Abstract:
The invention introduces a new way of funding the collections in a player-banked game. The invention introduces a mandatory bonus bet, with sufficient advantage for the player-banker to cover the cost of the collections for all of the players. The invention also eliminates all the collections by everyone else at the table, thereby making the game seem more like a house-banked game. It does this while avoiding any changes to deciding who wins or the amount won on normal wagers. The bonus bet also gives the player a chance to win a larger payoff on a hand, thereby increasing the excitement of the game.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/329,754, filed Apr. 30, 2010, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention relates to player-banked wagering games. 
         [0004]    2. Background 
         [0005]    Many wagering games are known in the prior art. Usually a wagering game uses one of three wagering models, 1) house-banked, 2) player-banked, or 3) shared pool. 
         [0006]    A house-banked game or banking game is a game where the casino plays an active role in the games, pays the winning players, and makes a profit by collecting losing wagers from the players. This is the most common wagering model in most casinos. 
         [0007]    In jurisdictions where banking games are not allowed, players take turns funding the wagers. This is often called a “player-banked game” or a “rotating-bank game.” One or more players provide a pool of funds and the player or players pay the winners and collect from the losers. This player or group of players is typically called the “banker” or “player-banker”. The option to provide this pool of funds is usually offered to the players at the table in accordance with a fixed rule. Typically, after one player has been the banker for two hands, the option is offered to the player on his/her left. Since the casino does not participate in the game, the casino must have a different source of revenue. Typically the casino charges a fee (often called a “collection”) for each hand played or each wager made. This fee is collected no matter who wins or loses any wager. 
         [0008]    In a shared pool game, the players&#39; wagers are collected and then used to pay the winners. Typically the casino takes a portion of the pool and the rest is distributed to the winner or winners. The two most common forms of this are poker and pari-mutual wagering. In poker the wagers are collected into a pot, which is awarded to the player with the best hand. Typically the casino will take a fee from the pot (often called a “rake”), before it is awarded to the winner. However in some poker games the casino charges a “time collection”, which is a fixed amount collected every half hour the player has a seat in the game. 
         [0009]    Pari-mutual wagering is best known in horse racing. Typically there is a pool for every type of wager. For example, all the Win bets are collected into a pool. A portion of the pool is taken out by the race track, and the remainder is divided among all the bettors who picked the winning horse, in proportion to the size of their bets. A separate pool made up of all Place bets is used to pay those who win those wagers, and other pools are used for other bets. 
         [0010]    Many house-banked games involve two or more “hands” which are collections of gaming tokens. In most of these games the tokens are playing cards, but there are games like Pai Gow where the hands are made us of dominos (usually called “tiles”) with markings. Typically one hand is called the “Dealer Hand” or “Bank Hand”, and the winner of wagers is determined by comparing the other hand or hands to the Dealer Hand. The other hand or hands are typically called the “player hand” or “player hands”. 
         [0011]    The most widely played of these games are blackjack, Baccarat, pai gow poker, pai gow, pan 9, and Three Card Poker. 
         [0012]    In a player-banked game, it is very important that there be an advantage for the player-dealer. Without a player-dealer putting up a wager to cover the other bets, there cannot be a game. Without some incentive for players to make player-dealer wagers, it is too likely that players will not take on this role, and the game will stop. This has been a frequent problem for some versions of Pan 9. This is bad for the players who want to play and the casino which earns no revenue. 
         [0013]    On the other hand, it the advantage is too large, the players will lose too much and too often to the player-dealer, and stop playing the game. Typically an advantage of 1% to 2% is considered optimal, although some games have larger advantages for the player-dealer. 
         [0014]    All of these games have a “normal” bet. This is typically a bet that a particular player hand will have a higher value or beat the Dealer hand. Some games, including Baccarat, have other bets such as a bet on the Dealer hand or a tie bet. In addition to the normal bet or bets, the games may be played with an optional “bonus” bet. This is a bet with one or more higher payoffs for less frequent outcomes. Usually a player must make a normal bet to have the option to make a bonus bet, but on some occasions a player may make a bonus bet without a normal bet. In the current art there are no games where a bonus bet is required to make a normal bet. 
         [0015]    Collections are one of the least popular features of player-banked games. Players don&#39;t like paying a fee to play, since they don&#39;t need to do this many other jurisdictions. Making sure the correct collection is paid for every hand also slows the game down, and this costs the casino money. 
