System and Method for Playing Community Hand Poker Games

Abstract

A card game with at least one player involves placing first and second poker hand wagers and dealing starting hands to the player and a dealer. A first poker rank is determined from a resulting poker hand of the player derived from cards including a first community hand and the player's starting hand. A first winning amount is paid on the first poker hand wager if the first poker rank meets a first winning criteria. A second poker rank is determined from a resulting poker hand of the player derived from cards including a second community hand and the player's same starting hand. A second winning amount is paid on the second poker hand wager if the second poker rank meets a second winning criteria.

1 . A method of playing a card game with at least one player, comprising:
 providing an opportunity to place a first poker hand wager by said at least one player;   providing an opportunity to place a second poker hand wager by said at least one player;   dealing a starting hand to said at least one player, the starting hand comprising one or more cards representing a potential portion of resulting poker hands;   dealing a first community hand;   determining a first poker rank from a first one of the resulting poker hands of said at least one player derived from cards including the first community hand and at least one card from the player's starting hand;   paying a first winning amount on the first poker hand wager of said at least one player if the first poker hand wager is placed and the first poker rank meets a first winning criteria;   dealing a second community hand;   determining a player second poker rank for a second one of the resulting poker hands of said at least one player derived from cards including at least one card from the player's starting hand and the second community hand;   paying a second winning amount on the second poker hand wager of said at least one player if the second poker hand wager is placed and the second poker rank meets a second winning criteria.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein said at least one player comprises a plurality of players and wherein the method includes paying the first winning amount on the first poker hand wager of each player if that player has placed the first poker hand wager and the respective first poker rank of that player meets the first winning criteria and paying the second winning amount on the second poker hand wager of each player if that player has placed the second poker hand wager and the respective second poker rank of that player meets the second winning criteria. 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein one of the first and second winning criteria comprises a poker hand which ranks below a low ranking designated poker rank and the other of the first and second winning criteria comprises a poker hand which is higher than a high ranking designated poker rank. 
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 3  wherein the method includes dealing a hand to a dealer and one of the designated poker ranks comprises a poker rank of the hand of the dealer. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 3  wherein the method includes dealing a hand to a dealer and the high ranking designated poker rank comprises a poker rank of the hand of the dealer. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein said at least one player is permitted to increase only one of the first poker hand wager or the second poker hand wager after receiving the starting hand. 
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 6  wherein said at least one player receives an additional starting hand card and is permitted to discard one card from the starting hand prior to determining the poker rank which is not associated with an increased wager. 
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 3  wherein said at least one player is permitted to increase the poker hand wager associated with the winning criteria being a low ranking poker rank. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein said at least one player is permitted to increase the first poker hand wager after receipt of the starting hand but prior to dealing the first community hand. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein said at least one player is permitted to discard one card from the starting hand when determining only one of the first and second poker ranks of the player. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein said at least one player is not permitted to increase one of the poker hand wagers which is associated with a poker rank where said at least one player is permitted to discard one of the cards of the starting hand of the player. 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein the first winning criteria is that the first poker rank of the player comprises no cards which are equal in magnitude. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein the first winning criteria is that the first poker rank of the player comprises no cards which are equal in magnitude and greater than a designated magnitude. 
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein the first poker rank is determined from a resulting poker hand of the player derived from all of the cards of the players starting hand. 
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein the second poker rank is determined from the player's resulting poker hand derived from cards including a selected hand of the player in which at least one card from the starting hand has been discarded. 
     
     
         16 . The method according to  claim 1  wherein the first poker rank and the second poker rank are determined using at least one common card from the player's starting hand. 
     
     
         17 . The method according to  claim 1  including paying said at least one player an auxiliary winning amount if one of the determined poker ranks equals one of a plurality of designated paying poker hand ranks. 
     
     
         18 . The method according to  claim 1  including dealing a starting hand to the dealer representing a potential portion of a resulting poker hand, determining a dealer poker rank for the dealers resulting poker hand derived from cards including the second community hand and at least one card from the dealer's starting hand, and paying the second winning amount based on the player's second poker rank exceeding the dealer poker rank. 
     
