Patent Abstract:
An electronic video game is provided which includes a display for displaying a set of game icons by a matrix, and at least one of an icon from a set of matching icons matching the set of game icons and an icon from a set of special icons during each round of the game. The special icons impart predetermined benefits and detriments to a player. At least one processor is provided for determining at least one of a matching condition and a special condition during play of each round. The matching condition is determined if the at least one displayed icon is an icon from the set of matching icons and the at least one displayed icon is matched with a corresponding icon of the set of game icons by the player. The special condition is determined if the at least one displayed icon is an icon from the set of special icons. The at least one processor determines a winning condition based on the matched set of game icons and calculates a score accordingly.

Full Description:
PRIORITY  
       [0001]     The present application claims priority from a U.S. provisional application filed on Apr. 14, 2004 and assigned U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/562,200 and from a U.S. provisional application filed on Feb. 23, 2004 and assigned U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/546,789; the contents of both applications is incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The present disclosure relates generally to games, and more particularly, to a modified electronic video poker card game.  
         [0004]     2. Description of the Prior Art  
         [0005]     The gaming industry, in particular, gambling casinos, has come to recognize that to sustain long term success it must be constantly innovative in introducing new games and new gambling concepts to the gaming public.  
         [0006]     One game of interest over the years is poker. Table and video poker and other casino poker games are well known and enjoy substantial success. With reference to electronic video poker games, in a typical game a player makes a selected wager and initiates the play of the game. The processor of the video poker game is programmed to select from a suitable memory structure containing data representing 52 cards of a deck, data representative of a five card opening holding. These five cards are displayed face up for the player to see. The player can discard some or all of the cards whereupon the processor from the data structure replaces the discarded cards to define a final holding or hand. If the hand corresponds to a pre-determined schedule or table of poker holdings, e.g., a pair of Jacks or better, four-of a-kind, flush, the player is awarded a payoff.  
         [0007]     Various attempts have been made to enhance play of poker over the years. There are video poker variations, such as deuces wild, where the deuces of the deck of cards are wild, Joker&#39;s wild where a Joker is included in the deck, which is wild as well as Joker/deuces wild games. Further variations have been made over the years. Examples of such attempts are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,260, Marks et al. Marks et al. provides a number of examples of U.S. patent references:  
         [0008]     U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,022, Wood, second chance poker method; U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,134, Suttle et al., electronic five card poker game where cards are given to the-players one at a time; U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,049, Tomaszewski, five card poker game where up to two cards are drawn; U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,109, Gumina, instant poker game card; U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,915, Miller, six card, two hand video poker game; U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,128, Marauez, six cards, three hand poker game; U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,025, Sklansky et al., three hands, two card poker game where each player chooses one hand and five communal cards are dealt face up; U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,199, Gumina, interactive video/casino poker game-drawpoker, hold&#39;em poker; U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,404, Joshi et al., multiplay video poker game in which the player&#39;s sub-hands are compensated to increase the payoff level of the winning hands; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,407, Hofberg et al., casino poker game.  
         [0009]     U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,451 to Fulton involves a modified poker game where the player is dealt pairs of cards, where one card is optional and the other mandatory. The player is permitted to exchange at each round the optional card until five cards are selected. The resulting five card hand is then evaluated for payoff against a fairly standard payoff table.  
         [0010]     U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,194 to Wolf deals the player seven cards. The player then forms two hands: a five card hand (e.g., a front hand), and a two card hand (e.g., a back hand). The rules for playing this game are quite elaborate, including requiring each player to arrange the hand so that the rank of the back hand is greater than the rank of the front hand.  
         [0011]     Each of the prior art attempts at making poker interesting and challenging have been successful to varying degrees. Each provides a poker game that combines the attributes of skill, luck, excitement and simplicity with rapid play.  
         [0012]     It is an objective of the present disclosure to provide a modified poker game that combines the attributes of skill, luck, excitement and simplicity with rapid play that is both unique and innovative.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0013]     The present disclosure provides an embodiment for a computer readable medium comprising a set of computer readable instructions capable of being executed by at least one processor for playing an electronic video poker game in accordance with the present disclosure. The present embodiment provides a set of game icons, preferably representing cards from a standard deck of cards. The game icons are equally separated into a plurality of subsets, such as each subset representing a different suit of the standard deck of cards. A set of special icons is also included, for imparting predetermined benefits and detriments to a player. The special icons include: free spin, which provides at least one additional round in the current game; cherub, which increases the points assigned to each win condition by a given factor; and devil, which negates the current spin or round, resulting in a lost round.  
         [0014]     A game board or matrix having a play region is provided for displaying the game icons in predetermined positions. The game board also includes a set of active play positions. In each round, a subset of icons is displayed in the active play positions. The player then moves the displayed icons in the play positions to their corresponding positions in the game board.  
         [0015]     Additionally, the game includes a wild icon. The wild icon can be placed or positioned within any of the positions on the game board that are unoccupied at the end of the last round of the game. An interface is provided for enabling a player to select which position on the game board will be occupied by each acquired wild icon. Placement of the wild icons is performed with the goal of creating one or more winning conditions. The user interface further enables the player to interact with the game, e.g., initiating game play, indicating a wager amount, ending game play and cashing out any accumulated winnings and/or credits. A win condition is determined based on a predetermined set of possible winning game icon configurations modeled on standard poker hands. A score is calculated based on the determined win condition and points or winnings assigned based on a predetermined pay table.  
         [0016]     In one embodiment of the present disclosure, all the special icons, when any are displayed, occupy one of the active play positions, while in an alternate embodiment, a special icon, such as a free spin, is overlaid on another game icon such that two game icons are displayed or represented by one active play position. Preferably, the game in accordance with both embodiments of the present disclosure is a bonus or secondary game which is initiated by a processor of a casino-type game machine (e.g., slot machine), a video poker game machine, etc. upon a player meeting predetermined criteria or a predetermined score in a primary game.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]     These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present disclosure will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings wherein:  
         [0018]      FIGS. 1-8  illustrate an embodiment of an electronic video poker game, in accordance with the present disclosure, in various stages of game play;  
         [0019]      FIG. 9  is a pay table for the electronic video poker game shown in  FIGS. 1-8 ;  
         [0020]      FIGS. 10-25  illustrate an alternate embodiment of an electronic video poker game, in accordance with the present disclosure, in various stages of game play; and  
         [0021]      FIG. 26  is a pay table for the electronic video poker game shown in  FIGS. 10-26 . 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0022]     The present disclosure provides a system and method for playing an electronic video poker card game in which the player has at least one turn or spin to get as many royal flushes, four-of-a-kinds, and three-of-a-kinds on a matrix of playing cards. Preferably, the player has four turns or spins. The present disclosure further provides a computer readable medium storing a set of computer readable instructions capable of being executed by at least one processor for playing then electronic video poker game in accordance with the present disclosure.  
         [0023]     The electronic video poker card game is preferably provided in the form of a stand-alone or bonus casino-type machine, which accepts money or deducts money from a credit line. It is contemplated that the electronic video poker card game can also be provided as computer software for playing the game on a personal computer, a PDA, or other computing device. It is also contemplated that the software can be stored at a remote server which is accessible via a network, such as the Internet, for enabling players to play the game over a network connection without downloading the software.  
         [0024]     Exemplary methods of playing two different embodiments of the video poker game of the present disclosure and preferred embodiments of the inventive system will now be described. Prior to beginning play of the game, a graphical user interface of the video poker game is displayed on a display of the casino-type machine. Exemplary graphical user interfaces are shown by  FIGS. 1 and 10  and designated generally by reference numerals  100  and  200 , respectively. These are the main graphical user interfaces used throughout the duration of the game of a first embodiment and an alternate embodiment, respectively, as further described below and shown by the remaining figures.  
         [0025]     In the first embodiment, the game is played with a 24-card deck of cards. The 24 cards contain cards from a standard deck of poker playing cards (four aces, four kings, four queens, four jacks, four tens, and one Joker) and three additional cards (one Free Spin card, one Devil card and one Cherub card). Each card of the four aces, four kings, four queens, four jacks, and four tens represents one of the four suits, i.e., diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs. These cards are displayed on a game board or matrix  102  of the graphical user interface  100  as shown by  FIG. 1 . The matrix  102  has a plurality of windows  103  arranged as four columns  104 A-D and five rows  106 A-E. The aces are displayed by the first row  106 A of windows  103 , the kings are displayed by the second row  106 B of windows  103 , the queens are displayed by the third row  106 C of windows  103 , the jacks are displayed by the fourth row  106 D of windows  103 , and the tens are displayed by the fifth row  106 E of windows  103 .  
