Enhanced Selective Card Determinations for Initial Draw Poker Hand

This patent application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/301,588, filed Apr. 17, 2023, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The present disclosure relates to enhanced selective card determinations for initial draw poker hand in gaming environments.

Gaming machines may provide players awards in plays of primary wagering games such as plays of poker primary wagering games. Gaming machines may provide plays of single hand poker primary wagering games or multi-hand poker primary wagering games. Gaming machines may provide players awards in plays of single hand poker primary wagering games or multi-hand poker primary wagering games.

In various embodiments, the present disclosure relates to a gaming system including a processor and a memory device that stores a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor, for a play of a draw poker game, to: cause a display, by a display device, of a potential card set for an initial hand, the potential card set including a first quantity of cards randomly selected from a deck of cards, such that a second quantity of cards of the potential card set can be selected to form the initial hand, wherein the second quantity of cards is less than the first quantity of cards; cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of a selection of the second quantity of cards from the potential card set that form the initial hand; cause a display, by the display device, of the initial hand including the second quantity of cards; and cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of each card in the potential card set that is not selected to form the initial hand to be returned to the deck of cards. The plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to: cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of each card of the initial hand that is held for the play of the draw poker game; cause a display, by the display device, for each card of the initial hand that is not held for the play of the draw poker game, of a replacement card from the deck of cards in place of that card to form a completed final hand including each card of the initial hand that is held for the play of the draw poker game and each replacement card; and cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of any winning card combination formed by the completed final hand.

In various embodiments, the present disclosure relates to a gaming system including a processor and a memory device that stores a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor, for each of a plurality of plays of a draw poker game: cause a display, by a display device, of a potential card set for an initial hand, the potential card set including a first quantity of cards randomly selected from a deck of cards, such that a second quantity of cards of the potential card set can be selected to form the initial hand, wherein the second quantity of cards is less than the first quantity of cards, wherein the initial hand includes a plurality of card positions, and each of the cards of the potential card set is displayed associated with one of the plurality of card positions of the initial hand, wherein each of the plurality of card positions of the initial hand is associated with at least one of the cards of the potential card set.

The plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to, for each of a plurality of plays of a draw poker game: cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of a selection of the second quantity of cards from the potential card set that form the initial hand; cause a display, by the display device, of the initial hand including the second quantity of cards; and cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of each card in the potential card set that is not selected to form the initial hand to be returned to the deck of cards. The plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to, for each of a plurality of plays of a draw poker game: cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of each card of the initial hand that is held for the play of the draw poker game; cause a display, by the display device, for each card of the initial hand that is not held for the play of the draw poker game, of a replacement card from the deck of cards in place of that card to form a completed final hand including each card of the initial hand that is held for the play of the draw poker game and each replacement card; and cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of any winning card combination formed by the completed final hand. The plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to, for at least two of the plays of the draw poker game, cause the plurality of cards of the potential card sets to be arranged such that different quantities of cards of the potential card sets are associated with different positions of the initial hand.

In various embodiments, the present disclosure relates to a gaming system including a processor and a memory device that stores a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor, for a first play of a draw poker game, to: cause a display, by a display device, of an indication of five card positions for an initial hand; cause a display, by the display device, of a first potential card set for the initial hand, the first potential card set including more than five cards randomly selected from a deck of cards, wherein each of the cards of the first potential card set is displayed in association with one of the five card positions of the initial hand, wherein each of the card positions of the initial hand is displayed in association with at least one of the cards of the first potential card set, wherein at least two of the plurality of card positions of the initial hand are each displayed in association with at least two of the cards of the first potential card set; cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of a selection of the second quantity of cards from the first potential card set to form the initial hand; cause a display, by the display device, of the initial hand including the second quantity of cards; and cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of each card in the first potential card set that is not selected to form the initial hand to be returned to the deck of cards. The plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to: cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of each card of the initial hand that is held for the first play of the draw poker game; cause a display, by the display device, for each card of the initial hand that is not held for the play of the draw poker game, of a replacement card from the deck of cards in place of that card to form a completed final hand including each card of the initial hand that is held for the first play of the draw poker game and each replacement card; and cause a display, by the display device, of an indication of any winning card combination formed by the completed final hand.

