Method, apparatus and article for determining an initial hand in a playing card game, such as blackjack or baccarat

Abstract

Methods and apparatus determine a value of an initial hand of playing cards, such as determining whether a dealer has the value of twenty-one, and / or outcome of a game at some point before the dealer receives a second card. The initial sequence may be read, optically, magnetically or wireless from identifiers on the playing cards, before the playing cards are loaded in a card shoe, while the playing cards reside in the card shoe, or as playing cards are removed from the card shoe. Alternatively, the initial sequence may correspond to a computationally generated sequence, such as a computationally pseudo-random sequence.

Description

technical field

[0001] This specification relates generally to games using playing cards, and in particular to the automation of certain aspects of card games such as Blackjack or Baccarat, for example. Background technique

[0002] The game of poker is a well known pastime. The game is generally played with one or more decks of playing cards, wherein each deck generally contains 52 playing cards of four suits (i.e., hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades), each suit comprising different levels (i.e., 13 playing cards from 2 to 10, J, Q, K and A). Game-Based Outcomes Poker games may or may not involve wagering.

[0003] A popular card game known as blackjack in which one or more players play separately against a dealer. Participants (ie, players and dealers) try to collect hands with a total point value equal to or as close as possible to, but not exceeding, blackjack. The value of the hand is determined by the rank of the playing cards. Therefore, playing cards with ranks ...

Images