         [0026]     In the alternate embodiment, the game is played with a 23-card deck of cards which include the same cards as the first embodiment except the Free Spin card. In this embodiment, one of the playing cards randomly has a free spin attached to it, which is graphically indicated to the player by overlaying the card, for example, with the words “FREE SPIN.” (See  FIG. 11 ) When that card is matched with the corresponding card in the matrix  102 ′, the player is awarded the free spin.  
         [0027]     The graphical user interface  100  further displays a window labeled “Winnings”  108  for displaying the player&#39;s winnings, a window labeled “Free Spin”  110  for indicating if a free spin has been awarded to the player, and a window labeled “Joker”  112  for indicating if the Joker card has been awarded to the player.  
         [0028]     The graphical user interface  100  also displays four windows  114 A-D. Each window  114  is displayed below a corresponding column  104  of the matrix  102 . It is contemplated that the windows  114 A-D can be displayed at a different location of the graphical user interface  100 , such as above the matrix  102 , on the side of the matrix  102 , above the window  108 , etc.  
         [0029]     After each spin, each of the windows  114 A-D displays one of the cards of the 24-card deck (or 23-card deck if playing the alternate embodiment) without any duplication. Without any duplication means that if, for example, the ten of hearts is displayed by window  114 A after a particular spin, this card cannot be displayed by windows  114 B-D after that same spin (also this card cannot be redisplayed by windows  114 A-D after any subsequent spin, since this card matches a card displayed by the matrix  102  as further described below).  
         [0030]     If the cards displayed by the windows  114 A-D match a card displayed by the matrix  102 , those cards are removed from the 24-card deck (or 23-card deck if playing the alternate embodiment) and cannot be redisplayed after subsequent spins. Therefore, if after the first spin, the ten of hearts is displayed by window  114 A, the king of clubs is displayed by window  114 B, the Joker is displayed by window  114 C, and the queen of hearts is displayed by window  114 D, the ten of hearts, the king of clubs and the queen of hearts are removed from the deck, since these cards match a card displayed by the matrix  102 . Therefore, these cards, i.e., the ten of hearts, the king of clubs and the queen of hearts, cannot be redisplayed after the subsequent spins.  
         [0031]     Also, the corresponding cards displayed by the matrix  102 , i.e., the ten of hearts, the king of clubs and the queen of hearts, are highlighted on the matrix  102  or some indication is made (e.g., blacked-out, overlaid with lines or some symbol (cross-hair, X), etc.) to indicate that the player has matched these cards. Preferably, the windows  103  of the matrix  102  at the start of the game are gray or shaded and the windows  103  are lit up or highlighted after their displayed card is matched with a card displayed by the windows  114 A-D.  
         [0032]     Also, in the above example, since the Joker card is displayed by window  114 C, the Joker card is removed from the deck and the Joker window  112  indicates that the player has been awarded the Joker card. The Joker card is kept aside until all four spins have been played. Then the player can place the Joker card anywhere in the matrix  102  to fill in any possible royal flush, four-of-a-kind, and/or three-of-a-kind to meet the game&#39;s objective which is, as indicated above, to get as many royal flushes, four-of-a-kinds and three-of-a-kinds. In the alternate embodiment, the Joker card is not removed from the deck after first being obtained. In the alternate embodiment, the Joker card is removed from the deck after being obtained twice, such that in this embodiment the player can obtain the Joker card two times (see  FIGS. 14 and 17 ).  
         [0033]     If, in the above example, one of the windows  114 A-D displayed the Free Spin card, the Free Spin window  110  will indicate that the player has been awarded a free spin and the Free Spin card would be removed from the deck. The player would then be able to use the free spin after all four spins have been played.  
         [0034]     If the Devil card is displayed by any of the windows  114 A-D after a spin, the Devil card negates the outcomes of that spin. Therefore, if the Devil card is displayed after a spin, the remaining cards displayed by the matrix  102  which match cards displayed by the windows  114 A-D are not highlighted and the cards displayed by the windows  114 A-D are removed from the deck.  
         [0035]     This is also the case with the alternate embodiment (see  FIG. 19 ); that is, if the Devil card is displayed after a spin, the remaining cards displayed by the matrix which match cards displayed by the windows are not highlighted and the cards displayed by the windows are removed from the deck (unless the Cherub card is also displayed, since the Cherub card negates the Devil card as further described below). It is also contemplated in a still alternate embodiment to remove the Joker card and the Free Spin card from the deck if they are concurrently displayed with the Devil card without awarding the Joker and free spin to the player (unless the Cherub card is also displayed).  
         [0036]     If the Cherub card is displayed by any of the windows  114 A-D after a spin (see  FIG. 11  indicative of the alternate embodiment), the Cherub card doubles the player&#39;s winnings for that spin only, if the player attains a round robin, a royal flush, a four-of-a-kind and/or a three-of-a-kind for that spin only.  
         [0037]     Given the following winning payouts: royal flush, 50 points; four-of-a-kind, 25 points; three-of-a-kind, 10 points; and completing a round robin, 1,000 points plus awarding of a progressive jackpot, if, for example, a Cherub card is displayed by one of the windows  114 A-D after a spin and the player attains a royal flush after that spin, the player is awarded 100 points instead of 50 points.  
         [0038]     In the alternate embodiment, the winning payout is preferably as follows: royal flush, 15 points; four-of-a-kind, 10 points; three-of-a-kind, 5 points; completing a round robin, 200 points; and highlighting the entire matrix  102  (cover all), 1135 points. It is contemplated that if the player highlights the entire matrix  102 , the player is also awarded a progressive jackpot where a plurality of gaming machines or computers are networked as known in the art. It is further contemplated that points for the above-described payouts can refer to dollars or other monetary units.  
         [0039]     If the Devil card and the Cherub card are displayed after a spin, then the Cherub card negates the Devil card and the other two cards are in play for matching corresponding cards on the matrix  102 . If one of the other two cards, or both of the other two cards, correspond to the Free Spin card and/or the Joker card, the player is awarded the free spin and the Joker for use after the fourth spin. If the player has been awarded both, the free spin is played first prior to the Joker. However, it is contemplated that the game can be designed such that the Joker is played prior to the free spin.  
         [0040]     An exemplary play of the game of the first embodiment of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to  FIGS. 2-8 . To start playing the game, the player makes an initial wager by depositing coins, paper money, etc. into a slot or money receiving device of the casino-type machine. The player can then initiate the first spin by pressing a Spin button or pulling a lever of the casino-type machine.  
         [0041]      FIG. 2  illustrates the graphical user interface  100  after the first spin where windows  114 A-D respectively display a ten of spades, an ace of clubs, a queen of spades, and a king of diamonds. The corresponding cards on the matrix  102  have been highlighted to indicate that the player has matched these cards. These cards are removed from the 24-card deck prior to the player initiating the second spin. Since none of the windows  114 A-D display the Free Spin card or the Joker card, windows  110  and  112  remain blank. Also, since the player has not attained a royal flush, a four-of-a-kind or a three-of-a-kind, the player is not awarded any points and the Winnings window  108  remains blank or displays a zero.  
         [0042]      FIG. 3  illustrates the graphical user interface  100  after the second spin where windows  114 A-D respectively display a king of hearts, a king of spades, a jack of hearts, and the Free Spin card. The corresponding cards on the matrix  102  have been highlighted to indicate that the player has matched these cards. These cards are removed from the deck prior to the player initiating the third spin. Since window  114 D displays the Free Spin card, window  110  displays “FS” to indicate the player has been awarded a free spin. After this spin, the player has attained a three-of-a-kind (three kings) and the player is awarded ten points which are displayed by the Winnings window  108 .  
         [0043]      FIG. 4  illustrates the graphical user interface  100  after the third spin where windows  114 A-D respectively display a jack of spades, a king of clubs, the Devil card, and an ace of hearts. The corresponding cards on the matrix  102  have not been highlighted, since the Devil card is displayed by window  114 C thereby negating the outcomes of the third spin. Accordingly, the matrix  102  is identical to the matrix  102  displayed after the second spin ( FIG. 2 ). The cards displayed by windows  114 A-D are removed from the deck.  
         [0044]      FIG. 5  illustrates the graphical user interface  100  after the fourth spin where windows  114 A-D respectively display a jack of diamonds, a ten of diamonds, the Joker card, and a queen of diamonds. The corresponding cards on the matrix  102  have been highlighted to indicate that the player has matched these cards. These cards are removed from the deck prior to the player initiating the free spin awarded after the second spin. Since window  114 C displays the Joker card, window  112  displays “J” to indicate the player has been awarded the Joker card. After this spin, the player has not attained any additional points, and the Winnings window  108  continues to display  10  points.  
