Patent Document

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]    This application is based on Provisional Application, Serial No. 60/462,360, filed Apr. 11, 2003, entitled “Video Poker Game.” 
     
    
     
         [0002]    This invention relates primarily to video poker games, and more particularly to video poker games in which the cards that are discarded from the initial hand are used in a second hand.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    Video poker that is played on an electronic video poker gaming machine is designed to replicate the play of a hand of poker. Typically, the player is not playing against any other player&#39;s hands or against a dealer&#39;s hand; the player is simply attempting to achieve the highest ranking poker hand possible from the cards displayed to the player. The higher the ranking of the poker hand achieved by the player, the greater the player&#39;s winnings based on the number of coins, tokens or credits wagered by the player. Typically, a payout schedule is posted on the gaming machine to advise the player of the payoffs available for certain winning card combinations.  
           [0004]    The forerunner of all electronic video poker gaming machines is the video Draw Poker machine that deals cards from a standard fifty-two card poker deck and displays a single five card hand to the player. The player then selects which of the five cards he wishes to hold (or discard depending on the format of the gaming machine). The draw poker machine then displays replacement cards for the cards the player has discarded. The player wins or loses based on conventional poker hand rankings for the resulting five card hand. In video Draw Poker, the conventional poker hand rankings that are winning combinations are a Royal Flush, a Straight Flush, a Four of a Kind, a Full House, a Flush, a Straight, a Three of a Kind, a Two Pair and a Pair of Jacks or Better. A payout table is established based on the number of coins wagered by the player and the type of poker hand achieved.  
           [0005]    The classic draw poker machine has been modified to use Jokers as wild cards or to use Deuces (or even other cards) as wild cards. “Jokers Wild” and “Deuces Wild” draw poker still display to the player a single five card hand and allow the player to discard unwanted cards and receive replacement cards. The payout table is modified to recognize the differing odds for achieving various poker hands when wild cards are involved. Furthermore, different poker hand rankings are used in the pay table to recognize different winning combinations that can be achieved using wild cards.  
           [0006]    There are many poker formats used in video poker. The poker formats can be used in both draw poker games and stud poker games. These poker game formats include Jacks (or even Tens) or Better Draw Poker, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker, Super Double Bonus Poker, Triple Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild Poker, Jokers Wild Poker, Deuces and Jokers Wild Poker, etc. Many electronic video poker gaming machines are provided with a menu so that the player can indicate his choice of the poker game format that the player wishes to play and the player then makes his wager based on upon that choice of poker game format. Each poker format has its own pay table associated therewith and each poker format can be adapted to both video stud poker games and video draw poker games.  
           [0007]    It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic video poker game that provides the player with two hands of draw poker—each hand having its own wager allocated thereto. The discards from the first hand are used as the starting cards for the second hand.  
           [0008]    It is a feature of the present invention to provide a draw poker game with an initial first hand and a second hand. The player makes a first wager that applies to the first hand and the player makes a second wager that applies to the second hand. An initial first hand is displayed to the player. The player selects which cards to discard from the first hand and receives replacement cards for the discarded cards to form a final first hand. The discarded cards are used as the starting cards in the second hand and additional cards are displayed to the second hand to form a final second hand. Winning card combinations in the first hand and the second hand receives awards based on a pay table and the amount wagered by the player on each hand.  
           [0009]    It is an advantage of the present invention that the player is provided with multiple hands and multiple chances to win awards.  
           [0010]    Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    The game of the present invention is a modification to a conventional video poker game. The player makes a wager for a first hand and a wager for a second hand and the player then has displayed to him an initial first hand. Alternatively, the player may make only a single wager at the start of the play of the hand, which wager will apply to both hands and is allocated between both hands. The player selects which cards to hold and the unheld cards are discarded from the first hand and placed as the starting cards in the second hand.  
           [0012]    Replacement cards are displayed into the first hand to create a final first hand. Additional cards are displayed into the second hand to create a final second hand. The poker hand ranking of each hand is determined and the player receives a payout for any winning hand combination that is achieved in the final first hand and in the final second hand. The amount of the payout is based on a pay table and the amount wagered by the player. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0013]    [0013]FIG. 1 shows a representative electronic video gaming machine of the present invention including a typical screen display used in the method of play of the present invention after the initial deal of the cards.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 2 shows a representative electronic video gaming machine of the present invention including a typical screen display used in the method of play of the present invention after the draw step and the dealing of replacement and additional cards. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0015]    The method of the present invention can be applied to any poker format used for video draw poker. FIG. 1 shows generally at  10  a typical electronic video gaming machine that is configured to provide to the player the method of the present invention. The electronic video gaming machine  10  includes a conventional coin head  50  into which the player can insert coins or gaming tokens and a slot  52  which leads to a conventional bill acceptor mounted on the interior of the gaming machine and into which the player can insert paper currency. The use of coins, tokens or paper currency is the mechanism by which the player wagers on the poker hands the player wishes to play. As is also conventional in electronic video gaming machines, a credit meter display  22  is provided to show the amount of credits that the player has accrued on the gaming machine  10 —either by inserting coins, tokens or paper currency or from winning plays achieved by the player. Whenever the player makes a wager, the amount of the wager is decremented from the credit meter display  22 . Whenever the player achieves a winning play during the play of the game, the amount of the winning play is incremented on the credit meter display  22 .  
