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

• US 6,857,961 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2003
• Issued: 02/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Walker Digital Table Systems LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: Bally Gaming International Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Inventors: Soltys, Richard, Huizinga, Richard, Mouchou, Robert B.
• Primary Examiner(s): BROCKETTI, JULIE K
• Application Number:
  US10/360,508
• Publication Number:
  US 20030173737A1
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: 463/47, 463 11- 13, 273/148.A, 273/150, 273/149.R, 273/149.P
• US Class Current: 463/47
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/18 Score computers; Miscellaneous indicators time-testing devices G07C
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2001/003 Blackjack; Twenty one
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2419 Optical
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/242 Bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3232 wherein the operator is informed
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3241 Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance computer security G06F21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3293 Card games, e.g. poker, canasta, black jack

Abstract

Identifiers are read from playing cards collected after completion of at least one hand of a card game, such as blackjack, and the value of a hand is determined from the resulting sequence of read identifiers (i.e., ending sequence). The playing cards are collected in a defined order, such as from players in order from a dealer'"'"'s right to left, and finally from the dealer. The cards, and the play of the game, can be validated based at least in part on the ending sequence. Identifiers may also be read from cards before or while dealing the card game to produce an initial sequence.

Claims

1. A method of analyzing a card game, the method comprising:

manually collecting each of a number of playing cards dealt in a card game after a completion of at least one round, including at least one complete hand of playing cards of at least one player playing the card game;

automatically reading an identifier from each of the number of collected playing cards, the order of identifiers read from the collected playing cards forming an ending sequence of the read identifiers;

automatically detecting a dealing of each of the playing cards to the at least one hand of the at least one player;

automatically determining a number of playing cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player based at least in part on the detected dealings; and

automatically determining a value of the at least one hand of the at least one player based at least in part on the ending sequence of the read identifiers and based at least in part on the determined number of playing cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically detecting a dealing of each of the playing cards to the at least one hand of the at least one player comprises:

optically detecting the appearance of each playing card dealt to the hand of the at least one player.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically detecting a dealing of each of the playing cards to the at least one hand of the at least one player comprises:

optically detecting the appearance of each playing card dealt to the hand of the at least one player with a camera positioned above a surface of a gaming table on which the card game is played.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an initial hand of playing cards for each of the players and a dealer in the ending sequence of playing cards collected after a completion of the at least one hand of the at least one player playing the card game and determining a respective number of cards between each of the initial hands of playing cards in the ending sequence.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an outcome of the card game based at least in part on the determined value of the at least one hand of the at least one player.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

comparing decisions by the at least one player to voluntarily receive additional playing cards beyond an initial hand of playing cards to decisions under at least one card counting scheme.

7. A method of analyzing a card game, the method comprising:

reading an identifier from each of a number of playing cards collected after completion of at least one hand of the card game;

automatically detecting a dealing of each of the playing cards to the at least one hand of the at least one player; and

for at least one player, determining a value of the at least one hand based on a sequence of the identifiers read from the playing cards collected after completion of the at least one hand of the card game and based on a number of playing cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein reading an identifier from each of a number of playing cards collected after completion of at least one hand of a card game includes reading a respective one of the identifiers from each of the playing cards collected from at least two players.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein reading an identifier from each of a number of playing cards collected after completion of at least one hand of a card game includes reading a respective one of the identifiers from each of the playing cards collected from at least the one player and a dealer.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

collecting the playing cards dealt to each of the players and the dealer after the completion of the at least one hand of the card game.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

collecting the playing cards dealt to each of the players and the dealer after the completion of the at least one hand of the card game in a defined order.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

collecting the playing cards dealt to each of the players after the completion of the at least one hand of the card game, in order from a first base position to a third base position and then from the dealer.