Additional features are described herein, and will be apparent from the following Detailed Description and the figures.

In various embodiments, the present disclosure generally relates to gaming systems and methods of operating such gaming systems that provide one or more plays of a draw poker game (such as a primary wagering single hand five card draw video poker game or a multi-hand five card draw video poker game) that each include enhanced selective card determinations for the initial draw poker hand of that play of the draw poker game. In various embodiments, the gaming system determines, for each play of the game, whether to provide the enhanced selective card determinations for that play of the draw poker game. In various embodiments, the gaming system can determine to provide the enhanced selective card determinations for one or more or each play of the draw poker game. Whether to provide the enhanced selective card determinations for the initial draw poker hand of a play of the draw poker game can be determined in one of various different manners such as further discussed herein.

In various embodiments, responsive to the gaming system determining to provide the enhanced selective card determinations for a play of the draw poker game, the gaming system displays an indication to the player that the gaming system will provide the enhanced selective card determinations for that play of the draw poker game. In various embodiments, responsive to the gaming system determining to provide the enhanced selective card determinations for a play of the draw poker game, the gaming system also displays an indication to the player of a quantity of cards that will be in a potential card set for the initial hand of the play of the draw poker game. In various embodiments, the respective quantities of cards of the potential card sets for plays of the draw poker game vary such as further discussed herein. In various embodiments, the respective quantity of cards of the potential card sets for plays of a draw poker game will be separately and independently randomly determined for each of those plays of draw poker game such as further discussed herein.

In various embodiments, the gaming system randomly determines a potential card set (from a deck of cards such as a deck of 52 playing cards) for the initial hand of the play of the draw poker game. The potential card set includes a quantity of cards that is less than the quantity of cards in the deck of cards. The potential card set has a greater quantity of cards than the quantity of cards needed for the initial hand of the play of the draw poker game. In one example draw poker game using a deck of 52 playing cards, the initial hand includes five cards, and the quantity of cards in the potential card set is: seven, eight, nine, or ten. In another example draw poker game using a deck of 52 playing cards, the initial hand includes five cards, and the quantity of cards in the potential card set is more than six and less than sixteen. The quantity of cards in the potential card set for each potential card set can be determined in one of various different manners as further discussed herein.

In various embodiments, the gaming system displays the determined potential card set. The display can be in any suitable manner. In various embodiments, the gaming system displays an indication of card positions (such as five card positions) for the initial hand of the play of the draw poker game, and displays the cards of the potential card set such that each of the cards of the first potential card set is displayed in association with one of the five card positions of the initial hand, and such that each of the card positions of the initial hand is displayed in association with at least one of the cards of the first potential card set, and such that at least two of the plurality of card positions of the initial hand are each displayed in association with at least two of the cards of the first potential card set.

In various embodiments, the gaming system displays an indication of the enhanced selective card determinations from the displayed potential card set for the initial draw poker hand of the draw poker game. The gaming system can display an indication that the gaming system is selecting the cards of displayed potential card set for the initial draw poker hand.

In various embodiments, the gaming system automatically selects the cards from the displayed potential card set to form the initial poker hand and then displays the selected cards as the initial cards of the draw poker hand. In various embodiments, the potential card set for the initial hand for the play of the draw poker game increases the expected value of the play of the draw poker game. In various embodiments, the gaming system automatically evaluates the cards of the potential card set to determine the best cards of the potential card set for the initial hand for the play of the draw poker game. In various embodiments, the gaming system selects the cards from the potential card set for the initial hand for the play of the draw poker game based on: (1) the cards in the potential card set; (2) the paytable for the play of the draw poker game (including the winning card combinations and their respective payouts); and (3) the odds of obtaining one or more winning card combinations based on different variations of selected cards in the potential card set.

