US5518249A
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Cards and methods for playing blackjack
Assignee: Casinovations Inc
•
Filing: 1994-12-08
•
Granted: 1996-05-21
•
Expires: 2014-12-08
Abstract
Abstract A playing card deck for playing blackjack or casino twenty-one. The cards preferably have diagonally opposing primary and secondary corners. All cards in the deck have indicia or markings at the primary corners which indicate the nature of the card (suit and card type). The deck has two groupings of cards. The secondary corners of the first group do not indicate the specific nature or count of the card. The secondary corners of the second group, such as aces, have secondary indicia. This allows a dealer to selectively peek at the secondary corner of his face-down card to determine whether a blackjack hand exists. If blackjack does not exist, then the dealer does not know the face-down card and cheating or unintentional disclosure is prevented.
Inventors
- 👤 Randy D. Sines
- 👤 Steven L. Forte
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-03 14:57
CPC Classifications
A; A63; A63F; A63F1/00; A63F1/02
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 28
Claim 1
Independent Claim
130 words
A playing card deck, comprising: a series of cards each having a face and a back; said series of cards being organized into a plurality of suits each including ace cards and non-ace cards; the faces of said cards each having specific indicia thereon said specific indicia being distinctive to indicate the specific numerical count of the card; the faces of said cards each having a primary zone and a pair of secondary corner zones; said secondary corner zones together comprising at least 30 percent of the surface area of the non-ace cards; wherein the secondary corner zones of said non-ace cards do not contain sufficient information to indicate the numerical count of the card; wherein the secondary corner zones of said ace cards indicate the card is an ace.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
130 words
A playing card deck, comprising: a series of cards each having a face and a back; said series of cards being organized into a plurality of suits each including ace cards and non-ace cards; the faces of said cards each having specific indicia thereon said specific indicia being distinctive to indicate the specific numerical count of the card; the faces of said cards each having a primary zone and a pair of secondary corner zones; said secondary corner zones together comprising at least 30 percent of the surface area of the non-ace cards; wherein the secondary corner zones of said non-ace cards do not contain sufficient information to indicate the numerical count of the card; wherein the secondary corner zones of said ace cards indicate the card is an ace.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
17 words
The card deck of claim 1 wherein the secondary corner zones of the non-ace cards are vacant.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
28 words
The card deck of claim 1 wherein the secondary corner zones of the non-ace cards contain designs which are not indicative of the numerical count of the cards.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
20 words
The card deck of claim 1 wherein the secondary corner zones of the non-ace cards contain a suit indicating pip.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
22 words
The card deck of claim 1 wherein the secondary corner zones comprise 30 to 70 percent of the face of the cards.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
21 words
The card deck of claim 1 wherein each of the secondary corner zones of the non-ace cards contains a single pip.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
26 words
The card deck of claim 1 wherein the secondary corner zones of the non-ace cards contains a single pip and a portion of a pip-enclosing border.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
22 words
The card deck of claim 1 wherein the secondary corner zones of the ace cards contains a symbol near secondary corners thereof.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
29 words
The card deck of claim 1 wherein the secondary corner zones of the ace cards contains a symbol near secondary corners thereof, said symbol being at least one line.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
29 words
The card deck of claim 1 wherein the secondary corner zones of the ace cards contains a symbol near secondary corners thereof, said symbol being a dual perimeter line.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
44 words
The card deck of claim 1 wherein there are four suits, with one of the aces in each suit, and with a two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, jack, queen, and king card making up the non-ace cards in each suit.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
156 words
A playing card deck, comprising: a series of cards each having a ace and a back; said series of cards being organized into a plurality of suits each including ace cards and non-ace cards; the faces of said cards each having specific indicia thereon said specific indicia being distinctive to indicate the specific numerical count of the card; the faces of said cards each having a primary zone and a pair of secondary corner zones; said secondary corner zones together comprising at least 30 percent of the surface area of the non-ace cards; the faces of said non-ace cards having a center region and a center region borderline which at least partially extends about and defines the center region; wherein the secondary corner zones of said non-ace cards do not contain sufficient information to indicate of;the numerical count of the card; wherein the secondary corner zones of said ace cards indicate the card is an ace.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
