Abstract: Card games that combine the play of a Poker-variant card game (e.g., three-, four-, and five-card Poker) with a side wager (e.g., Pair Plus). Players wagering against a dealer's hand, optionally wager against a predetermined ranking of winning hands, and may place additional wagers. According to another aspect, players are provided with a wild card which is retained and used repeatedly by each player with each hand.

Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus and method for moving playing cards from a first group of cards into plural hands of cards, wherein each of the hands contains a random arrangement of the same quantity of cards. The apparatus comprises a card receiver for receiving the first group of cards, a single stack of card-receiving compartments generally adjacent to the card receiver, the stack generally vertically movable, an elevator for moving the stack, a card-moving mechanism between the card receiver and the stack, and a microprocessor that controls the card-moving mechanism and the elevator so that an individual card is moved into an identified compartment. The number of compartments receiving cards and the number of cards moved to each compartment may be selected.