Casino table variant of Texas hold'em poker

• US 20060284376A1
• Filed: 06/17/2005
• Published: 12/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SHFL Entertainment Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Snow, Roger M.
• Application Number:
  US11/156,352
• Publication Number:
  US 20060284376A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 273/292
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/067 Tables or similar supporting structures
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2001/005 Poker
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/00157 Casino or betting games horse races A63F3/00082
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3223 Architectural aspects of a gaming system, e.g. internal configuration, master/slave, wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3225 Data transfer within a gaming system, e.g. data sent between gaming machines and users
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/326 Game play aspects of gaming systems
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3293 Card games, e.g. poker, canasta, black jack

Abstract

A variant game of Hold'"'"'Em poker allows for rules of play of one or all of Players being allowed to remain in game with an option of checking or making specific wagering amounts in first Play wagers, being limited in the size of subsequent available Play wagers or prohibited from making additional Play wagers if a first Play wager has been made, being limited in the size of available later Play wagers if a first or earlier Play wager has been made, and having the opportunity for at least two and as many as three or four distinct opportunities in the stages in the play of hand to be able to make one or more Play wagers.

Claims

1. A method of playing a wagering game using poker rankings wherein a player places at least an Ante wager prior to seeing any cards in play of a hand of the wagering game and is provided with an opportunity to make at least one additional play wager comprising at least one of a first play wager and a second play wager in the game subsequent to the Ante wager and after seeing at least a first one card in the play of the wagering game, wherein when a player elects to make a first play wager or not make the first play wager, that election changes options available to the player on the second play wager.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein if the player places the first play wager, that player may not place the second play wager.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein if the player does not place the first play wager, the player is allowed to make a second play wager in an amount that is required to be less than a maximum amount allowed for the first play wager or to check.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the second play wager can be made only after seeing at least a second one card in addition to seeing the at least a first one card.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each player placing at least an Ante wager and the dealer receives two cards as a partial hand after each player has placed the at least an Ante wager.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein after receiving the partial hand, each player may check or make a first Play wager of a specific multiple of the Ante wager.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein after a player has not placed a first Play wager, that player may make only wagers of lower multiples of the Ante wager in at least one subsequently allowed Play wager.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein a first additional wager is placed by the player that a final player hand poker rank will exceed a predetermined poker rank for the.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein a first additional wager is placed by the player that the final player hand poker rank will exceed a final dealer hand poker rank.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein a second additional wager is placed by the player that a final player hand poker rank will exceed a predetermined poker rank for the hand of play in the wagering game and the player receives a payout on the second additional wagers that varies depending on the rank of the final player'"'"'s hand equaling or exceeding the predetermined poker rank irrespective of a final dealer hand poker rank.

24. The video gaming platform of claim 1 wherein a total of two player and dealer cards are dealt and a total of five community cards are dealt.

25. The video gaming platform of claim 24 wherein a total of four opportunities to make play bets or check are provided.

26. The video gaming platform of claim 24, wherein players have an opportunity to place a side bet on the occurrence of predetermined winning outcomes, based on a final hand of cars.

27. The video gaming platform of claim 24, wherein final player hands are formed from a best five of seven available cards, and wherein conventional five card poker rankings are used as the basis for determining winners.

28. The method of claim 1 and further comprising the player making a mandatory blind wager, wherein the blind bet when the player has a predetermined winning hand rank, the Blind bet loses when the player'"'"'s hand loses, and the Blind bet pushes when the player'"'"'s hand ties the dealer'"'"'s hand and when the player'"'"'s hand of less than a predetermined winning hand and beats the dealer'"'"'s hand.

12. A method of playing a wagering game, comprising:

A player placing at least an Ante wager to participate in the game;

A dealer dealing at least one card to each player and at least one card to the dealer, each at least one card forming a partial hand;

A dealer dealing at least one community card;

Wherein after each player views the at least one card, the player either checks or makes a first Play wager that is a multiple of the amount of the Ante, at the option of the player;

The dealer revealing at least one community card; and

The players making a play bet that is less than a maximum allowable multiple of the first play bet if the player has not previously made the first Play bet or checking; and

Paying the players whose poker hand rankings exceed the dealer hand ranking.

11. The method of claim 22 wherein a second additional wager is placed by the player that a final player hand poker rank will exceed a predetermined poker rank for the hand of play in the wagering game and the player receives a payout on the second additional wagers that varies depending on the rank of the final player'"'"'s hand equaling or exceeding the predetermined poker rank irrespective of a final dealer hand poker rank.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein each player receives two cards and the dealer deals five community cards.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein players make a best five card poker hand from two player cards and five community cards.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the community cards are revealed in at least two separate groups and wherein players are permitted to make Play wagers after each group of community cards is revealed.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein each player has four opportunities to make a Play wager and with successively revealed cards, the wager multiples are lower as the game progresses.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the dealer must qualify with a minimum hand ranking in order to the player to win the game against the dealer.

18. The method of claim 12, and further including a side bet on the occurrence of predetermined winning hands.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the predetermined winning hands are determined on the basis of a hand of five cards.

20. The method of claim 12 and further comprising the player making a blind wager that pays on the occurrence of at least one predetermined winning hand.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein multiples on the first Play wager range between 1×

and 10×

the Ante.

22. The method of claim 12, wherein multiples on the first play wager are between 1×

and 4×

the Ante.

23. An interactive video gaming platform for multiple players, comprising:

Multiple player stations;

A first common video display area that displays game play, including cards and wagers;

A second video display area displaying a video representation of a dealer;

Wherein each player station is equipped with controls and the platform is programmed to execute a game, wherein the game rules include the steps of;

Each player placing an Ante to participate in the game;

Each player and the dealer receiving at least one card and at least one card is dealt face down as common cards;

After viewing the at least one player card, each player having an option to place a play wager that is a multiple of the Ante;

Revealing at least one common card;

wherein players who have not previously made a play wager either make a play wager that is a smaller multiple then a maximum multiple of the Ante of the first Play wager, or check.