         [0045]      FIG. 6  illustrates the graphical user interface  100  after the free spin where windows  114 A-D respectively display a jack of clubs, the Cherub card, an ace of diamonds, and a queen of hearts. The corresponding cards on the matrix  102  have been highlighted to indicate that the player has matched these cards. Since window  114 B displays the Cherub card, the points attained following the free spin due to attaining a royal flush and/or four-of-a-kind are doubled. After the free spin, the player has attained two three-of-a-kinds (three queens and three jacks) and the player is awarded twenty points; the player has also attained a royal flush and the player is awarded 50 points, which are doubled due to the Cherub card to 100 points. Therefore, the total points awarded to the player after the free spin is 120 points and hence, the Winnings window  108  displays 130 points.  
         [0046]      FIG. 7  illustrates the graphical user interface  100  after the player has used the Joker card to black-out the queen of clubs on the matrix  102  to attain a four-of-a-kind and an additional 25 points to end up with a total of 155 points which are displayed by the Winnings window  108 .  
         [0047]      FIG. 8  illustrates the graphical user interface  100  overlaid with a “GAME OVER” message to indicate the end of the game.  
         [0048]     Even though the  FIGS. 1-8  display or indicate the various cards of the deck by using abbreviations, it is desirable to implement the game by displaying the cards as they are generally illustrated or presented in a standard deck of poker playing cards and to use illustrations or icons for the Devil, Joker and Cherub (see  FIGS. 9-26 ).  
         [0049]     An exemplary play of the alternate embodiment of the present disclosure is shown by  FIGS. 10-26 .  FIG. 10  displays a graphical user interface  200  prior to initiation of the game. The graphical user interface  200  includes a matrix  202  having a plurality of windows  203  arranged as four columns  204 A-D and five rows  206 A-E. The aces are displayed by the first row  206 A of windows  203 , the kings are displayed by the second row  206 B of windows  203 , the queens are displayed by the third row  206 C of windows  203 , the jacks are displayed by the fourth row  206 D of windows  203 , and the tens are displayed by the fifth row  206 E of windows  203 .  
         [0050]     The graphical user interface  200  further displays a window labeled “WINNINGS”  208  for displaying the player&#39;s winnings, a window labeled “START GAME”  209 , a window labeled “FREE SPIN”  210  (see  FIG. 11 ) for indicating if one or more free spins have been awarded to the player, a window labeled “JOKER”  212  for indicating if the Joker card has been awarded to the player, and a window labeled “SPINS REMAINING”  215  for indicating how many spins are left.  
         [0051]     The graphical user interface  200  also displays four windows  214 A-D. Each window  214  is displayed below a corresponding column  204  of the matrix  202 . It is contemplated that the windows  214 A-D can be displayed at a different location of the graphical user interface  200 , such as above the matrix  202 , on the side of the matrix  202 , above the window  208 , etc. A window labeled “PAYTABLE”  216  is also displayed by the graphical user interface  200  for accessing the pay table shown by  FIG. 9 .  
         [0052]     To start the game, the player clicks on the window labeled “START GAME”  209  or performs some other action (like pulling a lever on a gaming machine). After starting the game, the first spin of the four spins is played and the windows  214 A-D display one of the cards of the 23-card deck without any duplication as mentioned above. The only exception where a window  214 A-D displays more than one card is if the window displays the Free Spin card as shown by window  214 B in  FIGS. 11-13 . Such a window displays a card from a standard deck of cards (in this case, an Ace of clubs) and the Free Spin card for a total of two cards.  
         [0053]     With further reference to  FIGS. 11-13 , after the first spin, the player attains a queen of hearts in window  214 A, an ace of clubs in window  214 B overlaid with the Free Spin card, an ace of diamonds in window  214 C and the Cherub card in window  214 D. The corresponding cards are blacked-out on the matrix  202  (see  FIGS. 12 and 13 ) and removed from the 23-card deck (except the Free Spin card).  
         [0054]     Since the Cherub card is attained after the first spin, the point value associated with any royal flush and/or four-of-a-kind attained after the first spin is doubled. An icon  218  (see  FIG. 11 ) is displayed by the graphical user interface  200  indicating that the payout is doubled. Another icon  220  (see  FIG. 12 ) is also displayed indicating that the Free Spin card has been revealed and the window labeled “FREE SPIN”  210  is incremented by one to show that the player has attained a free spin.  
