Patent ID: 8118669

Claim:
A gaming system, said gaming system comprising: at least one processor; and a tracking system for a table for a live card game, said live card game employing at least one deck of physical playing cards, said table including a support structure, a playing surface, a plurality of player positions for a plurality of players, a dealer position, and at least one wagering area, said tracking system including: (i) at least one player identification input device, and (ii) a chip identifier configured, for each play of the live card game, for each of the plurality of player positions, to identify each chip wagered by the player at said player position in said play of the live card game and communicate information regarding an amount of each chip wagered by the player at said player position to the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to determine whether or not to provide at least one award to the player at said player position, and wherein the at least one processor is programmed to: (i) for each of the plurality of player positions: (a) receive, from the chip identifier, the information regarding the amounts wagered by the player at said player position, and (b) update a player profile associated with any player identification input using the at least one player identification input device by the player at said player position with game play information, said game play information including the information regarding the amounts wagered by the player at said player position, said player profile storing said game play information for determining whether or not to provide at least one award to the player at said player position, and (ii) at an end of a designated play of the live card game: (a) randomly select one of the players at the plurality of player positions, (b) after randomly selecting one of the players at the plurality of player positions, determine whether or not to provide a progressive jackpot award to said randomly selected one of the players based at least in part on the information regarding the amounts wagered by said randomly selected one of the players received from the chip identifier and stored in the player profile associated with said randomly selected one of the players, (c) if the determination is to provide the progressive jackpot award to said randomly selected one of the players, provide the progressive jackpot award to said randomly selected one of the players, and (d) if the determination is not to provide the progressive jackpot award to said randomly selected one of the players: (i) not provide the progressive jackpot award to said randomly selected one of the players, and (ii) randomly select another one of the players at said plurality of player positions and repeat (ii)(b) to (ii)(d) until the determination is to provide the progressive award to the randomly selected one of the players.