonds, Two of
Hearts, Three of Hearts and Four of Hearts.
[0033] Also for this example, assume the player is playing a draw
poker game of the format of Draw Poker in which the pay table
presented to the player is shown in Table 3:
3TABLE 3 DRAW POKER NUMBER OF COINS BET POKER HAND 1 2 3 4 5 ROYAL
FLUSH 250 500 750 1000 4000 STRAIGHT FLUSH 50 100 150 200 250
FOUR-OF-A-KIND 25 50 75 100 125 FULL HOUSE 8 16 24 32 40 FLUSH 5 10
15 20 25 STRAIGHT 4 8 12 16 20 THREE-OF-A-KIND 3 6 9 12 15 TWO PAIR
2 4 6 8 10 JACKS OR BETTER 1 2 3 4 5
[0034] In accordance with the method of play of the present
invention, this Table 3 is the pay table that is in effect during
the play of the initial hand of video poker by the player.
[0035] The player then selects which cards to hold, if any, from
the initially dealt cards. As is conventional, the player selects
which cards to hold to pressing the hold buttons 48 associated with
the desired card to be held. Alternatively, using touch screen
technology, the player may also merely touch the screen image of
the card the player wishes to hold.
[0036] Referring to the example, the player may select to hold the
Jack of Hearts and the Jacks of Diamonds.
[0037] After the player has selected which cards he wishes to hold,
the player presses the Deal/Draw button 46 (or the Deal/Draw
location 47) and replacement cards for the non-selected cards are
dealt and displayed so that the final hand 62 has five cards. As
shown in FIG. 2, the player may receive as replacement cards, the
Six of Clubs, the Jack of Spades and the Nine of Hearts. The
player's final five card hand 62 is Three-of-a-Kind.
[0038] In accordance with Table 3, the player would be awarded
fifteen credits for a Three-of-a-Kind.
[0039] Because the player has won on the first hand, the player has
the option of collecting his award of fifteen credits or proceeding
to an additional round of play using Table 4 as the pay table.
4TABLE 4 DRAW POKER NUMBER OF COINS BET POKER HAND 1 2 3 4 5 ROYAL
FLUSH 250 500 750 1000 4000 STRAIGHT FLUSH 50 100 150 200 250
FOUR-OF-A-KIND 25 50 75 100 125 FULL HOUSE 9 18 27 36 45 FLUSH 6 12
18 24 30 STRAIGHT 4 8 12 16 20 THREE-OF-A-KIND 3 6 9 12 15 TWO PAIR
2 4 6 8 10 JACKS OR BETTER 1 2 3 4 5
[0040] The player may parlay his fifteen credits that he has won
into three hands of video poker all using the higher Table 2 pay
table. The player may make exercise this option by pressing the
"Collect Award" touch screen location 32 or the "Play on for 3
Hands" touch screen location 34 on the screen display 20. Any other
suitable manner of allowing the player to make this choice may be
provided, such as using appropriate buttons on the button panel
40.
[0041] As shown in FIG. 3, the player has chosen to play on and
receives three hands at five credits each.
[0042] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the
player is dealt three identical hands, e.g. each of HAND 71, HAND
73 and HAND 75 could be the Six of Clubs, the Four of Diamonds, the
Seven of Hearts, the Eight of Clubs and the Ace of Spades. The
player then plays these hands in accordance with the method of play
disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873 (Moody). The player selects
none, one or more of the face up cards from one of the hands as
cards to be held. The cards that are held are also held in all of
the other hands. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the player has
elected to hold the Six of Clubs, the Four of Diamonds, the Seven
of Hearts and the Eight of Clubs. In accordance with the method of
play of U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873, all of the cards held by the
player are held in each of the three hands.
[0043] In one embodiment of the present invention, the replacement
cards for each hand are dealt from the depleted deck of forty-seven
cards (which represent the cards remaining from the original
fifty-two card deck less the five initially dealt cards). Thus in
completing each hand, the replacement cards are randomly selected
from the remaining forty-seven cards. In this embodiment, the
depleted forty-seven card deck is reshuffled electronically before
the replacement cards are dealt to complete each hand.
[0044] In another embodiment of this version of the present
invention, the replacement cards for HAND 72 are dealt from the
depleted deck of forty-seven cards (which represent the cards
remaining from the original fifty-two card deck less the five
initially dealt cards). The replacement cards for the HAND 74 are
dealt from the further depleted deck of cards remaining after the
replacement cards have been dealt into HAND 72. The replacement
cards for HAND 76 are dealt from the further depleted deck of cards
remaining after the replacement cards have been dealt into HAND 72
and HAND 74.
[0045] Replacement cards for the non-selected cards are dealt into
each of the hands so that each of the hands has five cards. The
poker hand ranking of each five card hand is determined row by row.
The player is then paid for any winning poker hands based on the
higher pay table Table 4 and the amount of the player's wager.
