Mahjong 21

Abstract

The invention is similar to the Blackjack game and simpler than Mahjong that can be easily learned and played at home among friends or in the Las Vegas type casinos with strangers. The standard 52 poker cards are used. The game can be played by two people up to more than 10 people. Each player is dealt with 2 cards face-down to start the game. Then, each player takes turn to either draw a card from the top of the remaining deck or take the discarded card from the preceding player. The objective is to come up with a 3-card hand of 21 points. A simple logic and choice are made in the anticipation of the 3rd card in order to derive and achieve a winning hand of 21 points before the other players do. The winner collects a fixed bet from a single player or everyone depending on where the winning card comes from. REFERENCES CITED U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 7,329,178 Feb. 12, 2008 James Chyvan Moore, 11/394,930 Mar. 31, 2006 Lawrence Lambert 12/217,713 Jul. 7, 2008 Michael Williams Forster 6,398,642 Jun. 4, 2002 Tai-Up Kim 7,389,989 Jun. 24, 2008 Hwei-Wen Wayne Hong

1 . A method of playing a game using the standard 52 poker cards where:
 a) a minimum of 2 players with up to 10 or more players can participate;   b) to start the game, each player is dealt with 2 cards face-down;   c) the first card is dealt to a player, determined by random dice throw, one card at a time clockwise to each player till all players have 2 cards;   d) each player takes turn to either take in the discarded card from the preceding player or draw a card from the top of the remaining deck;   e) after 2 cards are dealt to all players, the first player (determined by random dice throw) can only get a card from the top of the remaining deck;   f) if the 3-card combination does not add to 21 points, a card is discarded to keep the hand at 2 cards all the time;   g) if the 3-card combination does add to 21 points after the card is picked from the deck or is from the discarded card by any player in the current round, the player displays the winning hand on the table face-up for everyone to see and the current game is completed;   h) the player with the winning hand of 21 points collects a bet from every player if the winning card is drawn from the deck, else a bet is collected only from the player who discarded the winning card.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising that the 3-card winning hand of 21 points is calculated by adding up the 3 cards based on the following valuation:
 a) ‘A’—regardless of suits counts as 1 or 11 points; 
 b) ‘K’, ‘Q’, T—regardless of suits counts as 10 points; 
 d) ‘2’ to ‘10’—regardless of suits counts as their face values. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising that if no player comes up with a winning hand of 21 points after the last card is drawn (or is dealt) and discarded from the deck, the cards are shuffled and a new game is started. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising that the amount of bet is fixed and agreed upon by all players at the beginning of the game. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising that more than one player can produce a winning hand. In that case, the player who discarded the winning card is obliged to pay all the players with the winning hand. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising that a winning hand of 7-7-7 can entitle the player to collect double to sextuple of the fixed bet due to its difficulty.