WO2014171921A1

WO2014171921A1 - Position poker with winner button

Info

Publication number: WO2014171921A1
Application number: PCT/US2013/036629
Authority: WO
Inventors: Paul SPITZBERG
Original assignee: Position Poker And Gaming, Inc.
Priority date: 2013-04-15
Filing date: 2013-04-15
Publication date: 2014-10-23

Abstract

A method of playing a form of poker in which a player who won a previous hand is assigned a Winner Button and a player is assigned a Dealer Button. During betting rounds, the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player assigned the Dealer Button.

Description

POSITION POKER WITH WINNER BUTTON

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] Casino gaming has become more popular over the last several years as more states, at least to some degree, are in the path to legalize gambling, including online gambling. Some of the most popular games in the casino industry are variations of the game of poker, such as of Texas Hold 'Em, Omaha and Omaha 8 or Better. Currently, Texas Hold 'Em is one of the most popular poker games being played at gaming establishments in both the real and virtual worlds.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention is directed to a method and system for conducting a poker-based card game (hereinafter "Position Poker) which permits a player who won a previous hand in the poker-based card game to be assigned a Winner Button that allows him to bet out of turn. Position Poker is attractive to gamblers in that being in the final betting position is desirable from a strategy perspective. Therefore, the present invention is attractive in that it presents to the players the opportunity to be in an advantageous betting position if they have already won a previous hand.

[0003] In one embodiment, a player is assigned a Dealer Button and a player who won a previous hand in the poker game is assigned a Winner Button. In one embodiment of the present invention, two cards are dealt to each player in the poker game. After the two cards are dealt, a first round of betting occurs. In the first round of betting, if the player assigned the Winner Button is also what is known as a "Big Blind," then the player assigned the Winner Button acts last. However, if the player assigned the Winner Button is not the Big Blind, then the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player to whom the Dealer Button is assigned.

[0004] After the first round of betting, "The Flop" occurs in which a first community card, a second community card and a third community card are dealt. After the first, second and third community cards are dealt, a second round of betting is conducted where the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player to whom the Dealer Button is assigned.

[0005] After the second round of betting, "The Turn" occurs in which a fourth community card is dealt. After the fourth community card is dealt, a third round of betting is conducted where the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player to whom the Dealer Button is assigned.

[0006] After the third round of betting, "The River" occurs in which a fifth community card is dealt. After the fifth community card is dealt, a fourth round of betting is conducted where the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player to whom the Dealer Button is assigned.

[0007] In another embodiment of the present invention, at least one card is dealt to each player in a poker game and a first round of betting is conducted. After the first round of betting, at least one community card is dealt and then a second round of betting is conducted. During each round of betting, the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player to whom the Dealer Button is assigned.

[0008] These and other advantages of the invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Fig. 1 illustrates a top view of an exemplary gaming table, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0010] Fig. 2 illustrates a method of playing a position poker game, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0011] Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary communication network in which the present invention may be implemented;

[0012] Fig. 4 illustrates a high-level block diagram of an exemplary computer system that may be used for implementing the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0013] The present invention is directed to a method and system for conducting a poker-based card game (hereinafter "Position Poker) which permits a player who won a previous hand in the poker-based card game to be assigned a Winner Button that allows him to bet out of turn. Position Poker is attractive to gamblers in that being in the final betting position is desirable from a strategy perspective. Therefore, the present invention is attractive in that it presents to the players the opportunity to be in an advantageous betting position if they have already won a previous hand.

[0014] In one embodiment of the present invention, Position Poker can be a modified version of Texas Hold 'Em. The basic rules of Texas Hold 'Em, are as follows. The dealer shuffles a standard 52-card deck. In casinos, the dealer never plays. A round disk known as a "Dealer Button" moves clockwise from player to player with each hand as the game goes along.

[0015] Generally, the game starts with one or two players immediately to the left of the player with the Dealer Button betting a pre-determined amount of money into the pot before any cards are dealt. This amount is referred to as "The Blind", where the first player to the left of the Dealer Button bets an amount known as the "Small Blind" and the next player immediately to the left of the Small Blind bets a larger amount known as the "Big Blind". The player to whom the Dealer Button is assigned is last to place a bet. It is understood that the players making the Small Blind and Big Blind bets are sometimes referred to as the Small Blind and the Big Blind, respectively. In addition, it is also understood that players to whom the Winner Button and Dealer Button are assigned are sometimes referred to as the Winner Button and the Dealer Button, respectively, as well.