         [0016]    In order to eliminate collections many variations of these games have been offered. Frequently they increase the edge for the banker, and the banker can then pay more collection. The casino gets to earn the same revenue, but the players do not pay it directly. This is generally easier for the players to accept. This is usually accomplished by changing the outcome on certain hand values or combinations of hand values. Some outcomes which were traditionally wins for the player may be changed to pushes or losses. Some outcomes that were traditionally pushes could be changed to losses. Other solutions include reducing the amount a player wins in some situations. 
         [0017]    These methods aren&#39;t always popular. Players get used to playing the games with a certain set of rules. Some players resent seeing a less favorable outcome to the one they have grown accustomed to. 
         [0018]    Another problem with the current art is that edge for the player-banker isn&#39;t always sufficient to cover the player-banker&#39;s collection. For example, in a Pai Gow Poker game, the typical banker edge is around 1.3%. Frequently a player must pay a $3 collection to act as banker. If the other players wager less than $231, the banker will not average a $3 win, and will lose money acting as banker. As a result, it can be difficult to get someone to bank a Pai Gow Poker game when the amount wagered is small. 
         [0019]    It is the purpose of this invention to provide a method to increase the banker&#39;s edge in player-banked games, allowing the banker to pay all the collections for the game without changing any of the rules regarding normal wagers. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0020]    The invention introduces a new way of funding the collections in a player-banked game. The invention introduces a mandatory bonus bet, with sufficient advantage for the player-banker to cover the cost of the collections for all of the players. The invention also eliminates all the collections by everyone else at the table, thereby making the game seem more like a house-banked game. It does this while avoiding any changes to deciding who wins or the amount won on normal wagers. The bonus bet also gives the player a chance to win a larger payoff on a hand, thereby increasing the excitement of the game. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 
         [0021]      FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating one aspect of a method according to an illustrative the present invention. 
           [0022]      FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating another aspect of a method according to an illustrative the present invention. 
           [0023]      FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating another aspect of a method according to an illustrative the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0024]    Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following description of the present invention is illustrative only and not in any way limiting. Other embodiments of the invention will readily suggest themselves to such a skilled person. 
         [0025]    To illustrate the invention, an embodiment of the invention for the game of Pai Gow Poker will be used. This is illustrative only. Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that this invention can be applied to other player-banked games which normally charge a collection. 
         [0026]    Pai Gow Poker is played with ordinary playing cards, usually with one joker in the deck. Each player makes a wager and is dealt a hand of seven cards, and the dealer is also dealt a hand of seven cards. Each party divides his cards into two sub-groups of cards, one containing five cards and the other containing two cards. This process is known as “setting the hand.” These subgroups are often also called “hands”. To avoid confusion, these sub-groups will be called “sub-hands”, while the initial group of seven cards will be called a “hand”. 
         [0027]    One sub-hand, known as the “front hand” contains two cards, while the other, the “back hand,” contains five cards. These sub-hands are evaluated using standard Poker rankings The five-card sub-hand can have any Poker hand value from five of a kind to a hand with no pair. The two-card sub-hand can only have a pair or be ranked by its card values. Two-card sub-hands cannot count as straights or flushes. 
         [0028]    The only restriction on setting the hands is that the five-card sub-hand must have a higher rank than the two-card sub-hand. A player cannot, for example, put a pair in the two-card sub-hand, unless the five-card sub-hand has a hand with at least the same pair. 
         [0029]    When two sub-hands are compared, if they have the same value (a “copy”), this situation is treated the same as if the dealer had a higher value. Copies are treated as wins for the dealer. 
         [0030]    In conventional Pai Gow Poker, a player&#39;s wager wins when both his sub-hands beat the respective sub-hands of the dealer hand. This will be called a “Normal Bet” or “Player Win Bet”. In the conventional form of Pai Gow Poker, this is the only wager available. In this illustrative embodiment of the invention, a player who wishes to make a normal bet must also make a bonus bet. In this embodiment if the table limits are $10 to $100, the player must make a bonus wager of at least $5 to be allowed to make a normal wager of $10 to $100. 
         [0031]    In the preferred embodiment the player may make a larger bonus wager, but those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the bonus wager could be limited in size. 
         [0032]    A sample pay table is shown in Table 1 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
             
