Dual action crazy pineapple poker game

This application is based on and claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/873,309, filed Dec. 6, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety. This application is also a continuation/divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/951,488, filed Dec. 6, 2007, now pending.

This invention relates primarily to a poker game, and more particularly to poker game in which the two separate groups of community cards are dealt and the players play both groups of community cards.

Poker is a very popular card game. In general, there are two types of poker games: draw poker and stud poker.

In draw poker, the player is dealt one or more cards as his initial hand. The player then selects from these cards which cards he wishes to hold and which cards he wishes to discard. The discarded cards are removed from the player\'s hand and the player receives replacement cards for the discarded cards resulting in the player\'s final hand. The player wins or loses based on the poker hand ranking of the player\'s final hand.

In stud poker, the player only uses the cards that are dealt to him to form his hand. There is no discarding unwanted cards and no replacement cards are provided to the player. Again, the player wins or loses based on the poker hand ranking of the player\'s final hand.

In some forms of poker, there is only one player. The player plays against a pay table. As shown in the pay table, certain poker hand rankings are winning combinations and all other poker hand combinations are losing combinations. These single hand poker games can be played as either draw poker games or stud poker games.

In these single player poker games, the player makes a wager to participate in the game. The player wins an award if the player\'s final poker hand is a winning combination. The amount of the award is based on the particular poker hand combination that the player achieves on his final hand and is shown in the pay table. The amount of the award is also a function of the amount wagered by the player.

In other forms of poker, there are multiple players. Quite often in these multiple player games, the object for the player is to have a higher ranking poker hand than all of the other players. In order to participate in the game, the players make wagers which are collected in a common pot. Usually, the first wager by each player is called the Ante wager. During the play of the poker game, various betting rounds occur at which each player may make additional wagers. Players may also fold at any point in the poker game upon which the player is withdrawing from further participation in that round of the game. Poker games that have more than one betting round can result in much larger common pots.

At the end of the round of the game, the player with the best poker hand wins the pot. These multiple player poker games can be played as either draw poker games or stud poker games.

Seven Card Stud is a popular stud poker game. Each player receives initially three cards: one card face up which can be seen by all of the other players and two cards face down (the Hole cards) which can be seen only by that player. A round of betting occurs. A fourth card is dealt face up to each player and another round of betting occurs. A fifth card is dealt face up to each player and another round of betting occurs. A sixth card is dealt face up to each player and another round of betting occurs. Finally, a seventh card is dealt face down to each player and another round of betting occurs. The player with the best five card poker hand out of his seven cards wins the common pot.

Another variation of stud poker is Six Card Stud in which each player makes his best five card poker hand out of his six cards.

Poker can also be played using community cards. A community card is a card that is shared among all of the players in the game. Typically, community cards are displayed face up in the center of the table so that all players can see the community cards.

A very popular form of poker that uses one or more community cards is the Hold \'Em format. A player initially receives one or more Hole cards which are cards unique to that player. Then a plurality of community cards are displayed during which betting rounds occur. The player with the best poker hand at the end of the game wins the common pot.

In Texas Hold \'Em Poker, each player receives two Hole cards and a round of betting occurs. Then three community cards (the Flop) are displayed and another round of betting occurs. Then a fourth community card (the Turn or Fourth Street) is displayed and another round of betting occurs. Finally, a fifth community card (the River or Fifth Street) is displayed and another round of betting occurs. The player with the best poker hand out of the seven cards (his two Hole cards and the five community cards) wins the common pot.

Omaha Poker plays quite similar to Texas Hold \'Em Poker except that each player initially receives four Hole cards. The display of the community cards and the betting rounds are the same as in Texas Hold \'Em Poker except that in the final determination a player must use two of his four Hole cards to make his final five card.

There is discussed in old Hoyle poker texts another version of Omaha in which each player gets two Hole cards and the five community cards are displayed one card at a time. This results in six rounds of betting and the player is not required to use either of his Hole cards in his final poker hand. See, SCARNE, infra at 26.

Another Hold \'Em poker type game is called Pineapple. In Pineapple, each player receives three Hole cards. The community cards are displayed three, one and one. In regular Pineapple, the player must discard one of his Hole cards before the three card flop is revealed. In Crazy Pineapple, the player must discard one of his Hole cards after the flop is revealed, but before the turn card is revealed.

SCARNE\'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CARD GAMES (copyright 1973, 1983) at pages 6-55, inclusive (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein) describes many draw poker and stud poker games. At pages 44-45 the method of play of Las Vegas Style Hold \'Em poker is described and tracks quite closely the description of Texas Hold \'Em poker described above.

SCARNE, Id., at pages 23-26 also describes various “spit-in-the-ocean” card games which can generally be categorized as draw poker games that use community cards. When the player discards unwanted cards from his own hand, the replacement cards come from the community cards to complete the player\'s final hand.