7 Cards Poker-Mahjong

Abstract

The invention is similar to the Poker card game and simpler than Mahjong that can be easily learned and played at home among friends or in the Las Vegas type casinos. The standard 52 poker cards are used. The game can be played by two people up to a maximum of seven people. Each player is dealt with six cards face-down to start the game. Then, each player takes turn to either get a card from the remaining deck or take the discarded card from the preceding player. The objective is to come up with a 7-card hand with the winning pattern. The winning pattern consists of 2 cards of the same ranking (a Pair) and 5 cards of the poker hand (Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush and Straight). Unlike the Poker game, there is no betting and bluffing. A simple logic and choice are made in the anticipation of the 7th card in order to derive and achieve a winning hand before the other players do. The winner collects a wager from each player depending on the specific winning hand. Each winning Hand is assigned a token value. ROYAL-FLUSH is the most difficult, thus, it has the highest token value. STRAIGHT is the easiest, thus, it has the lowest token value.

Description

REFERENCES CITED

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
	5,489,101	Feb. 06, 1996	Ernest W. Moody
	7,487,970 B1	Feb. 10, 2009	Bernard Chung Bon Ko
	5,863,041	Jan. 26, 1999	Eugene B. Boylan et al.
	5,810,354	Sep. 22, 1998	Frank B. Banyai
	6,834,857 B2	Dec. 28, 2004	Sabing H. Lee et al.
	5,584,486	Dec. 17, 1999	Thomas L. Franklin
	7,389,989	Jun. 24, 2008	Hwei-Wen Wayne Hong

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The Mahjong originated in China is played by four players. It is a game of skill, strategy and calculation. It is also a game of chance. In Asia, Mahjong is also popularly and leisurely played as a gambling game among friends and house wives. The game is played with a set of some 152 attractive tiles based on the Chinese characters and symbols. Each player begins by drawing thirteen tiles, one after the other. In turn, players draw and discard tiles until they complete a winning hand using the fourteenth drawn tile to form four groups of three tiles each and a pair of two tiles. The winner collects a wager from each player depending on the specific winning hand. It is calculated based on the specific patterns of the four groups of three tiles. Due to the large possible variations (thirteen tiles verse five cards, 152 tiles verse 52 cards); it takes a long time for the novice to master the game and the wager system. It also takes a comparatively long time to complete one round of the game.

Poker is a five-card vying game played with the standard 52 poker cards. A vying game is one where, instead of playing their cards out, the players bet as to who holds the best card combination by progressively raising the stakes during each round as the cards are dealt. If more than one player remains, there is a showdown, in which the players reveal their previously hidden cards and evaluate their hands. The player with the best hand according to the poker variant being played wins the pot. A poker hand comprises five cards; in the variants where a player has more than five cards the best five cards play. At any time during a betting round, if one player bets and no opponents choose to call the bet and instead fold, the hand ends immediately, the bettor is awarded the pot, no cards are required to be shown, and the next hand begins. This is what makes bluffing possible. Bluffing is a primary feature of poker. The different categories of five-card poker hands are as follows, from weakest to highest: One Pair, Two pair, Three of a kind, Straight, Flush, Full house, Four of a kind, Straight flush and Royal flush.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The 7 Cards Poker-Mahjong combines unique features from the Chinese Mahjong and the Poker card game. It uses the standard 52 poker cards, adopts the simple 5-card poker winning patterns, and utilizes Mahjong's requirement of skill and strategy. It is still a game of chance but engages the player in more thought process and choices. The poker's betting and bluffing methods are eliminated. In its place is a simpler and more predictable Mahjong style wager system. Each winning hand is pre-assigned a token value depending on the degree of difficulties. There are additional value added conditions—for example, drawing the winning card from the deck or getting it from the discarded card from the other player—which are described in details below. The 7 Cards Poker-Mahjong can be played among friends in the privacy of the home or in a Las Vegas type casino environment where total strangers can play together around a table with the House acting as a supervisor. In addition of dealing the cards to the players, the House will also enforce the rules and wager system of the game. For this, the House can collect a percentage of the winning wager at the end of each round of the game played. Such services—providing the tables and dealers, handling the exchange of money for gaming chips—are already in place for the poker games offered by the gaming establishments in Las Vegas and elsewhere.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

There are eight major drawings used to help in describing this invention. They are explained below:

FIG. 1A-1B shows how the card is dealt with four participating players. Player 1 is dealt the first card face-down followed by Player 2 and so on, clockwise. To show how the cards are played later on, Player 4's card is shown face-up;

FIG. 2 shows that six cards are dealt to each player to start the game. To show how the cards are played later on, Player 4's cards are shown face-up;

FIG. 3 shows Player 1 gets a card from the remaining deck in the middle;

FIG. 4 shows Player 1 discards a card face-up for all to see;

FIG. 5 shows Player 4 has a winning hand of Four-Of-A-Kind (2-Spade, 2-Heart, 2-Diamond, 2-Club, J-Club, Q-Diamond, Q-Club). If Player 1 gets a PAIR of 2, it has a winning hand of ROYAL-FLUSH. If Player 2 gets a PAIR of 3, it has a winning hand of FULL-HOUSE. If Player 3 gets a PAIR of 4, it has a winning hand of STRAIGHT;

FIG. 6 shows Player 2 gets a card from the remaining deck in the middle, after Player 1 discarded a card;

FIG. 7A shows Player 3 discards 2-Club that is about to be picked up by Player 4;

FIG. 7B shows Player 4 picks up the 2-Club discarded by Player 3 to form a PAIR;

FIG. 7C shows Player 4 discards 4-Club to wait for a possible Straight out of 6-8-10-Q;

FIG. 8 shows Player 1 with a winning hand of FULL-HOUSE after Player 3 discarded the 9-Spade;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the event that an independent dealer is not available, the 7 Cards Poker-Mahjong is started by a designated player-dealer shuffling the 52 standard poker cards. The jokers are not used. Each player can also take turn to be the dealer. The dealer then throws two dice to determine which player is dealt the first card and later will draw (or be dealt) the first card from the remaining deck.

One card is dealt to each player face-down and clockwise (FIG. 1A-1B) until every player has six cards (FIG. 2). Then, the player dealt the first card starts to draw (or be dealt) a card from the remaining deck (FIG. 3). With seven cards in the hand, the player checks if it is the winning hand (described below). If it is, the hand is displayed face-up on the table for everyone to see (FIG. 8). A wager is then looked up and collected according to the specific winning hand and the condition it is achieved (described below). If it is not, a card is discarded face-up (FIG. 4).

The 7 cards winning hand are (FIG. 5):

• • A PAIR, two cards with the same ranking;
  • The remaining 5 cards have to be in one of the following Poker combination:
    • a) STRAIGHT—five cards in ranking sequence of different suits;
    • b) FLUSH—five cards of the same suit of random ranking sequence;
    • c) FULL-HOUSE—three cards of the same rank and two cards of the same rank;
    • d) FOUR-OF-A-KIND—four cards of the same rank with one card of anything;
    • e) STRAIGHT-FLUSH—five cards in ranking sequence of the same suit with no Ace;
    • f) ROYAL-FLUSH—Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 in ranking sequence of the same suit.
      The winning conditions are:
  • If the winning card is from the deck on the very first time the card is drawn (or dealt), the pre-determined wager is doubled and collected from all players.
  • If the winning card is from the deck after the first time the card is drawn, the pre-determined wager is collected from all players.
  • If the winning card is from the discard by anyone of the player, the pre-determined wager is collected only from the player who discarded the card.
  • If the winning card is of the single-choice type, then the wager is added a pre-determined bonus token value. Example of the single-choice types are (see X):
    • a) In the middle of a straight: 3-4-X-6-7, 3-X-5-6-7
    • b) One of the PAIR: 3-4-5-6-7-J-X
    • To avoid ambiguity, when the player draws (or is dealt) a card from the deck, the player shall look at the card first before mixing it with the 6 cards in the hand. If it is the winning card, it shall then be displayed on the table separately from the 6 cards to show that it is the single-choice type.

After the first player discarded a card, the other players will check it against the 6 cards in their hand to see if a winning hand can be produced. If it is, the player displays the 6 cards on the table face-up for everyone to see. A wager is then looked up and collected only from the player who discarded the winning card, in this case, the first player. More than one player can produce a winning hand. In that case, the player who discarded the winning card is obliged to pay all the players with the winning hand. If no player claims the discarded card from the first player as the winning hand, the next player, clockwise, can draw (or be dealt) a card from the remaining deck (FIG. 6) or take in this discarded card. Only the next player can take in this discarded card. With seven cards in the hand, the player checks if it is the winning hand and repeats the process as described above.