In various other embodiments, the gaming system can enable the player to override one or more of the gaming system selected cards from the potential card set for the initial hand for the play of the draw poker game.

In various other embodiments, the gaming system can enable the player to evaluate and select the cards of the potential card set to determine the best cards of the potential card set for the initial hand for the play of the draw poker game. In various other embodiments, the gaming system display the cards of the potential card set to the player in a sequential order that enables the player, for each card, to determine if the player wants that card of the potential card set for the initial hand for the play of the draw poker game. In such alternative embodiments, the gaming system can reveal the cards of the potential card set on a one-by-one basis (so that the player cannot initially see all of the cards of the potential card set).

In various other embodiments, two or more cards of the potential card set are linked together and thus form a group of cards that need to be selected together (by the gaming system or the player-depending of the embodiment employed). In various such embodiments, the potential card set can include multiple groups of cards that need to be selected together. In various such embodiments, such cards in each of the groups are displayed in a contiguous manner. In various embodiments, each the cards of the potential card set are displayed in a suitable matrix for selection. The matrix can be arranged in any suitable manner and displayed in alignment with the card positions of the initial hand of the draw poker game.

In various embodiments, the gaming system returns the cards of the potential card set that are not selected for the initial draw poker hand to the deck for potential further selection in the play of the draw poker game.

In various embodiments, the gaming system uses that formed initial hand for the rest of the play of the draw poker game (including the player selection of the held cards of the initial hand and the draws for the discarded cards of the initial hand).

The present disclosure contemplates that the gaming system determination of when to provide the enhanced selective card determination feature for a play of the draw poker game can be made in various different manners such as but not limited to the example manners described herein.

In various different embodiments, the gaming system can provide the enhanced selective card determination for every play of the draw poker game.

In various different embodiments, the gaming system can provide the enhanced selective card determination on another regular basis other than for every play of the draw poker game (such as for every 5play of the draw poker game).

In various different embodiments, the gaming system determination of whether to provide the enhanced selective card determination can be for a group of games (such as set of a next five plays of the draw poker game). In various such embodiments, the gaming system determination of whether to provide the enhanced selective card determination can be for a group of plays of the poker game such as part of a triggered bonus or secondary game. In other words, the gaming system can provide a next set of plays of the poker game with the enhanced selective card determination as a bonus or secondary feature.

In various different embodiments, the determination of whether to provide the enhanced selective card determination for a play of the draw poker game can be based on one or more random determinations for the play(s) of the draw poker game.

In various different embodiments, the determination of whether to provide the enhanced selective card determination for a play of the draw poker game can be based on a player wager level for that play of the draw poker game. In various such embodiments, the determination of whether to provide the enhanced selective card determination for a play of the draw poker game can be based on whether the player makes a maximum wager for that play of the draw poker game. In various other such embodiments, the determination of whether to provide the enhanced selective card determination for a play of the draw poker game can be based on whether the player makes a side bet for that play of the draw poker game.

In various different embodiments, the determination of whether to provide the enhanced selective card determination for a play of the draw poker game can be based on an occurrence of a triggering condition for that play of the draw poker game. The triggering condition can be any suitable condition (in addition to the above described conditions). For example, the triggering condition can be whether there is an accumulated quantity of available enhanced selective card determinations in a bank or meter that is available to the player.

In various embodiments, the quantity of cards in the potential card set can remain the same for each employment of the enhanced selective card determination for each play of the draw poker game. For example, for each employment of the enhanced selective card determination, the gaming system can: (1) randomly select 10 cards from the deck of cards to form and display the potential card set; (2) select 5 of the 10 cards to form the initial hand for the draw poker game; and (3) return the non-selected 5 cards to the deck for the rest of the play of the draw poker game.

