Poker system and method involving bad beat and/or best hand pools

Abstract

A bad beat or best hand system/method generates a bad beat or best hand pool from buy-in fees or designated bad beat or best hand tournament fees. The bad beat pool is paid to a player suffering a most significant or worst bad beat during the poker tournament. The best hand pool is paid to the player obtaining the highest ranking winning hand during the poker tournament. With both the bad beat pool and best hand pool, the system/method may incorporate minimum thresholds or hand ranks, which if not met, result in the bad beat or best hand pool being carried over to a next tournament creating larger and more attractive pools. Rather than awarding the bad beat or best hand pool to a single player, multiple players may also share in the bad beat or best hand pool based on a distribution scheme.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A method of conducting an electronically implemented poker tournament comprising:
 configuring a system comprising at least a processor and memory device to facilitate:
 identifying ranks of winning poker hands occurring during said poker tournament; 
 maintaining a record in said memory device of at least a highest ranking winning poker hand occurring during the poker tournament; 
 comparing said highest ranking winning poker hand against a pre-established minimum poker hand ranking; and 
 responsive to said highest ranking winning poker hand exceeding said minimum poker hand rank, paying a player holding said highest ranking poker hand an award to a player associated with said highest ranking winning hand. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising carrying the best hand pool over to a subsequent tournament if said highest ranking winning hand fails to meet said minimum hand ranking 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising requiring a pre-established number of hole cards to be used in the highest ranking winning hand for the player to be paid the award. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising funding the award with poker tournament entry fees. 
     
     
         5 . A method of conducting an electronically implemented poker tournament comprising:
 collecting high hand fees from poker tournament participants;   forming a high poker hand pool;   identifying ranks of winning poker hands occurring during said poker tournament;   recording at least a highest ranking winning poker hand occurring during said poker tournament; and   paying a player holding said highest ranking winning poker hand occurring during said poker tournament at least a portion of said high hand pool.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  further comprising paying said player holding said highest ranking winning poker hand occurring during said poker tournament the entire high hand pool. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5  further comprising requiring a pre-established number of hole cards to be used in the highest ranking winning hand for the player to be paid at least a portion of the high hand pool. 
     
     
         8 . A method of conducting an electronically implemented poker tournament comprising:
 entering a pre-established minimum poker hand rank;   collecting fees from poker tournament participants to fund a high hand pool;   utilizing a processor to identify ranks of winning poker hands occurring during said poker tournament;   utilizing a memory device to maintain a record of at least a highest ranking winning poker hand occurring during the poker tournament;   comparing said highest ranking winning poker hand against said pre-established minimum poker hand rank; and   responsive to said highest ranking winning poker hand exceeding said minimum poker hand rank, paying a player holding said highest ranking poker hand at least of a portion of said high hand pool.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising paying said player holding said highest ranking winning poker hand occurring during said poker tournament the entire high hand pool. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising requiring a pre-established number of hole cards to be used in the highest ranking winning hand for the player to be paid at least a portion of the high hand pool.