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Front and back side playing card games

Front and back side playing card games description/claims

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/881,933 filed on Jan. 23, 2007, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/898,782 filed on Jan. 31, 2007, both identifying Larry E. Kekempanos as inventor. Both provisional applications are incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.

The present invention relates to playing card wagering games. More particularly, the present invention pertains to methods and systems of providing and playing new variations of wagering games adaptable to live table gaming in a casino, video gaming machines, or gaming software running on a computing device.

Gaming establishments, producers of video gaming machines, and designers of gaming and casino software products for computing devices continually work to provide new and interesting card games for players. If a gaming establishment such as a casino fails to offer its players exciting betting games that the players can understand and enjoy, the casino will not be able to attract or retain players and may lose the revenue that those players provide. Casino games and other wagering games are often structured such that one or more players may play against the dealer/banker controlled by the game provider (e.g., casino, gaming machine, gaming software). This structure of dealer-player games may have certain advantages over player-player games, for example, dealer-player card games may require less table space and are typically much faster than player-player card games. Accordingly, game providers frequently attempt to create new wagering card games and modifications of existing games that are both popular among players and profitable for the game providers.

Many previous attempts to create new wagering card games involve the introduction of non-standard playing card decks. However, many people are uncomfortable with non-standard playing card decks and unwilling to make the effort to learn new games on new card decks. Instead, most players have strong preferences for the familiar suits, ranks, and well-known probabilities associated with the standard 52-card deck of playing cards. Additionally, card games using non-standard decks are unlikely to achieve popularity among casual players who will not buy a non-standard deck for playing at home, but prefer to use standard card decks because they can be used in many entertaining games that are well-known even to beginning card players.

Additional previous attempts have involved modifying traditional card games with additional new features and/or side bet wagers. However, modifying well-know traditional games may confuse players, and therefore the new game features and side bets are often played at different times and in separate regions of the gaming surface (e.g., casino game table, video gaming display screen) than the traditional game. Many of these game modifications and new features may also require additional cards from the game deck to be dealt to the players or the dealer. However, the gaming surface on casino tables and video gaming screens is limited, and any new game features or additional cards dealt onto the surface may reduce the number of players that can play at the table, and therefore may potentially reduce the wagering revenue for the game provider. Furthermore, when additional cards are dealt as part of a new game feature or side bet, the game deck of cards will be depleted faster and shuffled more often, resulting in slower overall play and less potential wagering revenue.

Accordingly, there remains a need for designing and providing new and modified playing card wagering games.

The following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a playing card wagering game is provided using a game deck of cards having multiple different card back designs, in which the outcome or the pay scale of the wagering game is determined at least in part by the backs of the cards in the hand. The game deck may comprise one or more standard, or modified standard, 52-card decks of playing cards, and the wagering game may be, for example, a modification of a standard casino game that uses card fronts to determine game winners and payouts. The modified card game, including game rules, payout rules, and card back comparisons and evaluations, may be provided at a live casino or home gaming table, by a video gaming machine, or by gaming software running on a computer or mobile device.

According to additional aspects of the present disclosure, a conventional wagering card game may be modified to use card back designs in determining the winners and payouts of the game. In one modification, the rules of a conventional card game (e.g., blackjack) may be supplemented to include a dealer-player or player-player tiebreaker in which the backs of the cards in the players' and the dealer's hands may be used to determine which players win and the payout amounts. As an example, numbers, colors, symbols or other indicia on the backs of the player's cards may be compared against related indicia on the backs of the dealer's cards to make the tiebreaker determination. In another modification, a wagering card game may include a separate side bet wager based on the card backs in the game hand. For example, a pattern of symbols or colors may be identified on the backs of the cards in the player's hand and compared to a card back side bet pay scale to determine if the player wins the side bet wager regardless of whether or the not player wins the main bet wager. In yet another modification, a conventional wagering card game may be modified to include a payout modifier based on the pattern of designs found on the backs of the cards in the player's winning hand. In this example, the game rules determining wins and losses for the main wager need not be affected, but the pay scale for winning players may be modified based on the backs of the winning players' cards.

Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a computing device, in accordance with aspects of the present invention;

FIGS. 2A-2F are block diagrams illustrating various configurations for designing backs of playing cards in a game deck, in accordance with aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing illustrative steps for performing a wagering game with a card back tiebreaker, in accordance with aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram showing illustrative steps for performing a wagering game with a card back side bet wager, in accordance with aspects of the present invention;

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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