Method, apparatus and article for evaluating card games, such as blackjack
First Claim
1. A method of operating a card game evaluation system for evaluating card games, the method comprising:
- for each round of a card game having a plurality of players;
automatically determining a sequence of a set of playing cards in a deck of playing cards by a processor of the card game evaluation system, prior to dealing any of the playing cards from the deck;
for each player, generating a plurality of working solutions representing possible valid and invalid outcomes of each of the player'"'"'s hands by the processor of the card game evaluation system, based at least in part on the determined sequence of the set of playing cards; and
for each player, reducing the plurality of working solutions to a final solution representing a valid outcome of each of the player'"'"'s hands by the processor of the card game evaluation system, based at least in part on identities of playing cards that have been discarded during the card game, wherein validity of each respective working solution is determined by the processor of the card game evaluation system using a comparison between a number of hit cards dealt in each respective working solution and a subsequent player'"'"'s next hit card.
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Accused Products
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 authentic 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 knowledge of the initial sequence of cards in a deck. A decision tree to validate the results of the card game can be created to provide possible solutions or outcomes for each hand, and then, invalid solutions can be eliminated from the decision tree based on known card identities, rules of the game, possible outcomes of other player hands, and other information.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method of operating a card game evaluation system for evaluating card games, the method comprising:
for each round of a card game having a plurality of players; automatically determining a sequence of a set of playing cards in a deck of playing cards by a processor of the card game evaluation system, prior to dealing any of the playing cards from the deck; for each player, generating a plurality of working solutions representing possible valid and invalid outcomes of each of the player'"'"'s hands by the processor of the card game evaluation system, based at least in part on the determined sequence of the set of playing cards; and for each player, reducing the plurality of working solutions to a final solution representing a valid outcome of each of the player'"'"'s hands by the processor of the card game evaluation system, based at least in part on identities of playing cards that have been discarded during the card game, wherein validity of each respective working solution is determined by the processor of the card game evaluation system using a comparison between a number of hit cards dealt in each respective working solution and a subsequent player'"'"'s next hit card. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of operating a card game evaluation system for evaluating card games, the method comprising:
for each round of a card game; determining a number of players in the card game and initial cards dealt to each player to form respective player hands for said players by a processor of the card game evaluation system; gathering information relating to a timing of events in the card game by the processor of the card game evaluation system, using information associated with rules of the card game and with the determined initial cards, to possibly complete some player hands; generating a decision tree having a plurality of possible valid and invalid outcomes of each player hand by the processor of the card game evaluation system, the processor of the card game evaluation system using information derived from an initial sequence of cards in the card game to generate the possible outcomes in the decision tree; comparing identities of discarded cards with the possible outcomes in the decision tree by the processor of the card game evaluation system; and removing as invalid any possible outcome from said decision tree that is inconsistent with said discarded cards by the processor of the card game evaluation system and validating an outcome of a player'"'"'s hand by the processor of the card game evaluation system if the discarded cards corroborate the outcome, wherein validity of each respective possible outcome is determined by the processor of the card game evaluation system using a comparison between a number of hit cards dealt in each respective possible outcome and a subsequent player'"'"'s next hit card. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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13. A method of operating a card game evaluation system for evaluating card games, the method comprising:
for each round of a card game having cards indexed respectively 0 to m−
1, wherein m is a total number of the cards;based on determined information, generating a decision tree by a processor of the card game evaluation system having a plurality of branches, each branch of the decision tree corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of possible valid and invalid outcomes of a player hand of the card game; and using information derived from playing cards discarded during the card game and based on possible outcomes of a subsequent player hand, reducing the decision tree by the processor of the card game evaluation system to a set of branches, each branch in the set having a valid outcome of a player hand that is previous to the subsequent player hand, wherein validity of each respective possible outcome is determined by the processor of the card game evaluation system if a number of hit cards dealt in each respective possible outcome matches an index of a next hit card from the subsequent player hand. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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16. A method of operating a card game evaluation system for evaluating card games, the method comprising:
for each round of a card game having a plurality of players; automatically determining a sequence of a set of playing cards in a deck of playing cards, prior to a dealer dealing any of the playing cards from the deck in the card game by a processor of card game evaluation system; automatically determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming the dealer'"'"'s initial hand by the processor of the card game evaluation system; determining a number of players in the card game in addition to the dealer by the processor of the card game evaluation system; determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming each player'"'"'s initial hand using the automatically determined sequence of the set of playing cards by the processor of the card game evaluation system; for each player'"'"'s hand, generating a plurality of working solutions by the processor of the card game evaluation system each representing possible valid and invalid outcomes of the player'"'"'s hand; and for each player'"'"'s hand, reducing the plurality of working solutions by the processor of card game evaluation system to a final solution representing a valid outcome of the player'"'"'s hand, based at least in part on identities of cards that have been discarded during the card game, wherein validity of each respective working solution is determined by the processor of the card game evaluation system using a comparison between a number of hit cards dealt in each respective working solution and a subsequent player'"'"'s next hit card. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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20. An article of manufacture, comprising:
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a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by a processor to evaluate each round of a card game having a plurality of players, by; automatically determining a sequence of a set of playing cards in a deck of playing cards, prior to dealing any of the playing cards from the deck; for each player, generating a plurality of working solutions representing possible valid and invalid outcomes of each of the player'"'"'s hands, based at least in part on the determined sequence of the set of playing cards; and for each player, reducing the plurality of working solutions to a final solution representing a valid outcome of each of the player'"'"'s hands, based at least in part on identities of playing cards that have been discarded during the card game, wherein validity of each respective working solution is determined using a comparison between a number of hit cards dealt in each respective working solution and a subsequent player'"'"'s next hit card. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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24. A system, comprising:
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discard card reader means for reading discarded cards from a card game in which cards are indexed respectively 0 to m, wherein m−
1 is a total number of the cards; andmeans for generating, for each round of the card game and based on determined information, a decision tree having a plurality of branches, each branch of the decision tree corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of possible valid and invalid outcomes of a player hand of the card game, and for reducing for each round of the card game the decision tree to a set of branches, each branch in the set having a valid outcome of a player hand that is previous to a subsequent player hand, by using information derived from playing cards discarded during the card game into the discard card reader means and based on possible outcomes of the subsequent player hand, wherein validity of each respective possible outcome is determined if a number of hit cards dealt in each respective possible outcome matches an index of a next hit card from the subsequent player hand. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
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27. A system, comprising:
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a card deck reader to read identifying information from a number of playing cards forming a deck of playing cards; a dealer hand reader to read identifying information from a number of the playing cards forming a dealer'"'"'s initial hand; a discard card reader to read identifying information from a number of the playing cards forming a dealer'"'"'s complete hand and a player'"'"'s complete hand; and at least one processor coupled to receive the read identifying information from the card deck reader, the dealer hand reader and the discard card reader and programmed for each round of the card game to process the read identifying information to; generate a decision tree having a plurality of possible valid and invalid outcomes of each player hand, via use of information derived from an initial sequence of cards read by the card deck reader, to generate the possible outcomes in the decision tree; and compare identities of discarded cards with the possible outcomes in the decision tree; and validate an outcome of a player hand if the discarded cards read by the discard card reader corroborate that outcome, wherein validity of each respective possible outcome is determined using a comparison between a number of hit cards dealt in each respective possible outcome and a subsequent player'"'"'s next hit card. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
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Specification