156 words
A playing card deck, comprising: a series of cards each having a ace and a back; said series of cards being organized into a plurality of suits each including ace cards and non-ace cards; the faces of said cards each having specific indicia thereon said specific indicia being distinctive to indicate the specific numerical count of the card; the faces of said cards each having a primary zone and a pair of secondary corner zones; said secondary corner zones together comprising at least 30 percent of the surface area of the non-ace cards; the faces of said non-ace cards having a center region and a center region borderline which at least partially extends about and defines the center region; wherein the secondary corner zones of said non-ace cards do not contain sufficient information to indicate of;the numerical count of the card; wherein the secondary corner zones of said ace cards indicate the card is an ace.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
30 words
The card deck of claim 12 wherein diagonal boundaries define between the primary zone and the secondary corner zones; said diagonal boundaries being positioned to cut through the center region.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
36 words
The card deck of claim 12 wherein diagonal boundaries define between the primary zone and the secondary corner zones; said diagonal boundaries being positioned to cut through the center region to define center region intersection zones.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
49 words
The card deck of claim 12 wherein diagonal boundaries define between the primary zone and the secondary corner zones; said diagonal boundaries being positioned to cut through the center region to define center region intersection zones; said center region intersection zones for non-ace cards containing at least one pip.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
55 words
The card deck of claim 12 wherein diagonal boundaries define between the primary zone and the secondary corner zones; said diagonal boundaries being positioned to cut through the center region to define center region intersection zones; said center region intersection zones for non-ace cards containing one pip which is similarly located for all non-ace cards.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
22 words
The card deck of claim 12 wherein the secondary corner zones comprise 30 to 70 percent of the ace of the cards.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
29 words
The card deck of claim 12 wherein the secondary corner zones of the ace cards contains a symbol near secondary corners thereof, said symbol being at least one line.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
29 words
The card deck of claim 12 wherein the secondary corner zones of the ace cards contains a symbol near secondary corners thereof, said symbol being a dual perimeter line.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
44 words
The card deck of claim 12 wherein there are four suits, with one of the aces in each suit, and with a two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, jack, queen, and king card making up the non-ace cards in each suit.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
40 words
The card deck of claim 12 wherein the center region borderline forms a substantially rectangular count-recognition box within which are located an arrangement of pips which indicate the numerical count of non-ace cards except the jack, queen and king cards.
Claim 24
Independent Claim
281 words
A method for playing the card game blackjack or casino twenty-one involving at least one dealer and at least one player, comprising: selecting at least one blackjack deck of cards having: a series of cards each having a face and a back; said series of cards being organized into a plurality of suits each including a first group and a second group; the faces of said cards each having specific indicia thereon said specific indicia being distinctive to indicate the specific numerical count of the card; the faces of said cards each having a primary zone and a pair of secondary corner zones; said secondary corner zones together comprising at least 30 percent of the surface area of the cards; wherein the secondary corner zones of said first group of cards do not contain sufficient information to indicate of the numerical count of the card; wherein the secondary corner zones of said second group of cards indicate the card is a member of the second group; dealing two cards to each player and the dealer, the cards to the dealer being one facedown card and one aceup card; considering whether the dealer can have a total hand count of twenty one based upon the count of the aceup card of the dealer; lifting a secondary corner of said facedown card of the dealer; peeking by directly viewing the secondary corner of the dealer facedown card which has been lifted to see if the card is either a member of the first group or second group of cards; ending the play of a hand of cards if the dealer total hand count equals twenty-one after the dealer has only received two cards.
Claim 25
Independent Claim
281 words
A method for playing the card game blackjack or casino twenty-one involving at least one dealer and at least one player, comprising: selecting at least one blackjack deck of cards having: a series of cards each having a face and a back; said series of cards being organized into a plurality of suits each including a first group and a second group; the faces of said cards each having specific indicia thereon said specific indicia being distinctive to indicate the specific numerical count of the card; the faces of said cards each having a primary zone and a pair of secondary corner zones; said secondary corner zones together comprising at least 30 percent of the surface area of the cards; wherein the secondary corner zones of said first group of cards do not contain sufficient information to indicate of the numerical count of the card; wherein the secondary corner zones of said second group of cards indicate the card is a member of the second group; dealing two cards to each player and the dealer, the cards to the dealer being one facedown card and one aceup card; considering whether the dealer can have a total hand count of twenty one based upon the count of the aceup card of the dealer; lifting a secondary corner of said facedown card of the dealer; peeking by directly viewing the secondary corner of the dealer facedown card which has been lifted to see if the card is either a member of the first group or second group of cards; ending the play of a hand of cards if the dealer total hand count equals twenty-one after the dealer has only received two cards.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
21 words
A method according to claim 22 wherein the first group includes non-ace cards and the second group includes the ace cards.
Claim 27
Independent Claim
276 words
A method for playing the card game blackjack or casino twenty-one involving at least one dealer and at least one player, comprising: selecting at least one blackjack deck of cards having: a series of cards each having a face and a back; said series of cards being organized into a plurality of suits each including ace cards and non-ace cards; the faces of said cards each having specific indicia thereon said specific indicia being distinctive to indicate the specific numerical count of the card; the faces of said cards each having a primary zone and a pair of secondary corner zones; said secondary corner zones together comprising at least 30 percent of the surface area of the non-ace cards; wherein the secondary corner zones of said non-ace cards do not contain sufficient information to indicate of the numerical count of the card; wherein the secondary corner zones of said ace cards indicate the card is an ace; dealing two cards to each player and the dealer, the cards to the dealer being one facedown card and one faceup card; considering whether the dealer can have a total hand count of twenty-one based upon the count of the faceup card of the dealer; lifting a secondary corner of said facedown card of the dealer; peeking by directly viewing the secondary corner of the dealer facedown card which has been lifted to see if the card is a non-ace card, or an ace card which produces a dealer total hand count of twenty-one; and ending the play of a hand of cards if the dealer total hand count equals twenty-one after the dealer has only received two cards.
Claim 28
Independent Claim
276 words
A method for playing the card game blackjack or casino twenty-one involving at least one dealer and at least one player, comprising: selecting at least one blackjack deck of cards having: a series of cards each having a face and a back; said series of cards being organized into a plurality of suits each including ace cards and non-ace cards; the faces of said cards each having specific indicia thereon said specific indicia being distinctive to indicate the specific numerical count of the card; the faces of said cards each having a primary zone and a pair of secondary corner zones; said secondary corner zones together comprising at least 30 percent of the surface area of the non-ace cards; wherein the secondary corner zones of said non-ace cards do not contain sufficient information to indicate of the numerical count of the card; wherein the secondary corner zones of said ace cards indicate the card is an ace; dealing two cards to each player and the dealer, the cards to the dealer being one facedown card and one faceup card; considering whether the dealer can have a total hand count of twenty-one based upon the count of the faceup card of the dealer; lifting a secondary corner of said facedown card of the dealer; peeking by directly viewing the secondary corner of the dealer facedown card which has been lifted to see if the card is a non-ace card, or an ace card which produces a dealer total hand count of twenty-one; and ending the play of a hand of cards if the dealer total hand count equals twenty-one after the dealer has only received two cards.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
US56072A
Cited
US1798672A
Cited
US2639922A
Cited
US4014549A
Cited
US5039102A
Cited
US5224712A
Cited
US5403015A
Cited
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 1999-05-21 | 1999-11-20 | 2000-05-21 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2003-05-21 | 2003-11-20 | 2004-05-21 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2007-05-21 | 2007-11-20 | 2008-05-21 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |