Device and method for forming hands of randomly arranged decks of cards
DCFirst Claim
1. An apparatus for handling cards comprising:
- a shuffling chamber having a plurality of card-receiving compartments, each card-receiving compartment is in a fixed relationship to adjacent card-receiving compartments, each compartment is able to receive more than one card within an opening of the card-receiving compartment, a card moving mechanism is positioned for moving at least one card at a time into a card-receiving compartment, a mechanism that moves the card moving mechanism and the shuffling chamber relative to each other so that cards moved by the card moving mechanism are aligned for delivery into a card receiving compartment, and a microprocessor for controlling card movement;
wherein a separator is between each adjacent card-receiving compartment, and there is an acute edge of the separator that a card moved into card-receiving compartments contacts on a deflecting surface before that card is fully inserted into a card-receiving compartment.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for moving playing cards from a first group of cards into plural hands of cards, wherein each of the hands contains a random arrangement of the same quantity of cards. The apparatus comprises a card receiver for receiving the first group of cards, a single stack of card-receiving compartments generally adjacent to the card receiver, the stack generally vertically movable, an elevator for moving the stack, a card-moving mechanism between the card receiver and the stack, and a microprocessor that controls the card-moving mechanism and the elevator so that an individual card is moved into an identified compartment. The number of compartments receiving cards and the number of cards moved to each compartment may be selected.
311 Citations
31 Claims
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1. An apparatus for handling cards comprising:
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a shuffling chamber having a plurality of card-receiving compartments, each card-receiving compartment is in a fixed relationship to adjacent card-receiving compartments, each compartment is able to receive more than one card within an opening of the card-receiving compartment, a card moving mechanism is positioned for moving at least one card at a time into a card-receiving compartment, a mechanism that moves the card moving mechanism and the shuffling chamber relative to each other so that cards moved by the card moving mechanism are aligned for delivery into a card receiving compartment, and a microprocessor for controlling card movement;
wherein a separator is between each adjacent card-receiving compartment, and there is an acute edge of the separator that a card moved into card-receiving compartments contacts on a deflecting surface before that card is fully inserted into a card-receiving compartment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. An apparatus for handling cards comprising:
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a shuffling chamber having a plurality of card-receiving compartments, each card-receiving compartment is in a fixed relationship to adjacent card-receiving compartments, each compartment is able to receive more than one card within an opening of the card-receiving compartment, a card moving mechanism is positioned for moving at least one card at a time into a card-receiving compartment, a mechanism that moves the card moving mechanism and the shuffling chamber relative to each other so that cards moved by the card moving mechanism are aligned for delivery into a card receiving compartment, and a microprocessor for controlling card movement wherein a separator is between each adjacent card-receiving compartment, and there is an edge of the separator that a card moved into card-receiving compartments contacts before that card is fully inserted into a card-receiving compartment and wherein separators are able to alter the card'"'"'s angle relative to a direction of card movement when cards are inserted into card-receiving compartments.
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22. An apparatus for handling cards comprising:
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a shuffling chamber having a plurality of card-receiving compartments, each card-receiving compartment is in a fixed relationship to adjacent card-receiving compartments, each compartment is able to receive more than one card within an opening of the card-receiving compartment, a card moving mechanism is positioned for moving at least one card at a time into a card-receiving compartment, a mechanism that moves the card moving mechanism and the shuffling chamber relative to each other so that cards moved by the card moving mechanism are aligned for delivery into a card receiving compartment, and a microprocessor for controlling card movement wherein the card moving mechanism moves only one card at a time into a card-receiving compartment wherein a separator is between each adjacent card-receiving compartment, and there is an edge of the separator that a card moved into card-receiving compartments contacts before that card is fully inserted into a card-receiving compartment and wherein separators are able to alter the card'"'"'s angle relative to a direction of card movement when cards are inserted into card-receiving compartments.
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23. An apparatus for handling cards comprising:
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a shuffling chamber having a plurality of card-receiving compartments, each card-receiving compartment is in a fixed relationship to adjacent card-receiving compartments, each compartment is able to receive more than one card within an opening of the card-receiving compartment, a card moving mechanism is positioned for moving at least one card at a time into a card-receiving compartment, a mechanism that moves the card moving mechanism and the shuffling chamber relative to each other so that cards moved by the card moving mechanism are aligned for delivery into a card receiving compartment, and a microprocessor for controlling card movement;
wherein a separator is between each adjacent card-receiving compartment, and there is an acute edge of the separator that a card moved into card-receiving compartments contacts on a deflecting surface before that card is fully inserted into a card-receiving compartment;
wherein the card moving mechanism is movable with respect to a stationary rack of card-receiving compartments.
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24. An apparatus for handling cards comprising:
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a shuffling chamber having a plurality of card-receiving compartments, each card-receiving compartment is in a fixed relationship to adjacent card-receiving compartments, each compartment is able to receive more than one card within an opening of the card-receiving compartment, a card moving mechanism is positioned for moving at least one card at a time into a card-receiving compartment, a mechanism that moves the card moving mechanism and the shuffling chamber relative to each other so that cards moved by the card moving mechanism are aligned for delivery into a card receiving compartment, and a microprocessor for controlling card movement;
wherein a separator is between each adjacent card-receiving compartment, and there is an acute edge of the separator that a card moved into card-receiving compartments contacts on a deflecting surface before that card is fully inserted into a card-receiving compartment wherein at least one roller and the at least one roller wherein the card moving mechanism is movable with respect to a stationary rack of card-receiving compartments and wherein the card moving mechanism moves only one card at a time into a card-receiving compartment.
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25. A method for randomly mixing cards for a game comprising:
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a. providing at least one deck of playing cards;
b. providing an apparatus having an initial loading region for receiving the at least one deck of cards, and having a number of distinct storage areas;
c. removing cards one-at-a-time from the at least one deck of cards;
d. randomly inserting each card removed one-at-a-time into one of said number of distinct storage areas, each storage area defining a distinct subset of cards, at least one subset comprising a card hand for a player, another subset comprising a card hand for a dealer excess cards which are not used in the play of the game; and
e. at least one of the storage areas receives at least two randomly inserted cards one-at-a-time to form a random, distinct subset of at least two cards. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification