Gaming machine, playing cards, and games using the playing cards

Abstract

Nonconventional playing cards, nonconventional decks of playing cards and method of playing and presenting games using such cards are provided. Each card of a nonconventional deck of playing cards has a card face bearing at least a first indicium, a second indicium and a third indicium. The first indicium includes a card character, the second indicium includes a suit, and the third indicium includes a color.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A nonconventional deck of playing cards comprising:
 a plurality of playing cards, each card of the plurality of playing cards having a card face bearing a first indicium of a first set of unique indicia, a second indicium of a second set of unique indicia, and a third indicium of a third set of unique indicia.   
     
     
         2 . The nonconventional deck of playing cards of  claim 1 , wherein the first set of unique indicia comprises card characters, the second set of unique indicia comprises suits, and the third set of unique indicia comprises color. 
     
     
         3 . The nonconventional deck of playing cards of  claim 2 , wherein the characters comprise Ace, King, Queen, Jack or Deuce. 
     
     
         4 . The nonconventional deck of playing cards of  claim 3  wherein the plurality of playing cards comprises twenty cards bearing the Ace, twenty cards bearing the King, twenty cards bearing the Queen, twenty cards bearing the Jack, and twenty cards bearing the Deuce. 
     
     
         5 . The nonconventional deck of playing cards of  claim 4  wherein the color comprises five different colors, and the twenty cards bearing the Ace comprise four cards of each of the five different colors. 
     
     
         6 . The nonconventional deck of playing cards of  claim 5  wherein the suits comprise Spade, Club, Diamond, and Heart, and the twenty cards bearing the Ace comprise five cards in each of Spade, Club, Diamond, and Heart. 
     
     
         7 . The nonconventional deck of playing cards of  claim 2 , wherein the characters have a first defined hierarchy, the suits have a second defined hierarchy, and the colors have a third defined hierarchy. 
     
     
         8 . The nonconventional deck of playing cards of  claim 1 , wherein a reverse side opposite the face of each card of the plurality of playing cards comprises one of the first, second, or third indicium. 
     
     
         9 . The nonconventional deck of playing cards of  claim 1 , wherein each card comprises a unique cartesian product based on the ordered triplets created from the first set of unique indicia, the second set of unique indicia, and the third set of unique indicia. 
     
     
         10 . A method of game play using a nonconventional deck of cards comprising:
 providing a plurality of playing cards, each card of the plurality of playing cards having a card face bearing at least a first indicium, a second indicium, and a third indicium, the first indicium comprising a card character, the second indicium comprising a suit, and the third indicium comprising a color;   providing a gaming table having a playing surface and a game layout;   dealing a two-card hand to each player from said deck of nonconventional playing cards;   dealing of door cards, an amount of door cards to be dealt corresponding to a number of players participating in the game;   auctioning each door card and awarding each door card to a player making a highest door card auction bid for each door card;   dealing community cards;   receiving at least one play wager or an election to fold from each of the players;   determining an outcome of the game with reference to a five-card hand formed by each player's two-card hand, each player's door card, and the community cards; and   resolving the at least one play wager.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein said step of determining an outcome comprises determining which of the five-card hands outranks all other five-card hands and designating a winning hand according to a predetermined five-card hand ranking based on the first, second, and third indicia. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10  wherein a minimum next bid is set during the auction for subsequent bids, where the minimum next bid B m  is equal to a previous bid B l  plus a difference between the previous bid B l  and a bid B p  that is the bid preceding B l , or B m =B l +(B l −B p ). 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein one of the first, second, or third indicium is shown on a reverse side of the card face of each card. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the two-card hand dealt to each player is dealt with the card face down. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein when a blind bid is received prior to the auctioning step for a first door card, the auctioning step for the first door card is completed with the first door card face down, and wherein when the blind bid is not received prior to the auctioning step for the first door card, the auctioning step for the first door card is completed with the first door card face up. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein an amount of the blind bid is set based on a value shown by a wager cube. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein a number of the community cards to be dealt is randomly determined. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein two of the community cards are revealed prior to receiving the at least one play wager or the election to fold. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the plurality of playing cards comprises one hundred playing cards, the character being one of five different characters, the suit being one of four different suits, and the color being one of five different colors. 
     
     
         20 . A method for presenting a game at a gaming machine, the method comprising:
 providing a gaming machine having an input device, at least one display, a wager accepting device configured to receive monetary value from a player, and a processor configured to execute machine readable instructions stored on the gaming machine, which when executed cause the gaming machine to   receive a wager from the player via the input device;   display on the at least one display cards in each of a plurality of card locations of a card matrix, the displayed cards being randomly selected from a nonconventional deck of cards where each card has a card face bearing at least a first indicium, a second indicium and a third indicium, the first indicium comprising a card character, the second indicium comprising a suit, and the third indicium comprising a color;   determining whether there is a winning combination of cards along one of a plurality of predetermined pay lines in the card matrix; and   awarding winnings to the player when it is determined there is a winning combination based upon a predetermined pay table.