USOO738.7300B2 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 7,387,300 B2 Snow (45) Date of Patent: Jun. 17, 2008 (54) PLAYER-BANKED FOUR CARD POKER 5,257,784. A 1 1/1993 Boylan et al. GAME 5,257,810 A 11/1993 Schorr et al. Continued (75) Inventor: Roger M. Snow, Las Vegas, NV (US) ( ) FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS (73) Assignee: Shuffle Master, Inc., Las Vegas, NV GB 667345 2, 1952 (US) GB 94f14822 T 1994 (*) NotiOt1Ce: Sububject to any disclaidisclaimer, theh term off thisthi GB 94.26324 12/1994 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 OTHER PUBLICATIONS U.S.C. 154(b) by 38 days. KISS Guide To Gambling by John Marchel, DK Publishing Inc., 2001, Glossary, “No Limit”, p. 344.* (21) Appl. No.: 10/864,051 (Continued) (22) Filed: Jun. 8, 2004 Primary Examiner Benjamin Layno (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Mark A. Litman & (65) Prior Publication Data Associates, PA. US 2004/O217548A1 Nov. 4, 2004 (57) ABSTRACT Related U.S. Application Data A player-banked casino game utilizes at least one deck of (63) Continuation-in-part of application No. 10/152,325, playing cards, the game comprising: each player placing at filed on May 20, 2002, now abandoned. least one wager to participate in the casino game; dealing a s s first number of cards to a dealer as a banker's hand, the first (51) Int. Cl. number of cards being greater than the number of cards to be A63F I/00 (2006.01) used in determination of a poker rank hand for the banker's (52) U.S. Cl. ........................... 273/292. 273/274. 463/13 hand; dealing a second number of cards to each player, the (58) Field of Classification Search s 273/292 second number of cards being greater than the number of 275/274,309.463/13.13 cards to be used in determination of a poker rank hand for S lication file f lete search historv. each player, the dealer discarding at least one card from the ee appl1cauon Ille Ior complete searcn n1Story bankers hand to form a resulting single dealer hand; each (56) References Cited player discarding at least one card to form a resulting players hand for each player, wherein the number of cards in resulting U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS players hands and the resulting bankers hand are equal; and 4,743,022 A 5, 1988 Wood resolving each player hand against the bankers hand accord 4,836,553 A 6, 1989 Suttle et al. ing to predetermined game rules. The initial player's wagers 4,861,041 A 8, 1989 Jones et al. must be at least matched with a Game Bet (or play bet of 1 x 5,022,653 A 6, 1991 Suttle et al. or more of the Ante) to remain in the game after players have 5,046,736 A 9/1991 Bridgeman et al. received their cards. The Game Bet multiplier is selected by 5,098,107 A 3/1992 Boylan et al. the player. 5,174.579 A 12, 1992 Griffiths 5,255,915 A 10, 1993 Miller 48 Claims, 1 Drawing Sheet US 7,387,300 B2 Page 2 U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 6,113,101 A 9/2000 Wirth ......................... 273 (274 6,113,103 A 9, 2000 Mostashari 5,265,877 A 1 1/1993 Boylan et al. 6,170,827 B1 1/2001 Lombardo et al. 5,275,415 A 1, 1994 Wisted 6,206,373 B1 3/2001 Garrod 5,288,081 A 2/1994 Breeding 6,229,534 B1 5/2001 Gerra et al. 5,294,128 A 3/1994 Marquez 6,237,916 B1 5/2001 Webb ......................... 273/292 5,308,065. A 5/1994 Bridgeman et al. 6,273,424 B1 8/2001 Breeding 5.366.228 A 1 1/1994 Kangsanaraks 6,345,823 B1 2/2002 Webb ......................... 273/292 5,377,973 A 1/1995 Jones et al. 6,561,897 B1 * 5/2003 Bourbour et al. .............. 463/13 5,377,994. A 1/1995 Jones 6,607,443 B1 8/2003 Miyamoto et al. 5,395, 120 A * 3/1995 Malek ........................ 273/292 2002/0103018 A1* 8, 2002 Rommerdahl et al. ......... 463/16 5,397,128 A 3, 1995 Hesse et al. 2002/0175468 A1* 1 1/2002 Kenny et al. ................ 273 (274 5.431,408 A 7, 1995 Adams 2003/01993 16 A1 10/2003 Miyamoto et al. ............ 463,35 5,489,101 A 2/1996 Moody 2004/0150 163 A1 8/2004 Kenny et al. .... 273/292 5,494,295 A 2f1996 Potter et al. 2004/016.0006 Al 8/2004 Kenny et al. ................ 273 (274 5,505.449 A 4, 1996 Eberhardt et al. 5,531448 A 7/1996 Moody OTHER PUBLICATIONS 5,538,252 A 7, 1996 Green 5,584,486 A 12/1996 Franklin Copyright filing with the Bureau voor de Intellectuele Eigendom, 5,630,757 A 5/1997 Gagin et al. Aruba, 13 pgs (Jan. 13, 1998). 