[0046] For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the player receives as a
replacement card the Two of Hearts in HAND 72 which results in a
losing hand. The player also receives as a replacement card the
Five of Spades in HAND 74 which results in a Straight which is a
winning hand. And the player receives as a replacement card the
King of Hearts in HAND 76 which results in a losing hand. The
player receives an award of twenty credits.
[0047] Because the player has won on the first hand, the player has
the option of collecting his award of twenty credits or proceeding
to an additional round of play again using Table 4 as the pay
table. As long as the player continues to win on each round of
play, the player continues to stay at the higher pay table Table
4.
[0048] Because the player has won twenty credits on this round of
play, the player may be offered the option of playing on for four
hands at five credits each.
[0049] In accordance with the present invention, whatever credits
are won by the player on a round of play may be parlayed into
additional hands. If the player were to win five hundred credits on
a particular round of play, the player could be offered the option
to parlay those credits into another round of 125 hands at five
credits each.
[0050] As a practical matter, the method of play could limit the
player to playing no more than five hands on any one round. If the
player were to win an award of say forty credits, the player could
be provided the option of playing on for five hands at five credits
each and the overage of fifteen credits would simply be added to
the Credit Meter 22.
[0051] The number of hands offered to the player in the play on
mode could also decrease. For example, if the player were playing
five hands at five credits each and the player were to win only ten
credits, the next round of the play on mode would only offer the
player the option to play on for two hands at five credits
each.
[0052] Eventually the player will have a round of play in which the
player has no winning hands and the game would revert back to one
hand of play at the lower pay table Table 3. Of course, at any time
the player may decline to play on and any credits that the player
has won on that round of play would be added to the Credit Meter 22
and the game would also revert back to one hand of play at the
lower pay table Table 3.
Version #2
[0053] In a second version of the present invention, the player
starts the game with multiple hands of cards, such as three hands
as disclosed in TRIPLE PLAY DRAW POKER.RTM..
[0054] The player makes a wager for each of three separate hands to
be played by the player and, on the initial round of play, the
lower pay table Table 3 is used. One hand of five cards is dealt
all face up. The player selects none, one or more of the face up
cards from the first hand as cards to be held. The cards that are
held are reused from the first hand into all of the other hands.
Replacement cards for the non-selected cards are dealt into the
first hand and additional cards are then dealt to the first hand,
if needed, so that the first hand has five cards. Additional cards
are also dealt to all of the other hands so that each hand is a
five card hand. The poker hand ranking of each five card hand is
determined row by row.
[0055] Again, the replacement cards for the discarded cards may be
chosen using either of the two embodiments described in connection
with the first version of the present invention.
[0056] Whatever credits are won by the player on a round of play
may be parlayed into additional hands on the next round of play and
the higher pay table Table 4 would be used. Again as a practical
matter, the method of play could limit the player to playing no
more than five hands on any one round. If the player were to win an
award of say forty credits, the player could be provided the option
of playing on for five hands at five credits each and the overage
of fifteen credits would simply be added to the Credit Meter
22.
[0057] In this version of the present invention, the number of
hands offered to the player in the play on mode could also
decrease. For example, if the player were playing five hands at
five credits each and the player were to win only ten credits, the
next round of the play on mode would only offer the player the
option to play on for two hands at five credits each.
[0058] Eventually the player will have a round of play in which the
player has no winning hands and the game would revert back to one
hand of play at the lower pay table Table 3. Of course, at any time
the player may decline to play on and any credits that the player
has won on that round of play would be added to the Credit Meter 22
and the game would also revert back to one hand of play at the
lower pay table Table 3.
[0059] Either version of the present invention can also be applied
to the method of play described in the Hachquet patents in which
the player may discard and draw replacement cards independently in
each hand so that the player may, if he were so inclined, employ a
different hold strategy for each hand.
[0060] Alternatively, either version of the present invention can
also be applied to a method of play in which different cards are
dealt into each hand, either from a single deck or from multiple
decks.
[0061] The method of the present invention can be applied to any
poker game format used for video poker including, but not limited
to, Draw Poker, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double Double
Bonus Poker, Triple Bonus Poker, Super Bonus Poker and the like.
Each of these poker format would use a standard deck of fifty-two
playing cards. It is also possible to practice the method of the
present invention in poker game formats that include wild cards
such as Deuces Wild, One-Eyed Jacks Wild and the like. Additional
wild cards, such as one or more Jokers, may be added to the
conventional fifty-two card deck to allow the method of the present
invention to be played in poker game formats such as Jokers Wild,
Deuces Joker Wild and the like.
[0062] Any suitable pay tables may be used as desired by the gaming
establishment which is offering the method of play to its
customers.
[0063] While the invention has been illustrated with respect to
several specific embodiments thereof, these embodiments should be
considered as illustrative rather than limiting. Various
modifications and additions may be made and will be apparent to
those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the invention should not be
limited by the foregoing description, but rather should be defined
only by the following claims.
* * * * *