         [0016]    A conventional payout hopper is also located on the interior of the gaming machine and is used to dispense coins or tokens to the player into a payout tray  56  when the player wishes to collect any winning amounts the player has accrued. Other suitable and conventional payout mechanisms can be used, such as a ticket printer or other cashless payout devices.  
         [0017]    The gaming machine  10  also includes a video screen display  20  of any suitable type upon which representations of playing cards are displayed. As shown in FIG. 1, an initial first hand  60  is shown. The first hand would preferably have five card locations preferably from left to right in a horizontal row, although other manners of displaying the first hand can be used. The video screen display  20  also contains a location at which the amount wagered on the hand is shown, for example, “Bet per Hand”  24 .  
         [0018]    A button panel  40  is also provided on the gaming machine  10  and the buttons mounted on the button panel  40  are used by the player to control the operation of the gaming machine  10 . Any suitable configuration of the buttons on the button panel can be used and, alternatively, conventional touch screen technology can be used in place of any or all of the buttons mounted on the button panel.  
         [0019]    A typical button arrangement is shown on the button panel  30  in FIG. 1. A “BET ONE” button  42  is provided to allow the player to wager one credit at a time. A “BET MAX” button  44  is provided to allow the player to wager the maximum amount of credits permitted by the configuration of the gaming machine  10 . Any number of credits can be set as the maximum amount that it is possible to wager on each hand and, typically, five credits will be the maximum number of credits for any particular hand. Alternatively, a BET location  26  and a BET MAX location  28  can be provided on the video screen  20  to allow the player to wager by using conventional touch screen technology.  
         [0020]    A conventional “DEAL/DRAW” button  46  is also provided on the button panel  40  which is used by the player to activate the initial deal of the cards at the deal stage of the method of play or the dealing of replacement cards at the draw stage of the method of play as is appropriate. Similarly, a DEAL/DRAW location  47  can be provided on the video screen  20  to allow the player to effect either the deal step or the draw step by using conventional touch screen technology.  
         [0021]    The button panel  40  is also provided with five “CARD” buttons  48 A,  48 B,  48 C,  48 D and  48 E associated with each horizontal card location on the video screen display: card button  48 A is associated with the left most card location, card button  48 B is associated with the second from the left card location, card button  48 C is associated with the middle card location, card button  48 D is associated with the second from the right card location and card button  48 E is associated with the right most card location. Each card button is preferably aligned below the card locations so that the player can easily associate the appropriate card button with the appropriate card location.  
         [0022]    The method of play of the present invention will now be described. After the player has inserted an appropriate amount of coins, tokens or paper currency to add a sufficient amount of credits on the credit display meter  22 , the player makes his initial wager. The player may press the BET ONE button  42  one or more times to bet in single increments or the player may merely press the “BET MAX” button  44  and the maximum number of credits are applied, for example, ten credits would be wagered. The player can also use the touch screen locations to make his wager as described above.  
         [0023]    The preferred embodiment of the present invention is played using a standard fifty-two card deck of playing cards. The player makes two wagers to participate in the method of play with the fist wager being allocated to an initial first hand and the second wager being allocated to a second hand. These wagers may be of the same amount or of different amounts.  
         [0024]    Alternatively, the player may only make one wager which is applied to the both of the hands and is allocated between both hands. For example, if the player makes a single wager of ten credits, each hand will be treated as if there was a five credit wager on that hand.  
         [0025]    Another alternative involves the player making only one wager which is applied to the both of the hands. For example, if the player makes a single wager of five credits, each hand will be treated as if there was a five credit wager on that hand. Any suitable pay table may be used in the event the player only makes one wager which is applied to both of the hands.  
         [0026]    The first five card hand  60  shown in FIG. 1 is displayed to the player. For example, the player may be dealt the Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Spades, Ace of Spades, Seven of Diamonds and Four of Clubs.  
         [0027]    The player then decides which cards he wishes to hold from HAND  60 . For example as shown in FIG. 1, the player would probably hold the Jack of Diamonds and the Jack of Spades.  
         [0028]    As shown in FIG. 2, the discarded cards are displayed into the second hand  70  and become the starting cards for the second hand which now has an Ace of Spades, Seven of Diamonds and Four of Clubs.  
         [0029]    After the player has made the selection of which cards the player wishes to hold, if any, replacement cards are displayed for the discarded cards. In FIG. 2, final first hand  61  shows the replacement cards that have been added to the held cards—the Ace of Hearts, Seven of Hearts and Jack of Hearts.  
         [0030]    The replacement cards are dealt from the depleted forty-seven card deck which comprises the original fifty-two card deck minus the five initially dealt cards. The player is paid for any winning poker hand ranking achieved in final first hand  61  based on a pay table as is conventional in video poker.  
         [0031]    For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the player has improved his hand after the draw step and final first hand  61  comprises a Three-of-a-Kind. This would be a winning poker hand ranking using a conventional Draw Poker game format. Table 1 shows a suitable pay table that can be used for a Draw Poker game format.  
                                                                       TABLE 1                           JACKS OR BETTER           DRAW POKER   NUMBER OF COINS WAGERED            POKER HAND RANKING   1   2   3   4   5                    ROYAL FLUSH   250   500   750   1000   4000       STRAIGHT FLUSH   50   100   150   200   250       FOUR-OF-A-KIND   25   50   75   100   125       FULL HOUSE   8   16   24   32   40       FLUSH   5   10   15   20   25       STRAIGHT   4   8   12   16   20       THREE-OF-A-KIND   3   6   9   12   15       TWO PAIR   2   4   6   8   10       JACKS OR BETTER   1   2   3   4   5                  
 