13. A method of analyzing a card game, the method comprising:

determining an initial sequence of playing cards corresponding to an order that the playing cards in a set of playing cards are dealt to at least one hand of at least one player in the card game;

determining an ending sequence of playing cards corresponding to an order of the playing cards in a set of playing cards collected after completion of at least one hand of the at least one player of the card game;

determining a number of cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player, before determining the ending sequence of playing cards; and

determining a value of the at least one hand of the at least one player based on at least one of the ending sequence and the determined number of cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein determining an initial sequence of playing cards corresponding to an order that the playing cards are dealt to at least one hand of at least one player in the card game includes reading an identifier from each of a number of the playing cards before a first one of the playing cards is dealt.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining whether a playing card has been inserted into the initial sequence of playing cards after the initial sequence has been determined.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein determining an initial sequence of playing cards corresponding to an order that the playing cards are dealt to at least one hand of at least one player in the card game includes reading an identifier from each of a number of the playing cards as each of the playing cards is dealt.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein determining an ending sequence of playing cards corresponding to an order of the playing cards in a set of playing cards collected after completion of at least one hand of the at least one player of the card game includes reading an identifier from each of a number of playing cards collected after completion of at least one hand of the at least one player playing the card game.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

manually collecting the playing cards dealt to each of the players at a completion of the at least one hand of the card game, in order from a first base position to a third base position, and then from the dealer; and

reading an identifier from each of the number of playing cards in the collected order.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein determining a number of cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player, before determining the ending sequence of playing cards comprises:

detecting the dealing of each playing card to the player.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein determining a number of cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player, before determining the ending sequence of playing cards comprises:

optically detecting the appearance of each playing card dealt to the player with a camera positioned above a surface of a gaming table on which the card game is played; and

for each of at least the one hand of at least one player, counting the number of detected appearances of each playing card dealt.

21. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining an outcome of the card game based at least in part of the determined value of the at least one hand of the at least one player.

22. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining whether a playing card has been removed from the initial sequence of playing cards after the initial sequence has been determined.

23. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

comparing decisions by the at least one player to voluntarily receive additional playing cards beyond an initial hand of playing cards to decisions under at least one card counting scheme.

24. A method of analyzing a card game, the method comprising:

collecting a plurality of playing cards dealt to each of a number of players at a completion of at least one hand of the card game, the playing cards collected from player-to-player in a defined order;

reading a respective identifier from each of the playing cards in the order collected; and

determining a value of at least one hand of at least one player based at least in part on a sequence of the identifiers read from each of the collected playing cards.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

collecting a number of playing cards dealt to the dealer after collecting the plurality of playing cards dealt to each of the number of players at a completion of at least one hand of the card game.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein determining a value of at least one hand of at least one player based at least in part on the read identifiers, includes determining a number of playing cards dealt to the at least one hand of at least one of the players.

27. The method of claim 24 wherein the order is player-to-player from a right side of a dealer to a left side of the dealer.

28. The method of claim 24 wherein the order is from a first base position to a third base position.

29. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

detecting the appearance of playing cards at a number of player positions; and

determining a quantity of playing cards dealt to each of the number of players based on the detected appearances of the playing cards at each of the number of player positions.

30. A system for analyzing a card game, the system comprising:

means for reading an identifier from each of a number of playing cards collected after completion of at least one hand of at least one player of the card game to determine an ending sequence of playing cards;

means for automatically determining a number of cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player, before determining the ending sequence of playing cards; and

means for automatically determining a value of the at least one hand based on the ending sequence and based on the determined number of playing cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the means for automatically determining a number of cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player comprises an optical reader.

32. The system of claim 30 wherein the means for automatically determining a number of cards dealt to the at least one hand of the at least one player comprises a camera.

33. The system of claim 30, further comprising:

means for determining an outcome of the card game based at least in part of the determined value of the at least one hand of the at least one player.

34. The system of claim 30, further comprising:

means for comparing decisions by the at least one player to voluntarily receive additional playing cards beyond an initial hand of playing cards to decisions under at least one card counting scheme.

35. The system of claim 30, further comprising:

means for determining an initial sequence of playing cards corresponding to an order that the playing cards in a set of playing cards are dealt to at least one hand of at least one player in the card game.

36. The system of claim 35, further comprising:

means for determining whether a playing card has been inserted into the initial sequence of playing cards after the initial sequence has been determined.

37. The system of claim 35, further comprising:

means for determining whether a playing card has been removed from the initial sequence of playing cards after the initial sequence has been determined.