Patent ID: 6840856

Claim:
Method for conducting a game for one or more players, comprising (A) providing plural sets of contest elements for such game in which the contest elements include: (i) a surface area with playing indicia, and in which (ii) each such set includes a plurality of identical subgroups of contest elements of: (a) selected coloring, and (b) selected repetitive playing indicia on such surface area; (B) providing a game controller to distribute contest elements to each player in the game; (C) establishing a table of values for winning combinations of contest elements, (i) such table of values including at least one combination consisting of a sequential series of indicia in which the last element of such series corresponds to the highest order of such indicia, with all elements of the same color, and; (ii) such table of values including at least one combination consisting of a sequential series of indicia in which the first element of such series corresponds to the lowest order of such indicia, with all elements of the same color; wherein (iii) such winning combination according to (i) and (ii) is a higher ranking combination than a combination consisting of a sequential series of indicia in which the first element of such series does not correspond to the lowest order of such indicia or the last element of such series does not corresponds to the highest order of such indicia, with all elements of the same color; (D) distributing, by means of such controller, a selected number of contest elements to each player, with each player receiving the same number of contest elements; (E) enabling each player to evaluate the combination of such received contest elements based on such table of values to elect whether or not to reject one or more contest elements; (F) permitting each player to selectively reject, for return to such controller, from zero to all contest elements obtained in Step (D); (G) distributing additional contest elements, by such controller, to each player corresponding to the number of contest elements, if any, rejected in Step (F); and (H) evaluating the combination of contest elements held by each player against such table of values.