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 SAMPLE PAY TABLE FOR  
               
               
                 PAI GOW POKER BONUS BET 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 Five Aces 
                 1,000 to 1 
               
               
                   
                 Straight Flush  
                   100 to 1 
               
               
                   
                 Four of a Kind  
                    50 to 1 
               
               
                   
                 Full House 
                     5 to 1 
               
               
                   
                 Flush 
                     4 to 1 
               
               
                   
                 Straight 
                     3 to 1 
               
               
                   
                 Three of a Kind 
                     2 to 1 
               
               
                   
                 Aces Up 
                     1 to 1 
               
               
                   
                   
                 (Player gets the ante bet back) 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0033]    This payment schedule is based on the best five-card poker hand the player could form using all seven of his/her cards. Based on this pay table, a player with a $5 bonus bet would be paid $25 if his/her best possible hand was a full house. 
         [0034]    Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that other payment schemes could be used based on just the five-card sub-hand or the two-card sub-hand. Many other pay tables are possible, including paying players when they make very weak poker hands. For example, the player might get paid when the five-card hand is less than a particular value. This could allow a form of hedging when the player might win a bonus when the player has a very weak hand and is likely to lose the normal bet. 
         [0035]    This schedule provides a significant profit to the player-dealer, allowing him/her to afford to pay a large enough collection that the casino does not need any collections from any other players. 
         [0036]    Table 2 shows one possible collection schedule for the player-dealer. 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
             
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 2 
               
             
             
               
                   
               
               
                 SAMPLE COLLECTION SCHEDULE FOR  
               
               
                 PLAYER-DEALER 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 BONUS  
                 COLLECTION PAID BY  
               
               
                   
                 BETS 
                 PLAYER-DEALER 
               
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 $5 to $25 
                 $5  
               
               
                   
                 $30 to $50  
                 $10 
               
               
                   
                 $55 to $75  
                 $15 
               
               
                   
                 $80 to $100 
                 $20 
               
               
                   
