Card dispensing shoe with scanner apparatus, system and method therefor

Claim 1

A card tracking system comprising a card delivery shoe for use in dealing playing cards for the playing of a card game and a computer coupled thereto comprising in combination: a housing having a chute for supporting at least one deck of playing cards for movement toward one end of the housing, said housing having an outlet opening whereby the cards of the deck are removed one-by-one out of the housing during the play of a game; means for scanning indicia on each of the cards as they move along said chute whereby a signal is generated which represents the values and suits of the cards as they move one-by-one out of the housing; means for coupling the signal from said scanning means to the computer for processing the signal for determination of trends in the play of the game in accordance with the way in which the cards are played relative to a basic strategy and/or card count system; said computer being programmed to perform the following: (1) display on at least one display coupled to the shoe, during real time, in numerical sequence, the first active seat first and also individual active seat numbers of all seats being played by players of the card game and a total of each active player's game cards comprising each hand dealt to each active game player and to a dealer, as the game cards are dealt to each active game player for each game round dealt from the shoe; (2) display on at least one computer monitor during real time, in numerical sequence, the first active seat first and also all active seats being played by players of the card game and a total of each active player's game cards comprising each hand dealt to each active game player and to a dealer, as the game cards are dealt to each active game player for each game round dealt from the shoe; (3) display on at least one computer monitor, during real time, the deck penetration that has been achieved for the deck(s) being dealt from the shoe; (4) display on at least one computer monitor, during real time, the running and true counts for the card count system selected from card count systems, that have been programmed into the computer, for the playing cards being dealt from the shoe; (5) display on at least one computer monitor, during real time, at least one of selected card count system's strategy decision indices and recommended decisions, for playing each hand of twenty-one dealt to each player of the game, when the cards comprising each player's hand have a specific total, and a dealer's up-card has a specific game card value, the selected card count system's true count value for the cards being dealt from the shoe to generate a true count for the playing cards of the deck(s) remaining in the shoe, and an identification that each player is playing against a specific set of rules; (6) display on at least one computer monitor, during real time, at least one of a selected basic strategy's decision indices and recommended decisions, that have been programmed into the computer, for playing each hand of twenty-one dealt to each player of the game when the cards comprising each player's hand have a specific total, and a dealer's up-card has a specific game card value, and an identification that each player is playing against a specific set of rules; (7) display on at least one computer monitor, during real time, each active player's strategy proficiency at a selected basic strategy system for the game in progress; (8) display on at least one computer monitor, during real time, each active player's strategy proficiency at a selected card count system for the game in progress; (9) display on at least one computer monitor during real time, each active player's betting proficiency relative to the true count of the deck(s) remaining in the shoe to be dealt to the game players for a selected card count system for the game in progress; (10) display in numerical sequence for each active seat, on at least one computer monitor, during real time, the value of each betting unit bet for each active seat's hand; (11) display on at least one computer monitor, during real time, each player's strategy proficiency for both all basic strategy systems and card count systems programmed into the computer; (12) display during real time, on at least one computer monitor the number of the game table where the twenty-one game is being evaluated; the number of active seats being played during the current game round, the number of the inactive seats not being played during the current game round, the number of deck(s) being dealt from the shoe to the game players, the deck penetration that has been achieved for the deck(s) being dealt from the shoe, a selected card count system's running count for the deck(s) being dealt from the shoe, a selected card count system's true count for the deck(s) being dealt from the shoe, the total of the game cards dealt to each player's hand and the total of the game cards dealt as the dealer' hand, when a hand consists of at least two cards, at least one of the selected basic strategy's and the selected card count system's decision index(s), and recommended strategy decisions, that have been programmed into the computer, for at least one of a basic strategy and card count system, for each hand dealt to each of the players during the play of the game, when the dealer's up-card has a specific game card value and the cards comprising a player's hand have a specific total, and the number of rounds and hands played by each player, and each decision each player actually makes on each current hand played, and each player's proficiency at the selected basic strategy when the player's actual decisions for the hands played are compared to the selected basic strategy's decision indices, and each player's proficiency at a selected card count system when the player's actual decisions for the hands played are compared to the selected card count system's true count for the deck's being dealt as compared to recommended decision indices when playing against a specific set of game rules; (13) identify when the dealer has one of an Ace and a Ten equivalent card as an up-card and inform the dealer if the dealer's hand constitutes a two-card "21"; (14) display, during real time, each game player's basic strategy system advantage for a selected basic strategy when the player is playing against a specific number of deck(s), a specific deck penetration, and a specific set of game rules; (15) display, during real time, each game player's card count system (CSA) advantage for a selected card count system when the player is playing against a specific number of deck(s), a specific deck penetration, and a specific set of game rules; and (16) identify the active seats and the dealer's position during the course of the play of the game to provide a signal as to the sequence of the cards delivered from the shoe to the game player's and the dealer and what cards each player position receives for each card dealt to each of the players during each game round and what cards the dealer's position receives during each game around during real time; and (17) identify the active seats and the dealer's position during the course of the play of the game to provide a signal as to the delivery sequence of the card values and the suit designations of each of the playing cards dealt to the game players and the dealer from the shoe apparatus that comprise each player's and the dealer's hand(s) during each game round during real time.

Claim 59

A method of card delivery and player proficiency evaluation for playing a card game comprising the steps of: dispensing cards to a number of players; scanning each of the cards dispensed from the housing and generating a scanner signal representative of the identity of each card dispensed to the players; and processing the scanner signal to count each of the cards dispensed to each of the players playing the card game and to determine at least one statistic in the play of the game relative to predetermined criteria to thereby evaluate the proficiency of the players.

Claim 60

A method of card delivery and player proficiency evaluation for playing a card game comprising the steps of: dispensing cards to a number of players; scanning each of the cards dispensed from the housing and generating a scanner signal representative of the identity of each card dispensed to the players; and processing the scanner signal to count each of the cards dispensed to each of the players playing the card game and to determine at least one statistic in the play of the game relative to predetermined criteria to thereby evaluate the proficiency of the players.