Games having bingo and poker like elements and methods of playing therefor

Abstract

A method and system for providing a plurality of game elements to a participating player to form a player hand, wherein each game element is associated with a plurality of features, each feature of the plurality of features being selected from a discrete category of features, and each game element includes a feature from each discrete category of features; comparing the game elements forming the player hand with predefined criteria, wherein the predefined criteria relates to assigning a player hand ranking based on the features associated with the game elements forming the player hand and identifies a penalty condition associated with at least one feature of the plurality of features for which the player hand is automatically assigned a losing ranking; and determining whether the player hand satisfies the predefined criteria relating to the penalty condition.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A device for playing games, comprising a plurality of game elements, wherein each game element is associated with a plurality of features, each feature of the plurality of features being selected from a discrete category of features, each game element including a feature from each discrete category of features, whereby the plurality of game elements are capable of being arranged into a plurality of subsets of game elements by features within the discrete category of features, wherein the discrete categories of features are selected from the group consisting of colors, alphabetic characters, ideographic characters and numerical values. 
     
     
         2 . A game device as in  claim 1 , wherein the game elements are playing cards. 
     
     
         3 . A game device as in  claim 1 , wherein the game elements are game tiles. 
     
     
         4 . A game device as in  claim 1 , wherein the game elements are virtual representations of cards. 
     
     
         5 . A game device as in  claim 1 , wherein each game element includes a color, and alphabetic character and a numerical value. 
     
     
         6 . A game device as in  claim 1 , wherein the game elements are of different colors and each subset of game elements of different colors include the same set of alphabetic characters and numerical values. 
     
     
         7 . A method of playing a game, comprising the steps of:
 a. accepting a player to participate in the game;   b. providing a plurality of game elements to the participating player to form a player hand, wherein each game element is associated with a plurality of features, each feature of the plurality of features being selected from a discrete category of features, each game element including a feature from each discrete category of features, whereby the plurality of game elements are capable of being arranged into a plurality of unique subsets of game elements by features within the discrete category of features;   c. comparing the game elements forming the player hand with predefined criteria, wherein the predefined criteria relates to assigning a player hand ranking based on the features associated with the game elements forming the player hand and identifies a penalty condition associated with at least one feature of the plurality of features for which the player hand is automatically assigned a losing ranking;   d. determining whether the player hand satisfies the predefined criteria relating to the penalty condition;   e. determining whether the player hand satisfies the predefined criteria relating to a player hand ranking if the penalty condition is not satisfied by the player hand; and   f. assigning a ranking to the player hand.   
     
     
         8 . A method according to  claim 7 , wherein the step of accepting a player participating in the game further comprises receiving a wager from the player. 
     
     
         9 . A method according to  claim 7 , wherein the plurality of game elements are randomly dealt to the participating player to form a player hand. 
     
     
         10 . A method according to  claim 7 , wherein the one or more categories of features comprise numeric values, alphabetic characters, colors, ideographic characters, symbols and graphics. 
     
     
         11 . A method according to  claim 7 , wherein the game elements are divisible into a plurality of subsets of game elements, whereby the game elements of each subset of the plurality include an exclusive feature from a sole category of features and the same combinations of the remaining features from other categories of features. 
     
     
         12 . A method according to  claim 11 , wherein the penalty condition is associated with one of the exclusive features. 
     
     
         13 . A method according to  claim 7 , further comprising the steps of:
 a. receiving instructions from the participating player indentifying game elements to be discarded from the player hand; and   b. providing the participating player with additional game elements to replace the game elements discarded.   
     
     
         14 . A method according to  claim 7 , wherein the penalty condition is associated with a feature, whereby a penalty subset of gaming elements associated with the penalty feature is identifiable and a player hand including a game element from the penalty subset will automatically be assigned a losing player hand ranking irrespective of the player hand ranking unless the player hand includes only game elements from the penalty subset. 
     
     
         15 . An electronic gaming machine comprising:
 a. a input device configured for accepting a player wager to participate in a bingo-poker hybrid game;   b. a display configured for displaying representations of bingo-poker hybrid cards;   c. a processor configured for:
 i. randomly providing a plurality of representations of game cards to the participating player to form a player hand, wherein each game card is associated with a plurality of features, each feature of the plurality of features being selected from a discrete category of features, each game card including a feature from each discrete category of features, whereby the plurality of game cards are capable of being arranged into a plurality of unique subsets of game cards by features within the discrete category of features; 
 ii. comparing the game elements forming the player hand with predefined criteria, wherein the predefined criteria relates to assigning a player hand ranking based on the features associated with the game elements forming the player hand and identifies a penalty condition associated with at least one feature of the plurality of features for which the player hand is automatically assigned a losing ranking; 
 iii. determining whether the player hand satisfies the predefined criteria relating to the penalty condition; 
 iv. determining whether the player hand satisfies the predefined criteria relating to a player hand ranking if the penalty condition is not satisfied by the player hand; and 
 v. assigning a ranking to the player hand. 
   
     
     
         16 . An electronic gaming machine according to  claim 15 , wherein the one or more categories of features comprise numeric values, alphabetic characters, colors, ideographic characters, symbols and graphics. 
     
     
         17 . An electronic gaming machine according to  claim 15  further comprising an output device for providing a payout if one of the predefined criteria is satisfied.