     
         19 . The method according to  claim 18  in which each of the players and the dealer are permitted to discard one card from the starting hand to form a selected hand which is combined with the community cards when determining the respective poker ranks. 
     
     
         20 . The method according to  claim 19  wherein both the player and the dealer are dealt an equal number of cards prior to a card selection being made and wherein both the player and the dealer are permitted to select a same number of cards to be discarded. 
     
     
         21 . The method according to  claim 19  wherein card selection by the dealer is determined according to dealer rules including categorizing the starting hand of the dealer into one of a plurality of dealer hand categories and selecting one card from the starting hand of the dealer to be discarded corresponding to a discard associated with the respective dealer hand category, the dealer hand categories comprising five categories distinct from one another. 
     
     
         22 . The method according to  claim 19  wherein selection of a card to be discarded from the players starting hand being accomplished by the player selecting indicia on a table surface of the game in which the indicia represent the cards in the players hand. 
     
     
         23 . A method of playing a card game with at least one player, comprising:
 placing a poker hand wager by said at least one player;   dealing a starting hand to said at least one player, the starting hand comprising a dealt number of cards representing a potential portion of a resulting poker hand;   discarding by said at least one player, a discard number of cards from the player's starting hand to define a selected hand of the player comprising at least one card;   dealing a community hand;   determining a poker rank from the resulting poker hand of said at least one player derived from cards including the community hand and the player's selected hand;   dealing a starting hand to the dealer comprising the dealt number of cards representing a potential portion of a resulting poker hand;   discarding by the dealer, the discard number of cards from the dealer's starting hand to define a selected hand of the dealer comprising at least one card;   determining a dealer poker rank for the dealer's resulting poker hand derived from cards including the dealer's selected hand and the community hand;   paying a winning amount on the poker hand wager if the poker rank of said at least one player beats the dealer poker hand rank.   
     
     
         24 . A method of playing a card game with at least one player, comprising:
 placing a poker hand wager by said at least one player;   dealing a starting hand to said at least one player, the starting hand comprising cards representing a potential portion of a resulting poker hand;   dealing a community hand;   determining a poker rank from the resulting poker hand of said at least one player derived from cards including the community hand and at least one card from the player's starting hand;   dealing a starting hand to the dealer comprising cards representing a potential portion of a resulting poker hand;   discarding by the dealer according to dealer rules, at least one card from the dealer's starting hand to define a selected hand of the dealer comprising at least one card;   the dealer rules comprising categorizing the starting hand of the dealer into one of a plurality of dealer hand categories and selecting one card from the starting hand of the dealer to be discarded corresponding to a discard associated with the respective dealer hand category, the dealer hand categories comprising five categories distinct from one another.   determining a dealer poker rank for the dealer's resulting poker hand derived from cards including the dealer's selected hand and the community hand;   paying a winning amount on the poker hand wager if the poker rank of said at least one player beats the dealer poker hand rank.   
     
     
         25 . A method of playing a card game on a table surface with at least one player, the method comprising:
 placing a poker hand wager by said at least one player;   dealing a starting hand to said at least one player, the starting hand comprising cards representing a potential portion of a resulting poker hand;   discarding by said at least one player, at least one card from the player's starting hand to define a selected hand of the player comprising at least one card;   selection of said at least one card from the player's starting hand to be discarded being accomplished by said at least one player selecting indicia on the table surface representing the cards in the player's starting hand;   dealing a community hand;   determining a poker rank from the resulting poker hand of said at least one player derived from cards including the community hand and the player's selected hand;   dealing a starting hand to the dealer comprising cards representing a potential portion of a resulting poker hand;   determining a dealer poker rank for the dealer's resulting poker hand derived from cards including the community hand and at least one card from the dealer's poker hand;   paying a winning amount on the poker hand wager if the poker rank of said at least one player beats the dealer poker hand rank.