                 $105 to $125  
                 $25 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0037]    According to this collection schedule, the amount of collection is based on ranges of bonus bets. Another possible schedule would have the collection be a reaction of the total amount of bonus bets. Another possibility is that there could be a minimum collection and after that the collection would be a fraction of the bonus bets. For example, there could be a $5 minimum collection plus 20% of all bonus bets over $25. 
         [0038]    Referring now to  FIG. 1 , a flow diagram shows a possible play of a game according to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention. The play starts at reference numeral  100 . At reference numeral  102 , a set of gaming tokens, a wagering surface with indicia indicating where wagers are to be placed, and a medium for making wagers are provided. At reference numeral  104 , values and ranks are assigned to combinations of gaming tokens. 
         [0039]    At reference numeral  106 , predetermined hand values that win a bonus wager and a pre-determined bonus-wager payment schedule of the amount won on a bonus wager for each associated hand value are predetermined. At reference numeral  108 , a player is identified as player-dealer. At reference numeral  110 , a collection is received from the player-dealer and each player makes a primary wager and a required bonus wager. 
         [0040]    At reference numeral  112 , a hand is dealt to player dealer and each player. At reference numeral  114 , the hand values are determined and ranked, primary wager winners are determined, and primary wagers are settled. At reference numeral  116 , players having predetermined hand values are identified, and bonus wagers are settled. 
         [0041]    At reference numeral  118 , a decision is made whether to play another hand. If another hand is to be played, the method returns to reference numeral  110  where a collection is received from the player-dealer and each player makes a primary wager and a required bonus wager. If not, the method ends at reference numeral  120 . 
         [0042]    Referring now to  FIG. 2 , a flow diagram shows another possible play of a game according to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention. The play starts at reference numeral  200 . At reference numeral  202 , a set of gaming tokens, a wagering surface with indicia indicating where wagers are to be placed, and a medium for making wagers are provided. At reference numeral  204 , values and ranks are assigned to combinations of gaming tokens. 
         [0043]    At reference numeral  206 , predetermined hand values that win a bonus wager and a pre-determined bonus-wager payment schedule of the amount won on a bonus wager for each associated hand value are predetermined. At reference numeral  208 , a player is identified as player-dealer. At reference numeral  210 , a collection is received from the player-dealer according to a fraction of bonus wagers and each player makes a primary wager and a required bonus wager. 
         [0044]    At reference numeral  212 , a hand is dealt to player dealer and each player. At reference numeral  214 , the hand values are determined and ranked, primary wager winners are determined, and primary wagers are settled. At reference numeral  216 , players having predetermined hand values are identified, and bonus wagers are settled. 
         [0045]    At reference numeral  218 , a decision is made whether to play another hand. If another hand is to be played, the method returns to reference numeral  210  where a collection is received from the player-dealer and each player makes a primary wager and a required bonus wager. If not, the method ends at reference numeral  220 . 
         [0046]    Referring now to  FIG. 3 , a flow diagram shows another possible play of a game according to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention. The play starts at reference numeral  300 . At reference numeral  302 , a set of gaming tokens, a wagering surface with indicia indicating where wagers are to be placed, and a medium for making wagers are provided. At reference numeral  304 , values and ranks are assigned to combinations of gaming tokens. 
         [0047]    At reference numeral  306 , predetermined hand values that win a bonus wager and a pre-determined bonus-wager payment schedule of the amount won on a bonus wager for each associated hand value are predetermined. At reference numeral  308 , a player is identified as player-dealer. At reference numeral  310 , a collection is received from the player-dealer according to base collection amount plus a fraction of bonus wagers and each player makes a primary wager and a required bonus wager. 
         [0048]    At reference numeral  312 , a hand is dealt to player dealer and each player. At reference numeral  314 , the hand values are determined and ranked, primary wager winners are determined, and primary wagers are settled. At reference numeral  316 , players having predetermined hand values are identified, and bonus wagers are settled. 
         [0049]    At reference numeral  318 , a decision is made whether to play another hand. If another hand is to be played, the method returns to reference numeral  310  where a collection is received from the player-dealer and each player makes a primary wager and a required bonus wager. If not, the method ends at reference numeral  320 . 
         [0050]    In one embodiment of the invention, the same player or group of players acting as banker covers both the normal bets and the bonus bets. They collect all losing wagers and pay all winning wagers. In another illustrative embodiment, different parties could cover each class of wagers. One player or group of players could put up a pool of money to just cover the normal bets and another player or group of players could put up a pool of money to cover the bonus bets. Each would collect all losing bets covered by their pool and would pay all winning bets of that type. 
         [0051]    In this case there are several ways to handle the collection. In one embodiment, the collections are all paid by the party who is covering the bonus bets. In other embodiments, each party pays part of the collection. According to some embodiments of the invention, the party covering the normal bets pays a fixed amount of the collection and the other party pays the balance or there is a formula can be established for deciding how to determine how much of the collection each party must cover. The simplest such formula would have each party cover 50% of the collection due. Or one party might cover 40% and the other 60%. These are just illustrative and non-limiting examples; other formulas will be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art. 
         [0052]    While these embodiments treat the normal and bonus wagers as separate, those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that there could be embodiments where a single wager is made by the player and treated as if it were both a normal wager and bonus bet. For example, in one embodiment, a $30 wager could pay $25 when the player wins and also qualify the player for a bonus. This would be functionally equivalent to a $25 normal bet and a $5 bonus bet, but some players might prefer what appears to be a “free bonus”. 
         [0053]    Although the invention has been illustrated and described in detail herein, it is to be understood that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.