Method and apparatus for randomly increasing the payback in a video gaming apparatus

• US 5,542,669 A
• Filed: 09/23/1994
• Issued: 08/06/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Universal Distributing of Nevada, Inc. (Aruze Gaming America, Inc. /Okada/)
• Original Assignee: Universal Distributing of Nevada, Inc. (Aruze Gaming America, Inc. /Okada/)
• Inventors: Charron, Daniel P., Yeates, Daniel F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrison, Jessica J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): SCHAAF, JAMES CHARLES
• Application Number:
  US08/311,404
• Time in Patent Office: 683 Days
• Field of Search: 273/85 CP, 273/138 R, 273/143 R, 273/292, 273/138 A
• US Class Current: 463/13
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2003/0017 progressive jackpot
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes

Abstract

A video gaming apparatus that plays an interactive game of poker with a player provides a payback table that is modified at the beginning of each hand to provide at least one bonus card combination which has an increased payback amount. The bonus card combination having the increased payback amount is randomly selected prior to dealing the hand. In addition, the amount by which the payback is increased is also randomly selected. The bonus card combination and the increased payback amount are presented to the player prior to the player making a decision as to how to respond to the dealt hand so that the player must take the odds of completing the bonus card combination into consideration in deciding which cards to hold and which cards to discard and replace with drawn cards. Thus, an additional element of decision-making is added to the basic poker game, thereby providing differentiation between the improved poker game and conventional poker games.

Claims

1. An apparatus that plays an interactive game of chance with a player in response to a monetary wager and commands from the player, said apparatus providing the player with monetary output when said interactive game is concluded if the player has obtained one of a predetermined number of levels of winning results, said monetary output varying in accordance with said levels and with an amount of said monetary wager, said apparatus comprising:

a processor which generates said interactive game of chance and which receives commands from the player indicative of said monetary wager and indicative of a playing decision, said processor generating a random play of said game of chance to produce a random outcome, said random outcome being one of said predetermined number of levels of winning results or of a plurality of non-winning results, said outcome compared to a table of monetary outputs to provide the player with a monetary output determined by said randomly selected outcome and said monetary wager; and

a bonus routine within said processor that randomly selects a level of winning results as a bonus level, said bonus routine increasing said monetary output for said one level if said bonus level and said random outcome of a current game match.

2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said interactive game is a poker game and wherein said predetermined levels of winning results comprise possible poker hands that can be obtained from five cards organized in accordance with calculated odds of obtaining said possible poker hands.

3. A method for determining the payout from a gaming device, said gaming device randomly selecting a selected outcome from a plurality of potential outcomes and displaying said selected outcome at the end of a game played on said gaming device, said potential outcomes including a plurality of winning outcomes which activate a payout in accordance with a predetermined paytable, said paytable including a plurality of levels of winning outcomes, each level having a different payout, said randomly selected outcome activating one of said different payouts when said randomly selected outcome is one of said plurality of winning outcomes, said method comprising the steps of:

randomly selecting one of said levels of winning outcomes as a selected bonus level for a game; and

increasing said one of said different payouts activated by said randomly selected outcome of said game if said randomly selected outcome is a winning outcome and said randomly selected outcome is at said selected bonus level.

4. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein said game is a poker game and wherein said levels of winning outcomes comprise possible poker hands that can be obtained from five cards organized in accordance with calculated odds of obtaining said possible poker hands.

5. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein each level of winning outcomes has an equal probability of being selected as said bonus level.

6. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein said gaming device is responsive to a monetary input of a single monetary unit and multiples of said single monetary unit and wherein said step of increasing said one of said different payouts is activated only if said monetary input is a maximum allowable multiple of said single monetary unit.

7. A method for determining the payout from a gaming device, said gaming device randomly selecting a selected outcome from a plurality of potential outcomes and displaying said selected outcome at the end of a game played on said gaming device, said potential outcomes including a plurality of winning outcomes which activate a payout in accordance with a predetermined paytable, said paytable including a plurality of levels of winning outcomes, each level having a different payout, said randomly selected outcome activating one of said different payouts when said randomly selected outcome is one of said plurality of winning outcomes, said method comprising the steps of:

randomly selecting one of said levels of winning outcomes as a selected bonus level for a game; and

increasing said one of said different payouts activated by said randomly selected outcome of said game if said randomly selected outcome is a winning outcome and said randomly selected outcome is at said selected bonus level,

wherein said gaming device is responsive to a monetary input of a single monetary unit and multiples of said single monetary unit and wherein said step of increasing said one of said different payouts is activated only if said monetary input is a maximum allowable multiple of said single monetary unit, and

wherein said paytable comprises a non-bonus payout amount at each of said levels for each of said multiples of said monetary unit, including a maximum non-bonus payout for said maximum allowable multiple of said single monetary unit, and wherein said step of increasing said one of said different payouts comprises the steps of selecting one of said non-bonus payouts for said bonus level and adding it to said maximum non-bonus payout for said bonus level.

8. An electronic poker machine that plays an interactive game of poker with a player by dealing a first poker hand and displaying said hand to said player and permitting said player to selectively draw cards to replace cards in said first poker hand to generate a final poker hand, said machine comprising:

a first routine that randomly selects a selected level of poker hands as a selected bonus level, said first routine selecting a new selected bonus level for each game played by the player;

a second routine that compares said final poker hand to said level of poker hands to determine if said final poker hand is in said bonus level; and

a third routine that increases a payout to said player if said final poker hand is in said bonus level.