Patent ID: 6877748

Claim:
A method of playing a card game comprising: providing at least one set of playing cards, each card in the set of the playing cards having a specific numeric value; having at least one player make a wager; dealing an initial hand of cards to the player and the dealer, the player's cards being face up and at least one of the dealer's cards being face down; thereafter, having the player declare the player's hand either as a poker hand or a modified blackjack hand; dealing additional cards to the player to enable the player to form a complete poker hand if the player declares his hand as a poker hand; awarding winnings to the player based on the wager and a first payout schedule if the poker hand represented by the player's cards matches any one of a plurality of predetermined poker hands; having the player forfeit his wager and withdraw from play if the player fails to achieve a winning poker hand; determining if the total numeric value of the player's initial hand equals a first predetermined number if the player declares his initial hand as a modified blackjack hand, the first predetermined number being chosen from 31, 41 and 51; determining if the total numeric value of the dealer's initial hand equals the first predetermined number; paying winnings to the player based on the wager and a second payout schedule if the total numeric value of the player's initial hand equals the first predetermined number and the total numeric value of the dealer's initial hand is not equal to the first predetermined number; dealing additional cards to the player upon the player's request; having the player forfeit his wager and withdraw from play if the total numeric value of the player's hand exceeds the first predetermined number; dealing additional cards to the dealer as long as the total numeric value of the dealer's hand is less than a second predetermined number which is less than the first predetermined number and requiring the dealer to hold as soon as the total numeric value of the dealer's hand is equal to or exceeds the second predetermined number; and paying winnings to the player based on the wager and the second payout schedule if the player has a winning hand.