CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. provisional application No. 62/524,676, filed 26 Jun. 2017, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to card-based games and, more particularly, a method of playing card-based games of skill involving traditional playing card number/character symbols, but where suit is identified, in certain embodiments, by color.

There are a few poker/match-3 games on the market, but they don't work well because they all employ the traditional poker design depicting both a number/character (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A) and the suit symbol (Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades) within each unit or card. Having two data points per card exponentially complicates the ability for the mind to detect strategic patterns (from 5-10 seconds in Candy Crush™ to 1-5 minutes in a poker match-3 game). The majority of the data our brain analyzes is visual. Our eyes take in hundreds of megapixels per second of visual data that are processed by the visual cortex. We were able to do this for millions of years before we developed the ability to process language, numbers or symbols. So, it is fairly trivial for our brain to detect patterns of 4 distinct colors on a grid, and thereby allowing individuals to simultaneously analyze patterns of colors and numbers/characters.

Popular Match-3 games such as Candy Crush reinforce the shapes with colors (ex. blue sphere, green square, orange oval and purple hexagon). But these are simple constructs where color and shape always correlate. Poker Match-3 games such as “Poker Drop—A Solitaire Game”, introduce playing cards with two data points each, creating a complex matrix of data. It then becomes far too difficult for the brain to detect patterns necessary to make the game enjoyable or even playable for some.

As can be seen, there is a need for card-based games of skill employing traditional play card number/character symbols to embody a method of making of it much easier for players to simultaneously analyze patterns of suits and numbers/characters of the playing cards. The solution is to apply a color to the number/character (or the card's background) in order to identify a suit. With this approach, the brain can simultaneously analyze the number/character and the suit. This vastly improves the brain's capacity to analyze the array of game information, the run of play, and strategize a move or even several moves in advance. This is the key to making a poker match-3 game both playable and enjoyable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect of the present invention, a method of providing a poker game wherein traditional suits are replaced by colors includes providing a grid of a plurality of playing symbols, each playing symbol having only one of four colors, each color associated with a suit of traditional playing cards; providing a user to swap two adjacent playing symbols a predetermined amount of times; revealing an alphanumeric value for each playing symbol, each alphanumeric value associated with a card value of traditional playing cards; prompting the user to swap any two adjacent playing symbols as long as the two adjacent playing symbols share the same color; and determining a highest value of five adjacent playing symbols.

In another aspect of the present invention, the method of providing a poker game wherein traditional suits are replaced by colors includes providing a grid of a plurality of playing symbols, each playing symbol having only one of four colors, each color associated with a suit of traditional playing cards; one or more joker playing symbol having a fifth color and associated with a joker card of traditional playing cards; providing a user to swap two adjacent playing symbols a predetermined amount of times; revealing an alphanumeric value for each playing symbol, each alphanumeric value associated with a card value of traditional playing cards; prompting the user to swap any two adjacent playing symbols as long as the two adjacent playing symbols share the same color; determining a highest value of five adjacent playing symbols; removing said five adjacent playing symbols from the grid; and replacing the removed five adjacent playing symbols from the grid with new playing symbols with playing symbols immediately above the one to five adjacent playing symbols.

These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings, description and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention at the beginning of play;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, illustrating a first move of play;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, illustrating the hand/point display;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, illustrating from the middle of game play, showing the display of a five-card hand;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, illustrating the replacement of erased playing symbols; and

FIG. 6 is a flow chart view of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, demonstrating typical gameplay;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following detailed description is of the best currently contemplated modes of carrying out exemplary embodiments of the invention. The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense but is made merely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention, since the scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims.

Broadly, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method of making traditional playing card-based games of skill much accessible and easy to play and analyze by having colors replace traditional suits.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 through 6, the present invention may include a grid 14 of game symbols 50. Each game symbol 50 may provide alphanumeric values synonymous based on a traditional 52-card deck of playing cards (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A) and/or traditional suit symbols (Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades). Though in some embodiments, colors may be used in place of suit symbols. For example, a first color 18 (e.g., green) may indicate the club suit, a second color 20 (e.g., blue) may indicate the diamond suit, a third color 22 (e.g., gray) may indicate the spade suit, while a fourth color 24 (e.g., red) may symbolize the heart suit. In certain embodiments, a fifth color 26 (e.g., purple) may indicated a joker. The game symbols may be any shape since, in certain embodiments, colors have replaced the specific shape of the playing card suits.