5,653,444 A 8, 1997 Dahl “Show Vice Cards'. Scarne's Encyclopedia of Games, John Scarne, 5,660,393 A 8/1997 Dreger Harper & Row Publishers, pp. 28-29, 1973. 5,673.917 A 10, 1997 Vancura Published Rule Sheet for Casino Poker from Vegas World, 1 page 5,685,774 A 11, 1997 Webb (1982). 5,697,614 A 12/1997 Potter et al. “Card Craps'. Scarne's Encyclopedia of Card Games, pp. 321-323, 5,718.430 A 2/1998 Aramapakul et al. (1948). 5,732,950 A 3/1998 Moody Three Card Poker Disclosure by Derek J. Webb. 5,762,340 A 6/1998 Feola ......................... 273/292 Scarne's Guide to Modern Poker, Constable and Company Limited, 5,851,011 A 12/1998 Lott 1980, “Brag”, pp. 159-160. 5,897,436 A 4/1999 Singer et al. Hoyle's Modern Encyclopedia of Card Games by Walter Gibson, p. 6,012,719 A 1, 2000 Webb 250, 3 pages. 6,027,1 19 A 2/2000 De Lisle 6,056,641 A 5/2000 Webb .......................... 463/13 * cited by examiner U.S. Patent Jun. 17, 2008 US 7,387,300 B2 s US 7,387,300 B2 1. 2 PLAYER-BANKED FOUR CARD POKER collects the same total wager that he would have collected if GAME the hand was won with a Three-of-a-Kind. In the past fifteen years, a number of card games have been RELATED APPLICATIONS introduced to provide poker-type card games as house banked casino table games. These games have focused on a This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent number of elements in providing excitement and staying application Ser. No. 10/152,325 filed May 20, 2002 now power for the games. The games must be quickly understood abandoned. by players. The rules must be simple and clear. The resolution of wagers by the dealer must be easily accomplished. The BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 10 reading of hands by a dealer must not be complex. In addition, the games must provide a high enough hit frequency to appeal 1. Field of the Invention to players, yet allow the house to retain a profitable portion of The present invention relates to the field of games, card the wagers. These needs have limited the number of success games, wagering card games, player-banked games and espe ful games that have been designed and Successfully intro cially poker-type casino wagering games. More specifically, 15 duced into the casino gaming market. the method of the present invention is an enhancement to a Among the Successful games are Let It Ride Bonus(R) game of poker by having a dealer or banker provided with a poker, Three Card Poker(R) game and Caribbean StudRpoker. casino table poker game. These games have each achieved a high level of commercial 2. Background of the Art success with different formats and attributes. As a leisure time activity, poker and other card games have Let It Ride(R) stud poker is described in U.S. Pat. No. been popular for many years. The capital requirements for 5,288,081. The Bonus version of the game is described in playing poker and other table cardgames are very low. All that U.S. Pat. No. 6,273.424. In this game, the player makes a are needed are one or more decks of cards, a playing Surface wager in three parts, three cards are dealt to each player (there and a few participants. Five card poker is a game that most may be only a single player), and two common cards are dealt people know how to play and many games have been devel 25 face down in front of the dealer. The player examines his/her oped using the same basic priority or rank order of winning three cards, evaluates the likelihood of a ranked hand (e.g., at poker hands: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full least a pair of tens) being achieved with those three cards and House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair. One Pair the as yet unseen common cards. The player, based on judg and high card(s) in hand. ment of that likelihood, may elect to withdraw the first of the For some time, it had been difficult to adapt the rules of 30 three-part wager or keep the wager at risk. Upon the player poker into a casino table game in which each player plays making that decision, and withdrawing or allowing the first against the house, rather than against other players.