[0016] Next, each player is dealt two cards face down. At this point, which is known as "The Pre-Flop," betting begins with the player to the left of the two players who posted the Small Blind and the Big Blind.

[0017] After the first round of betting, the dealer deals three cards face up on the table, these three cards are called "The Flop". If desired, before dealing The Flop, the dealer can discard or "burn" the top card on the deck.

[0018] After The Flop, another round of betting takes place similarly to the first round. After the second round of betting, a fourth card is dealt by the dealer face up on the table. This fourth card is called "The Turn". Again, the dealer can burn or discard the top card in the deck before dealing The Turn.

[0019] A third round of betting then takes place after The Turn as in the first two rounds. After the third round of betting, the dealer deals a fifth and final card face up on the table. The fifth card is known as "The River". As previously mentioned, the dealer can burn or discard the top card on the deck before dealing The River card.

[0020] Next, after The River, a final round of betting takes place. After this final round of betting, each player can use any combination of seven cards consisting of the two cards in a player's hand and the five community cards face up on the table to form the best possible 5-card poker hand. The player with the best hand wins.

[0021] Up to this point, the present invention follows the same rules as conventional Texas Hold 'Em. From this point on, as illustrated in Figure 1 , the betting hierarchy changes from hand to hand in accordance with the present invention.

[0022] The winner of this first hand receives a "Winner Button" so that the player holding the Winner Button is given the advantage of being skipped over during a betting round and allowed to act out of turn immediately after the player with the Dealer Button acts.

[0023] Play and betting continue throughout the course of the hand with all of the positions continuing to act in the order prescribed by the traditional rules (e.g. clockwise), except that the player with the Winner Button acts after the player with the Dealer Button acts.

[0024] After this subsequent hand is over and the winner determined, the Winner Button is passed to that winner and the Dealer Button is advanced left to the next player. The game of Position Poker then continues from hand to hand with the Winner Button being passed from winner to winner while the Dealer Button continues its clockwise rotation around the table - with the Small Blind being assigned to a player immediately to the left of the player with the Dealer Button and the Big Blind being assigned to the player immediately to the left of the Small Blind.

[0025] In the event of a split pot, the Winner Button becomes inactive for the next hand and is later assigned to the player who wins the next hand. [0026] It is noted that, in an embodiment of the present invention, the betting hierarchy is slightly modified if the player assigned to be the Big Blind also happened to be the player with the Winner Button for a particular hand. In this specific case, for Pre-Flop betting, the Big Blind acts last after the Small Blind - as opposed to acting immediately after the player with the Dealer Button. In this situation, the Big Blind acts during The Pre-Flop in accordance with standard Texas Hold 'Em rules. However, during all subsequent rounds of betting, the player assigned the Winner Button ( who is also the Big Blind) acts immediately after the player with the Dealer Button, just as any other player assigned the Winner Button would.

[0027] FIG. 1 illustrates a top view of an exemplary casino gaming table 100, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Table 100 preferably has an oval or circular shape. The dealer 1 12 and players 104A-104G are located along the edge of table 100. Region 1 10 is a location at which cards for The Flop, The Turn and The River (also known as community cards) can be placed by the dealer 1 12. In addition, bets from each player 104A-104G can generally be placed in front of a player or toward the middle of the table 100. As shown in FIG. 1 , the Winner Button is assigned to player 104B, which means that player 104B won a previous hand. Player 104D is assigned the Dealer Button 122, which results in the two players 104E, 104F immediately to the left of player 104D becoming "The Blinds." Player 104E is assigned the "Small Blind" 124 and player 104F is assigned the "Big Blind" 126.

[0028] In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, when a betting round is conducted, the player 104B assigned the Winner Button 120 will act out of turn immediately after the player 104D assigned the Dealer Button 122.

However, if the player 104B assigned the Winner Button 120 is also the Big Blind 126, then the player 104B acts last for the betting round that occurs during The Pre- Flop.

[0029] FIG. 2 illustrates a method 200 of playing a position poker game, according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 will be referenced in the following discussion of the method steps illustrated in FIG. 2.

[0030] At step 202, a player 104B who won a previous hand is assigned a Winner Button 120 and a Dealer's Button moves clockwise to player 104D for the current hand. Player 104E is assigned to be the Small Blind 124 and player 104F is assigned to be the Big Blind 104G.

[0031] At step 204, two cards are dealt to each player in the poker game. This portion of Position Poker is considered to be "The Pre-Flop."