The method of making card-based games of skill suit-independent may be a computer implemented method. As such, the present invention may include at least one computer with a user interface. The computer may include at least one processing unit coupled a form of memory including, but not limited to, a server, a desktop, laptop, and smart device, such as, a tablet and smart phone. The computer includes a program product including a machine-readable program code for causing, when executed, the computer to perform steps. The program product may include software which may either be loaded onto the computer or accessed by the computer. The loaded software may include an application on a smart device. The software may be accessed by the computer using a web browser. The computer may access the software via the web browser using the internet, extranet, intranet, host server, internet cloud and the like.

The computer may be adapted to generate a playing area 10 providing a representation of the grid 14 of playing symbols 50, a score/move display 12, and a move countdown bar 16 on the user interface. The grid 14 of playing symbols 50 may be 6×9 grid 14 providing a graphic representation of six columns by nine rows of playing symbols 50 capable of providing all 52 cards of a traditional deck of cards plus two jokers, but other permutations are possible.

A method of using the present invention may include the following. A grid 14 of playing symbols 50 disclosed above may be provided wherein each symbol 50 would be one of the first through fifth colors without any alphanumeric values, as illustrated in FIG. 1. The game enables a player to moves playing symbols 50 between grid cells to create matches as defined by traditional poker. In one embodiment, the player may only swap playing symbols 50 in adjacent grid cells so as to create matching sets 28 of vertical columns and horizontal rows of colors (18-26)/suits, as illustrated in FIG. 2. Then alphanumeric values may be provided after a predetermine amount of swaps, as illustrated in FIG. 3. Where the revealed alphanumeric values and pre-existing colors/suits creates an official made poker hand 30 in either a vertical column or horizontal row, the present invention may highlight the hand and display its name and point value in the made hand and score display 32 on the user interface, as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4.

Play continues as the player swaps cards to create matches and/or made hands 30—alphanumeric values may be matched as long as they share the same designating suit color. Lower hand matches (pair, two pair and three of a kind) may build up to higher made hands 30.

Once higher value (in the context of conventional poker rules) made hands 30 are formed and revealed, those playing symbols 50 comprising said made hand 30 may be removed from the grid 14, allowing new playing symbols 50 (analogous to new playing cards from a deck of playing cards to be in play) to be represented in the cells vacated by made hands 30, in certain embodiments, when the made hand has a predetermined score or value. Graphically, the user interface may represent that the replacement playing symbols 50 are descending from an immediately upper position in the grid 14 of playing symbols 50, as illustrated in FIG. 5.

In certain embodiments, playing symbols 50 may only be swapped with adjacent cells/playing symbols 50 with the exception of the joker 26, which may be swapped with any other cell/playing symbol in the grid 14. Points accumulate as matches and hands are formed with each move. Once the predetermined number of moves have been played the players can view their final score and statistics.

A player of the game would analyze the grid 14 (or game board) in order to detect patterns to form made (poker) hands 30. The most difficult hands such as a Royal Flush are also the ones that make the most points by far and are sometimes necessary in order to beat a level. A Royal Flush has five cards of the same suit (A, K, Q, J, and 10). The player would easily detect these five cards of similar color and attempt to move them together by creating other smaller hands such as a pair or three of a kind.

Additionally, the game could be a physical set of cards and/or gameboard with physical symbols that utilize the same principles of using color to identify the suits, and wherein certain embodiments, four to five distinct color identify the suits—removing the need to use a symbol for suit, and so just leaving single alphanumeric values to process.

The computer-based data processing system and method described above is for purposes of example only and may be implemented in any type of computer system or programming or processing environment, or in a computer program, alone or in conjunction with hardware. The present invention may also be implemented in software stored on a computer-readable medium and executed as a computer program on a general purpose or special purpose computer. For clarity, only those aspects of the system germane to the invention are described, and product details well known in the art are omitted. For the same reason, the computer hardware is not described in further detail. It should thus be understood that the invention is not limited to any specific computer language, program, or computer. It is further contemplated that the present invention may be run on a stand-alone computer system, or may be run from a server computer system that can be accessed by a plurality of client computer systems interconnected over an intranet network, or that is accessible to clients over the Internet. In addition, many embodiments of the present invention have application to a wide range of industries. To the extent the present application discloses a system, the method implemented by that system, as well as software stored on a computer-readable medium and executed as a computer program to perform the method on a general purpose or special purpose computer, are within the scope of the present invention. Further, to the extent the present application discloses a method, a system of apparatuses configured to implement the method are within the scope of the present invention.

It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing relates to exemplary embodiments of the invention and that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing relates to exemplary embodiments of the invention and that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.