Method, apparatus and article for evaluating card games, such as blackjack

• US 20050206078A1
• Filed: 04/21/2005
• Published: 09/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walker Digital Table Systems LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: Bally Gaming International Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Soltys, Richard, Huizinga, Richard, Mouchou, Robert B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,770,893 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 273/149.R
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/18 Score computers; Miscellaneous indicators time-testing devices G07C
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/70 Game security or game management aspects
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2419 Optical
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3293 Card games, e.g. poker, canasta, black jack

Abstract

A system reads an identifier from a hand of cards to identify the cards. For example, the system can read an identifier from a pair of cards forming the initial hand in blackjack, where the one card is face up and the other card is face down. The system determines the value of a hand of cards form the read identifiers. For example, the system can determine a value of an initial hand of two cards in blackjack, while only one card is face up. The system can inform a dealer of the value, or status based on value, of the hand. The system can determine whether cards forming a hand of cards are authenticate by validating the cards based on the read identifier. The system can determine if the cards forming the hand of cards are in an expected sequence based on a knowledge of the initial sequence of cards in a deck.

Claims

1. An automated system to monitor card games played with playing cards, the automated system comprising:

a card reader operable to read identifying information from a number of the playing cards forming at least two hands of playing cards collected from at least two participants of a card game; and

at least one processor coupled to receive the read identifying information from the card reader and operable to determine for each participant, the identity of each playing card forming the hand of playing cards collected from a respective one of the participants based at least in part on an order of the read identifying information, and further operable to determine a value of each of the hands of playing cards based on the determined identity of each of the playing cards forming the hand of playing cards.

2. The automated system of claim 1, further comprising:

a deck reader operable to read identifying information from a plurality of playing cards forming a deck of playing cards from which the card game is dealt.

3. The automated system of claim 1, further comprising:

a dealer'"'"'s hand reader operable to read identifying information from a number of the playing cards forming a dealer'"'"'s initial hand after the playing cards forming the dealer'"'"'s initial hand are dealt and before the playing cards are collected from the participants.

4. The automated system of claim 1 wherein the card reader is operable to read the identifying information as machine-readable symbols.

5. The automated system of claim 1 wherein the processor is operable to determine a value of a dealer'"'"'s completed hand.

6. The automated system of claim 1 wherein the processor is operable to determine a value of a player'"'"'s completed hand for each of a number of players.

7. The automated system of claim 1 wherein the processor is further operable to, for each of a number of players, determine a winner based on the determined value of a player'"'"'s completed hand and a determined value of a dealer'"'"'s completed hand.

8. A method of evaluating a card game, the method comprising:

reading identifiers from each of a plurality of playing cards collected from a respective hand of playing cards of each at least two participants of a card game;

for each of the hands of playing cards, automatically determining the identities of the playing cards forming the respective hand of playing cards based at least in part on a sequence of the identifiers read from each of collected playing cards collected; and

for each of the participants, determining a value of the respective hand based at least in part of the determined identities of the playing cards forming the respective hand.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

automatically determining an outcome of the card game based on the determined value of a player'"'"'s completed hand of playing cards and the determined value of a dealer'"'"'s completed hand of playing cards.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining a sequence of a set of playing cards in a deck of playing cards from which the card game is dealt, prior to dealing any of the playing cards from the deck in a card game.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

reading identifiers from each of a number of playing cards forming a dealer'"'"'s initial hand of playing cards before any playing cards in the card game are collected.

12. A method of evaluating a card game, comprising:

automatically determining an identity of each of a number of completed hands of playing cards from playing cards collected from at least two participants in a card game, the two participants including at least one player and a dealer;

automatically determining a value of the at least one player'"'"'s completed hand based on the determined identity of each of the number of playing cards forming the player'"'"'s completed hand;

automatically determining a value of the dealer'"'"'s completed hand based on the determined identity of each of the number of playing cards forming the dealer'"'"'s completed hand; and

for each of the at least one players, determining an outcome of the card game.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein determining an outcome of the card game for each of the at least one players comprises comparing a value of the player'"'"'s completed hand to a threshold value, and determining that the player has lost if the value of the player'"'"'s completed hand exceeds the threshold value.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein comparing a value of the player'"'"'s completed hand to a threshold value comprises comparing a value of the player'"'"'s completed hand to a value equal to twenty-one.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein determining an outcome of the card game for each of the at least one players further comprises comparing a value of the player'"'"'s completed hand to a value of the dealer'"'"'s completed hand.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining a sequence of a set of playing cards in a deck of playing cards from which the card game is dealt, prior to dealing any of the playing cards from the deck in a card game.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining an expected sequence of playing cards for the player'"'"'s completed hand based at least in part on the determined sequence of the set of playing cards in the deck of playing cards from which the card game is dealt; and

comparing the identity of each of the number of playing cards from the player'"'"'s completed hand to an expected set of playing cards for the player'"'"'s completed hand; and

producing a notification if the identity of each of the number of playing cards from the player'"'"'s completed hand does not match the expected set of playing cards for the player'"'"'s completed hand.