[0032] At step 206, after the two cards are dealt, a first round of betting ("Pre- Flop Betting") from all players is conducted. During the Pre-flop Betting, if player 104B who has been assigned the Winner Button 120 also happens to be the Big Blind 126, then player 104B acts last during the Pre-Flop round of betting.

[0033] However, since player 104B is not the Big Blind 126, player 104B acts out of turn immediately after player 104D, since player 104D is assigned to the Dealer Button 122.

[0034] At step 208, after the Pre-Flop round of betting, The Flop occurs where a first community card, a second community card and a third community card are dealt.

[0035] At step 210, after The Flop, a second round of betting from all players is conducted where the player 104B assigned the Winner Button 120 acts out of turn immediately after player 104D who is assigned to the Dealer Button 122.

[0036] At step 212, after the second round of betting, The Turn occurs where a fourth community card is dealt.

[0037] At step 214, after The Turn, a third round of betting from all players is conducted where the player 104B assigned the Winner Button 120 acts out of turn immediately after player 104D who is assigned to the Dealer Button 122.

[0038] At step 216, after the third round of betting, The River occurs where a fifth community card is dealt.

[0039] At step 218, after The River, a fourth round of betting from all players is conducted where the player 104B assigned the Winner Button 120 acts out of turn immediately after player 104D who is assigned to the Dealer Button 122.

[0040] During the fourth round of betting after The River, each player can use any combination of seven cards consisting of the two Pre-Flop cards in a player's hand and the five community cards (from the The Flop, The Turn and The River) face up on the table to form the best possible 5-card poker hand.

[0041] At step 220, the player with the best hand wins and the game starts over (at Step 202) where the Winner Button 120 is then assigned to the most recent winning player and the Dealer Button moves clockwise to the player immediately left to the player 104D to whom the Dealer Button was last assigned.

[0042] In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the game of Position Poker may be implemented in the form of a multi-player electronic machine installed in the brick and mortar casino or elsewhere. It is also to be understood that players may participate in Position Poker in a multi-user online environment, or conducted by the multi-player electronic machine while connecting to the machine via hand-held devices either owned by players (smart-phones, tablets, laptop computers) or provided by the casino (dedicated gaming tablets).

[0043] Any of the features of the present invention described herein can be applied to any game which uses a dealer button, blind bets and/or a winner's button. For example, in addition to Texas Hold 'Em, the present invention can be applied to other card games such as Omaha 8, Omaha, Badugi, Badeucy, Badacey, Lowball, 2 to 7 Triple Draw, No Limit 2 to 7 Single Draw, 9 Pineapple Types, and 5 Card Draw. The present invention can also be applied to games with various betting structures, such as, for example, limit, no limit, pot limit, hi-lo, limit hi-lo, no limit hi-lo, pot limit hi- lo and lowball. It is also understood that any present or future game with rules that involve use of a dealer button shall not be allowed to incorporate the rules of Position Poker as discussed herein.

[0044] In an embodiment of the present invention, the game of Position Poker described in the foregoing Detailed Description can be implemented as an electronic game in which players may engage in the game of Position Poker by connecting to a gaming server. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary system for an electronic game of Position Poker. The exemplary system can include one or more player computers 302A, 302B, 302C, and 302D which communicate with a gaming server 306 via communication network 304. It is to be understood that connection between one or more player computers 302A, 302B, 302C, and 302D and the gaming server 306 can be established through wired or wireless signal connection. It is also to be understood, that communication between one of more player computers 302A, 302B, 302C, and 302D and the gaming server 306 can be partially wired and partially wireless. It is also to be understood that the gaming server 306 can be communicatively coupled to one or more databases 308 configured to store data relating to players, rules of the game, payout history, and the like. In an embodiment of the present invention, players may use their handheld and/or stationary devices (mobile "smart" phones, PDAs, laptops, desktops, tablets, gaming consoles, electronic devices with streaming content, etc.) to connect to the gaming server either via ad-hoc (URL) connection or via software (downloadable software applications) previously installed on the handheld devices.

