Server-Based Video Poker Tournament System
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional video poker tournaments in casinos often result in unequal chances of winning due to varying starting hands dealt to players, which can lead to unfair competition and unequal opportunities for awards.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a server-based gaming environment where all players in a video poker tournament are dealt the same preselected starting hands, allowing them to compete fairly and potentially receive the same video poker game format and pay table, with scores determined by conventional video poker rules and credits wagered, and awards given based on final scores.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional video poker tournaments deal varying starting hands to different players, then players have different opportunities to win, but this creates unfair competition and unequal opportunities for awards
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-selects and deals identical starting hands to all players before the tournament begins. This preliminary action ensures that every player starts with the same cards, eliminating the advantage that would otherwise come from receiving different starting hands and ensuring fair competition from the outset.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies homogeneity by providing all tournament participants with identical starting hands. This creates a uniform playing condition for all players, where the only variable is their skill and strategy in playing the hands, not the quality of the cards they receive. This homogeneous starting condition ensures equal opportunity for all participants.
2Reliability
If a server-based gaming environment is implemented to deal identical starting hands, then fair competition is achieved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary between the gaming machines and the tournament management system. This server-based architecture acts as a mediator that coordinates the dealing of identical starting hands to multiple players, manages tournament rules, and tracks scores centrally. While this adds system complexity, it enables the fair competition mechanism to function across multiple gaming machines.
Solution Approach 2:
The server-based gaming environment provides universal functionality by managing multiple aspects of the tournament simultaneously: dealing identical hands to all players, tracking scores for each participant, enforcing tournament rules, and determining winners. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require separate systems into a single centralized platform.
Data Source
AI summary
Each player who is participating in the video poker tournament plays a designated group of video poker hands. The designated group of video poker hands comprises preselected starting hands so that each tournament participant plays the same starting hands. After the group of video poker hands has been completed, the player with the highest score or highest amount of accrued credits is awarded a prize. Besides awarding a prize to the player with the highest score, other lesser prizes could be awarded to other players who have high scores. Prizes could also be awarded to players who achieve a final score of at least a certain level.