If no player comes up with a winning hand after the last card is drawn (or dealt) and discarded, before the cards are shuffled and a new round of game is started, each player contributes a pre-determined wager to the pot. So that, the next player with the winning hand will not only collect the normal wager but also the wager in the pot.

The basic strategy to achieve a winning hand is first to review the 6 cards to see how close it is to one of the six winning patterns (Straight, Flush, Full House, Four of a Kind, Straight Flush and Royal Flush). Straight or Flush is easier to form but the wager is also smaller. FIG. 7A to 7C depict how Player 4 picks up 2-Club discard from Player 3 to form a PAIR. Player 4 then discards 4-Club to wait for a possible Straight out of 6-8-10-Q. Examining other player's discards carefully will also help in deciding a better winning path to take and in avoiding discard a card that may benefit the other players. Even though this game is still a game of chance and luck, a carefully constructed strategy and well-honed skill can result in losing small and winning big in the long haul.

Claims

1. A method of playing a game using the standard 52 poker cards where:

a) a minimum of 2 players with up to seven players can participate;

b) to start the game, each player is dealt with six cards face-down;

c) the card is dealt, determined by random dice throw, one card at a time clockwise to each player till all players have six cards;

d) each player takes turn to either take in the discarded card from the preceding player or get a card from the deck;

e) After six cards are dealt to all players, the first player (determined by random dice throw) can only get a card from the deck;

f) If the 7-card combination is not the winning hand, a card is discarded to keep the hand at 6 cards all the time;

g) If the 7-card combination is the winning hand after the card is picked from the deck or is from the discarded by any player in the present round, the player display the winning hand on the table face-up for everyone to see and one round of the game is terminated;

h) The player with the winning hand collects a wager from the players depending on the specific winning hand and the condition it is achieved.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising that the 7-card winning hands are defined as followed:

A PAIR, two cards with the same ranking;

The remaining 5 cards have to be in one of the following Poker combination: a) STRAIGHT—five cards in ranking sequence of different suits; b) FLUSH—five cards of the same suit of random ranking sequence; c) FULL-HOUSE—three cards of the same rank and two cards of the same rank; d) FOUR-OF-A-KIND—four cards of the same rank with one card of anything; e) STRAIGHT-FLUSH—five cards in ranking sequence of the same suit with no Ace; f) ROYAL-FLUSH—Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 in ranking sequence of the same suit.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising that the player with the winning hand collects a wager from other player based on the following token system (it is left to the House or players to determine what does each token represents):

a) ROYAL-FLUSH: 20 tokens

b) STRAIGHT-FLUSH: 10 tokens

c) FOUR-OF-A-KIND: 5 tokens

d) FULL-HOUSE: 3 tokens

e) FLUSH: 2 tokens

f) STRAIGHT: 2 tokens

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

a) if the winning card is from the deck on the very first time the card is drawn, the wager in claim 3 is doubled and collected from all players;

b) if the winning card is from the deck after the first time the card is drawn, the wager in claim 3 is collected from all players;

c) If the winning card is from the discard by any one of the player, the wager in claim 3 is collected only from the player who discarded the card;

d) If the winning card is of the single-choice type, then 2 tokens are added to the wager in claim 3. Example of the single-choice types are (see X): in the middle of a straight: 3-4-X-6-7, 3-X-5-6-7; one of the PAIR: 3-4-5-6-7-J-X.

e) to avoid ambiguity, when the player draws (or is dealt) a card from the deck, the player shall look at the card first before mixing it with the six cards in the hand.

f) If it is the winning card, it shall then be displayed on the table separately from the six cards to show that it is the single-choice type;

g) more than one player can produce a winning hand from the discarded card;

h) the player who discarded the winning card is obliged to pay the wager in claim 3 to all the players with the winning hand;

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising that if no player comes up with a winning hand after the last card is drawn (or is dealt) and discarded, before the cards are shuffled and a new round of game is started, each player contributes 5 tokens to the pot.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising that the next player with the winning hand will not only collect the normal wager but also the wager in the pot.