Card mark sensor and methods for blackjack

In combination:

• a device mounted to a blackjack table comprising a plurality of components by which indicia selectively disposed at a specific otherwise unoccupied site on the face of a blackjack card is ascertained while face down and while aligned with at least one component of the device;
• a deck of blackjack playing cards, the deck comprising a group of sixteen of said blackjack playing cards, each card of the group having a blackjack value of ten and each card of the group comprising said face indicia at an otherwise unoccupied specific site representative of only the blackjack value of ten.

A method of playing a game of blackjack, comprising the steps of:

• providing a deck of blackjack playing cards comprising a group of sixteen cards each of the sixteen blackjack cards having a blackjack value of ten and each comprising face indicia at an otherwise unoccupied specific site representative of only the blackjack value of ten;
• inserting, during a game of blackjack, a down card of the deck face down into a device mounted to a blackjack table and comprising interior components;
• inspecting, during a game of blackjack, using the interior components of the device, the specific site of the inserted down card to ascertain when said face indicia is present.

A method of playing a game of blackjack, comprising the steps of:

• providing a deck of blackjack playing cards comprising a first group of sixteen cards each having a blackjack value of ten and comprising face indicia at first otherwise unoccupied specific site representative of only the blackjack value of ten, the deck further comprising a second group of four cards each having a blackjack value of eleven and having face indicia at a second otherwise unoccupied, specific site representative of the blackjack value of eleven;
• inserting, during a game of blackjack, a down card of the deck face down into a device mounted to a blackjack table and comprising interior components;
• inspecting, during a game of blackjack, using the interior components of the device, the inserted down cards to ascertain from either site when the first or second indicia is present.

A deck of blackjack playing cards which are selectively marked with special face indicia comprising:

• a first group of blackjack playing cards comprising sixteen cards each having a blackjack value of ten and each comprising unique face indicia representative of only the blackjack numerical value of ten;
• a second group of blackjack playing cards comprising all cards having blackjack values within the range of two through nine, each card of the second group comprising a normal face without unique face indicia;
• a third group of blackjack playing cards comprising four cards each having a blackjack value of eleven and each comprising unique face indicia representative, in a location different from the location of the face indicia on each of the cards of the first group, of only the blackjack numerical value of eleven.

A method of playing a game of twenty-one comprising the steps of:

• during a game of blackjack, inserting the dealer's down card while face down into a device mounted to a blackjack table and comprising interior components;
• ascertaining via the interior components of the device when the down card has a value of ten;
• when it is so ascertained that the value of the dealer's down card is ten, declaring immediately the game to be ended if the dealer's up card is a card having a blackjack value of eleven.

A plurality of blackjack playing cards each having a blackjack value of ten or eleven, all ten value cards of the plurality each comprising at least one mark in at least one first predetermined viewable face location representative of the blackjack numerical value of ten without regard to suit and all eleven value cards of the plurality each comprising at least one mark in at least one second predetermined viewable face location representative of the blackjack numerical value of eleven without regard to suit, the mark at the at least one first predetermined viewable face location being viewable face down by use of at least one component of a multi-component blackjack reader in a first playing card orientation in the reader and the mark at the at least one second predetermined viewable face location being viewable face down by use of at least the one component of the multi-component blackjack reader in a second playing orientation in the reader.

A plurality of blackjack playing cards each having a blackjack value of ten or eleven, each ten value card of the plurality comprising at least one mark in at least one first predetermined face location representative in intelligible form of the blackjack numerical value of ten independent of suit and each eleven value card of the plurality comprising at least one mark in at least one second predetermined face location representative in intelligible form of the blackjack numerical value of eleven independent of suit.

A deck of blackjack playing cards which are selectively value-detectable comprising:

• a first plurality of twenty blackjack playing cards each card having a blackjack value of ten or eleven, each of the sixteen ten value cards of the first plurality comprising at least one additional face indicia in a first face location representative of only the blackjack numerical value of ten independent of suit and each of the four eleven value cards of the first plurality comprising at least one additional face indicia in a second face location representative of only the blackjack value of eleven independent of suit;
• a second plurality of blackjack playing cards comprising the remainder of the deck, excluding the first plurality, comprising normal playing cards.

A blackjack detection system by which the game of blackjack is accelerated comprising:

• a head adapted for use at a blackjack table comprising means for manually receiving a dealer's down card in a face down position in either of two orientations;
• card numerical value ascertaining means disposed below the head comprising means (a) by which a card value of eleven is ascertained, when the down card has said value and is in one of said orientations within the head, from special indicia carried at a specific location on the face of each ace card and (b) by which a card value often is ascertained, when the down card has said value and is in the other of said orientations within the head, from special indicia carried at a second specific location on the face of each ten value card and (c) by which an absence of specific indicia on the face of all cards having a numerical value less than ten is ascertained;
• notification means by which the ascertained card values (a), (b) and (c).

A full deck of blackjack playing cards, a portion of said blackjack playing cards in the blackjack deck comprising exactly twenty cards, each card having a blackjack value within the range of ten to eleven, four cards of the twenty cards comprising both normal ace indicia conventionally disposed on the face of each and additional face indicia in a first predetermined location representative in readable form of the blackjack numerical value of eleven only, sixteen of the twenty cards comprising both normal ten value indicia conventionally disposed on the face of each and additional face indicia in a second predetermined location representative in readable form of the blackjack numerical value of ten only.

A full deck of blackjack playing cards, a portion of said blackjack playing cards in the blackjack deck comprising exactly twenty cards, each card having a blackjack value within the range of ten and eleven, sixteen cards of the twenty cards comprising additional face indicia disposed in at least one specific corner location of each card having a blackjack value of ten and four cards of the twenty cards comprising addition of each indicia disposed in at least one other different specific corner location of each card having a blackjack value of eleven.