         [0055]     With reference to  FIGS. 14 and 15 , after the second spin, the player attains a jack of hearts in window  214 A, the Joker card in window  214 B, a ten of clubs in window  214 C and a ten of diamonds in window  214 D. The corresponding cards are blacked-out on the matrix  202  and removed from the deck (except the Joker card).  
         [0056]     Since the Joker card is attained after the second spin, an icon  222  (see  FIG. 14 ) is displayed by the graphical user interface  200  indicating that the Joker card has been revealed and the window labeled “JOKER”  210  is incremented by one to show that the player has attained the Joker card.  
         [0057]     With reference to  FIG. 16 , after the third spin, the player attains a jack of diamonds in window  214 A, a jack of clubs in window  214 B, a queen of clubs in window  214 C and an ace of hearts in window  214 D. The corresponding cards are blacked-out on the matrix  202  and removed from the deck. After the third spin, the player also attains two three-of-a-kinds (three aces in row  206 A and three jacks in row  206 D) and is awarded ten points as indicated by the window labeled “WINNINGS”  208 .  
         [0058]     With reference to  FIGS. 17 and 18 , after the fourth spin, the player attains a king of hearts in window  214 A, a ten of spades in window  214 B, the Joker card in window  214 C and a king of diamonds in window  214 D. The corresponding cards are blacked-out on the matrix  202  and removed from the deck (including the Joker card).  
         [0059]     Since the Joker card is attained after the fourth spin, the icon  222  (see  FIG. 17 ) is redisplayed by the graphical user interface  200  indicating that the Joker card has been revealed once again and the window labeled “JOKER”  210  is incremented by one to show that the player has re-attained the Joker card. After the fourth spin, the player also attains one three-of-a-kind (three tens in row  206 E) and is awarded five points to bring the total number of points to fifteen as indicated by the window labeled “WINNINGS”  208 .  
         [0060]     With reference to  FIG. 19 , during play of the free spin, the Devil card is revealed in window  214 C and the spin is negated. An icon  224  is displayed by the graphical user interface  200  indicating that the Devil card has been revealed and that the spin is negated.  
         [0061]     After the free spin is played, the player is then given the opportunity to place the first of the two Jokers on the matrix  202  (see  FIG. 20 ). An icon  226  is displayed by the graphical user interface  200  notifying the player to place the Joker on the matrix  202 . After the Joker is placed on the matrix  202  (second window  103  from the left in row  206 E), the player attains a four-of-a-kind (four tens in row  206 E) and is awarded ten points to bring the total number of points awarded to twenty-five as shown by the window labeled “WINNINGS”  208  in  FIG. 21 . The player also attains a royal flush (column  204 B) and is awarded fifteen points to bring the total number of points awarded to forty as shown by the window labeled “WINNINGS”  208  in  FIG. 22 .  
         [0062]     After the first Joker is placed on the matrix  202 , the player is then given the opportunity to place the second of the two Jokers on the matrix  202  (see  FIG. 23 ). The icon  226  is redisplayed by the graphical user interface  200  notifying the player to place the Joker on the matrix  202 . After the second Joker is placed on the matrix  202  (leftmost window  103  in row  206 C), the player attains a three-of-a-kind (three queens in row  206 C) and is awarded five points to bring the total number of points awarded to forty-five as shown by the window labeled “WINNINGS”  208  in  FIG. 24 . The player also attains a royal flush (column  204 A) and is awarded fifteen points to bring the total number of points awarded to sixty as shown by the window labeled “WINNINGS”  208  in  FIG. 25 .  
         [0063]     After placing the second Joker on the matrix  202 , the game is over and a GAME OVER icon  228  is displayed by the graphical user interface  200  as shown by  FIG. 26 .  
         [0064]     Preferably, the game in accordance with both embodiments of the present disclosure is a bonus or secondary game which is initiated by a processor of the casino-type game machine (e.g., slot machine), a video poker game machine, etc. upon a player meeting predetermined criteria or a predetermined score in a primary game.  
         [0065]     The described embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to be illustrative rather than restrictive, and are not intended to represent every embodiment of the present disclosure. Various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure as set forth in the following claims both literally and in equivalents recognized in law.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6