         [0032]    Assuming the player wagered five credits on the hand, the player would be awarded fifteen credits for achieving a Three-of-a-Kind.  
         [0033]    The second hand  70  is now completed by displaying additional cards into second hand  70  so that this hand now has five cards. These additional cards are dealt from the depleted card deck which comprises the original fifty-two card deck minus the five initially dealt cards and minus whatever replacement cards were displayed into the final first hand  61 . The player is paid for any winning poker hand ranking achieved in final second hand  70  based on a pay table as is conventional in video poker.  
         [0034]    For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the player has displayed into the second hand  70  as additional cards the Four of Hearts and the Seven of Clubs which results in a final second hand having a poker hand ranking of Two Pair.  
         [0035]    This would be a winning poker hand ranking using a conventional Draw Poker game format. Using Table 1 as a suitable pay table the player would receive a payout of ten credits if the second wager was five credits.  
         [0036]    While the example of the method of play described above is shown in conjunction with a regular Draw Poker format, the method of play of the present invention can also be applied to any other variation of draw poker, such as Tens or Better Draw Poker, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker, Super Double Bonus Poker, Triple Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild Poker, Jokers Wild Poker, Deuces and Jokers Wild Poker, etc. Each of these video poker variations uses various arrangements of poker hand rankings as winning combinations. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a standard fifty-two card deck of playing cards is used. One or more cards may also be designated as wild cards for the various wild card poker formats and, additionally, one or more Jokers may be added to the deck of cards and the Jokers may then be used as wild cards for the Joker poker formats.  
         [0037]    The method of play of the present invention may be applied to other poker variations such as three card poker, four card poker, six card poker, seven card poker or an even higher number of cards in a poker hand. Winning hand combinations are provided for each type of poker hand and a suitable pay table is presented to the player depending on how many cards will be in the final hand.  
         [0038]    Any suitable pay table may be used and would be associated with the poker format being used by the player. As is known to those skilled in the art, pay tables are calculated based on the probability of the various winning card combinations occurring and the desired overall game return to be offered by the gaming establishment to the player.  
         [0039]    While the invention has been illustrated with respect to several specific embodiments thereof, these embodiments should be considered as illustrative rather than limiting. Various modifications and additions may be made and will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the invention should not be limited by the foregoing description, but rather should be defined only by the following claims.

Technology Category: 1