In various other embodiments, the quantity of cards in the potential card sets can be different for two or more of the enhanced selective card determinations for two or more of the draw poker games. For example: (A) for a first employment of the enhanced selective card determination, the gaming system will: (1) randomly select 10 cards from the deck of cards to form and display the potential card set; (2) select 5 of the 10 cards in the potential card set for forming and displaying the initial hand for the draw poker game; and (3) return the remaining 5 non-selected cards of the potential card set to the deck for the rest of the play of the draw poker game; (B) for a second employment of the enhanced selective card determination, the gaming system can: (1) randomly select 8 cards from the deck of cards for forming and displaying the potential card set; (2) select 5 of the 8 cards of the potential card set to form the initial hand for the draw poker game; and (3) return the remaining 3 non-selected cards of the potential card set to the deck for the rest of the play of the draw poker game; and (C) for a third employment of the enhanced selective card determination, the gaming system can: (1) randomly select 15 cards from the deck of cards for forming and displaying the potential card set; (2) select 5 of the 16 cards of the potential card set to form the initial hand for the draw poker game; and (3) return the remaining 10 non-selected cards of the potential card set to the deck for the rest of the play of the draw poker game. It should be appreciated that the larger the quantity of cards of the potential card set, the greater the likelihood of obtaining a better initial hand, and thus a better final hand for the play of the draw poker game.

In various embodiments, the quantity of cards in the potential card set can be predetermined for each play of the draw poker game that includes the enhanced selective card determination.

In various embodiments, the quantity of cards in the potential card set can be randomly determined for each play of the draw poker game that includes the enhanced selective card determination.

In various embodiments, the quantity of cards in the potential card set can be determined or randomly determined for each play of the draw poker game based on one or more card quantity conditions. These card quantity conditions can be any suitable conditions.

In various embodiments, the arrangement of the cards in the potential card set can be same for each of the enhanced selective card determinations for each play of the draw poker game.

The arrangement of the cards in the potential card set refers to which cards of the potential card set are associated with which card positions of the initial hand of the play of the poker draw game. In one such example, for each employment of the enhanced selective card determination, the gaming system can: (1) associate 2 selectable cards of the potential card set with each of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth card positions for initial hand of cards; (2) select 1 of the 2 cards of the potential card set for each card position to form the initial hand for the draw poker game; and (3) return the remaining other 5 non-selected cards of the potential card set to the deck for the rest of the play of the draw poker game. In another such example, for each employment of the enhanced selective card determination, the gaming system will: (1) associate 3 selectable cards of the potential card set with each of the first, third, and fifth card positions for initial hand of cards; (2) associate 2 selectable cards of the potential card set for the second and fourth card positions for initial hand of cards; (3) select 1 of the 3 cards of the potential card set for each of the respective first, third, and fifth card positions as part of the initial hand for the draw poker game; (4) select 1 of the 2 cards of the potential card set for each of the respective second and fourth card positions as part of the initial hand for the draw poker game; and (5) return the other 8 non-selected cards of the potential card set to the deck for the rest of the play of the draw poker game.

In various embodiments, the arrangement of the cards in the potential card sets can be different for two or more of the enhanced selective card determinations for two or more playa of the draw poker games.

In various embodiments, the arrangement of the cards in the potential card sets can be predetermined for the enhanced selective card determinations for one or more of the plays of the draw poker games.

In various embodiments, the arrangement of the cards in the potential card sets can be determined for the enhanced selective card determinations for one or more of the plays of the draw poker games based on one or more card arrangement conditions.

In various embodiments, the quantity and the arrangement of cards in the potential card set can remain the same for each employment of the enhanced selective card determination for each play of the draw poker game.

In various embodiments, the quantity and the arrangement of cards in the potential card sets can be different for two or more of the enhanced selective card determinations for two or more of the plays of the draw poker game.

In various embodiments, the quantity and the arrangement of cards in the potential card set can both be predetermined for each employment of the enhanced selective card determination for each play of the draw poker game.

In various embodiments, the quantity and the arrangement of cards in the potential card set can both be randomly determined for each employment of the enhanced selective card determination for each play of the draw poker game.