[0045] FIG. 4 illustrates a high-level block diagram of an exemplary computer system that may be used for implementing the player computer, gaming server, and/or stand-alone gaming machine. Computer system 400 comprises a processor 401 operatively coupled to a data storage device 402 and a memory 403. Processor 401 controls the overall operation of computer system 400 by executing computer program instructions that define such operations. The computer program

instructions may be stored in data storage device 402, or other computer readable medium, and loaded into memory 403 when execution of the computer program instructions is desired. Thus, the steps of FIG. 2, as well as variations described herein, can be defined by the computer program instructions stored in memory 403 and/or data storage device 402 and controlled by processor 401 executing the computer program instructions. For example, the computer program instructions can be implemented as computer executable code programmed by one skilled in the art to perform an algorithm defined by the method steps of FIG. 2. Accordingly, by executing the computer program instructions, the processor 401 executes an algorithm defined by the method steps of FIG. 2. Computer system 400 also includes one or more network interfaces 405 for communicating with other devices via a network. Computer system 400 also includes one or more input/output devices 404 that enable user interaction with computer system 400 (e.g., display, keyboard, mouse, speakers, buttons, etc.).

[0046] Processor 401 may include both general and special purpose microprocessors, and may be the sole processor or one of multiple processors of computer system 400. Processor 401 may comprise one or more central processing units (CPUs), for example. Processor 401 , data storage device 402, and/or memory 403 may include, be supplemented by, or incorporated in, one or more application- specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and/or one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). [0047] Data storage device 402 and memory 403 each comprise a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium. Data storage device 402, and memory 403, may each include high-speed random access memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR RAM), or other random access solid state memory devices, and may include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, semiconductor memory devices, such as erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD- ROM), digital versatile disc read-only memory (DVD-ROM) disks, or other nonvolatile solid state storage devices.

[0048] Input/output devices 404 may include peripherals, such as a printer, scanner, display screen, etc. For example, input/output devices 404 may include a display device such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), plasma or liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor for displaying information to the user, a keyboard, and a pointing device such as a mouse, a touch-screen, or a trackball by which the user can provide input to computer 400.

[0049] One skilled in the art will recognize that an implementation of an actual computer system may have other structures and may contain other components as well, and that FIG. 4 is a high level representation of some of the components of such a computer for illustrative purposes.

[0050] The foregoing Detailed Description is to be understood as being in every respect illustrative and exemplary, but not restrictive, and the scope of the invention disclosed herein is not to be determined from the Detailed Description, but rather from the claims as interpreted according to the full breadth permitted by the patent laws. It is to be understood that the embodiments shown and described herein are only for illustrative purposes and that various modifications may be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Those skilled in the art could implement various other feature combinations without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

Claims

A method of playing a poker game in which a player is assigned a Dealer Button and a player who won a previous hand in the poker game is assigned a Winner Button, the method comprising:

dealing at least one card to each player in the poker game; conducting a first round of betting;

dealing at least one community card; and conducting a second round of betting, wherein the player assigned the Winner Button bets out of turn immediately after the player assigned the Dealer Button during the first round of betting and the second round of betting.

dealing two cards to each player in the poker game;

after the two cards are dealt:

conducting a first round of betting from all players where:

if the player assigned the Winner Button is also a Big Blind, then the player assigned the Winner Button acts last; and if the player assigned the Winner Button is not the Big Blind, then the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player assigned the Dealer Button;

after the first round of betting, dealing a first community card, a second community card and a third community card; after the first, second and third community cards are dealt, conducting a second round of betting from all players where the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player assigned the Dealer Button;

after the second round of betting, dealing a fourth community card;

after dealing the fourth community card, conducting a third round of betting from all players where the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player assigned the Dealer Button; after the third round of betting, dealing a fifth community card; and

after dealing the fifth community card, conducting a fourth round of betting from all players where the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player assigned the Dealer Button.

The method of claim 2, further comprising:

if there is a split pot after the fourth round of betting, assigning the Winner Button to no player during the next round; and

after a fourth round of betting in the next round, assigning the Winner Button to a player who wins the next round.

A computer-implemented method of playing a poker game in which a player is assigned a Dealer Button and a player who won a previous hand in the poker game is assigned a Winner Button, the method comprising:

dealing two cards to each player in the poker game;

after the two cards are dealt:

conducting a first round of betting from all players where: if the player assigned the Winner Button is also a Big Blind, then the player assigned the Winner Button acts last; and if the player assigned the Winner Button is not the Big Blind, then the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player assigned the Dealer Button;

after the first round of betting, dealing a first community card, a second community card and a third community card;

after the first, second and third community cards are dealt, conducting a second round of betting from all players where the player assigned the Winner Button acts out of turn immediately after the player assigned the Dealer Button;

after the second round of betting, dealing a fourth community card;