In various embodiments, one of the quantity and the arrangement of cards in the potential card set can be predetermined and the other of the quantity and the arrangement of cards in the potential card can be randomly determined for each employment of the enhanced selective card determination for each play of the draw poker game.

illustrates a flowchart of a methodof operating one example embodiment of the gaming system of the present disclosure to provide a play of one example embodiment of a wagering game and particularly a single hand poker game of the present disclosure. However, such an example is not meant to limit the present disclosure. In various embodiments, a set of instructions stored in one or more memories and executed by one or more processors of the gaming system implements the method. Although the methodis described with reference to the flowchart shown in, many other processes of performing the acts associated with this methodcan be employed. For example, the order of certain of the blocks or diamonds can be changed, certain of the blocks or diamonds can be optional, or certain of the blocks or diamonds may not be employed.

In operation of this example embodiment, the methodbegins after the gaming system establishes a credit balance for a player (such as but not limited to after a physical acceptor of the gaming system receives and validates physical currency, a physical ticket associated with a monetary value, or an electronic payment or transfer of funds from a player account).

The gaming system is also configured to receive a game-initiation input by the player (such as an actuation of a physical deal button or a virtual deal button via a touch screen) and deduct a wager from the credit balance for the play of the draw poker game. Responsive to receipt of the game-initiation input, the gaming system initiates a play of a draw poker game, as indicated by block. While a single-hand draw poker game is used as an example herein, the enhanced selective card determination feature of the present disclosure can alternatively be employed with a multi-hand draw poker game. The employed paytable for the play of the draw poker game is determined based on the type of draw poker game being played and the wager (and in various embodiments the wagering game's denomination). Table 1 below includes an example paytable for an example 5 credit maximum wager per hand Jacks or Better Five Card Draw Poker Game. This example paytable includes the different winning hand categories, the winning hands associated with the different winning hand categories, and the payout awards associated with the winning hand categories. The winning hand categories are listed from highest to lowest payout award ranking. Although not shown here, winning hands can also be ranked within the different winning hand categories. In this example embodiment, the winning hands of the “Jacks or Better” winning hand category include a pair of Jacks, a pair of Queens, a pair of Kings, and a pair of Aces.

The gaming system determines and displays a potential card set including multiple cards randomly selected from a deck of a plurality of different cards, as indicated by block. In one example, the deck of cards includes the cards of a virtual standard 52-card deck. For example,show different example potential card sets for example plays of the draw poker game as discussed below. In these example potential card sets, the quantity of cards is greater than five—which is the quantity of cards of the initial hand.

The gaming system then selects cards from the potential card set to form the initial hand of cards for the play of the poker game, as indicated by block. The gaming system also displays the selected cards as the cards of the initial hand for the play of the game, as also indicated by block. For example,show cards selected from the potential card sets and displayed as the cards for the initial hands of these example plays of the draw poker game as discussed below.

The gaming system returns the non-selected cards of the potential card set to the deck of cards for the rest of play of the poker game, as indicated by block. The gaming system also removes the display of the non-selected cards of the potential card set. For example,show the non-selected cards from the potential card sets removed and thus placed back in the deck of cards for these example plays of the draw poker game as discussed below. Thus, at this point, in this example method, only five of the cards from the virtual 52-card deck have been used and the remaining 48 cards of the virtual 52-card deck can be used to randomly select any replacement cards for any of the now selected initial cards of the initial hand that are not held by the player as described below.

More specifically, for the play of the draw poker game, after determining and displaying the initial player hand, the gaming system enables player input of: (a) a hold input for each card in the respective initial hand; and (b) a draw input. The gaming system monitors for receipt of the card hold input (or inputs) and the draw input, as indicated by diamondsand. This enables the player to choose which of the cards of the initial hand to hold and which of the cards of the initial hand to discard (if any). Responsive to the gaming system determining at diamondthat a card hold input identifying a particular card has been received, the gaming system designates that card as a held card, as indicated by block. For example, the player may select (via an input device) to hold the first card, the second card, and the third card of the cards of the initial hand (such as shown in). In such a case, the gaming system designates each of the first card, the second card, and the third card of the initial hand as held cards (such as shown in).

Responsive to the gaming system determining at diamondthat a draw input has not been received, the gaming system returns to diamond.