Method, apparatus and article for evaluating card games, such as blackjack

An automated system to monitor cards, comprising:

• a card deck reader capable of reading identifying information from a number of playing cards forming a deck of playing cards;
• a dealer hand reader capable of reading identifying information from a number of the playing cards forming a dealer's initial hand;
• a discard card reader capable of reading identifying information from a number of the playing cards forming a dealer's complete hand and a player's complete hand;
• and
• a processor programmed to process the read identifying information by:
• determining a sequence of the playing cards in the deck, prior to a dealer dealing any of the playing cards in a card game;
• determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a dealer's initial hand;
• determining a sequence of a number of discarded playing cards including at least one player's complete hand and the dealer's complete hand;
• determining a position of the dealer's initial hand in the sequence of the discarded playing cards;
• determining a number of active hands played by each a number of players during the card game;
• for each of the number of active hands played by each of the number of players, determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming the player's completed hand;
• for each of the number of active hands played by each of the number of players, comparing the identity of the playing cards forming the player's completed hand with a set of expected playing cards based on the sequence of playing cards in the deck.

A method of evaluating a card game, comprising:

• automatically determining a value of a dealer's completed hand of playing cards;
• automatically determining a value of at least one player's completed hand of playing cards;
• and
• automatically determining an outcome of a card game based on the determined value of the player's completed hand of playing cards and the determined value of the dealer's completed hand of playing cards, wherein automatically determining a value of a dealer's completed hand of playing cards includes:
• reading identifying information from each of a number of playing cards collected from a dealer.

A method of evaluating a card game, comprising:

• automatically determining a value of a dealer's completed hand of playing cards;
• automatically determining a value of at least one player's completed hand of playing cards;
• and
• automatically determining an outcome of a card game based on the determined value of the player's completed hand of playing cards and the determined value of the dealer's completed hand of playing cards, wherein automatically determining a value of at least one player's completed hand of playing cards includes:
• reading identifying information from each of a number of playing cards collected from the player.

A method of evaluating card games, comprising:

• determining a sequence of a set of playing cards in a deck of playing cards, prior to a dealer dealing any of the playing cards from the deck in a card game;
• determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a dealer's initial hand;
• determining a sequence of a number of collected playing cards including at least one player's complete hand and a dealer's complete hand;
• determining a position of a first card of the dealer's initial hand in the determined sequence of playing cards in the deck;
• determining a number of active hands corresponding to a number of hands played by one or more players during the card game based on the determined position of the first card of the dealer's initial hand;
• for each of a number of the players and for each hand played by the player, determining a value of each of a number of playing cards forming the player's completed hand;
• for each of the number of players and for each active hand played by the player, determining a value of the player's completed hand from the determined value of each of the number of playing cards forming the player's completed hand;
• determining a value of each of a number of playing cards forming a dealer's completed hand;
• determining a value of the dealer's completed hand from the determined value of each of the number of playing cards forming the dealer's completed hand;
• and
• for each of the players and for each hand played by the player, determining an outcome based on the determined value of the player's completed hand and the determined value of the dealer's completed hand.

A method of evaluating a card game, comprising:

• automatically determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a player's completed hand;
• comparing the identity of each of the number of playing cards from the player's completed hand to an expected set of playing cards for the player's completed hand;
• and
• producing a notification if the identity of each of the number of playing cards from the player's completed hand does not match the expected set of playing cards for the player's completed hand, wherein automatically determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a player's completed hand includes:
• determining a sequence of playing cards in a deck of playing cards from which the playing cards forming the player's completed hand is dealt;
• determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a dealer's initial hand;
• for each of a number of players, determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming the player's initial hand from the determined sequence of playing cards in the deck and a position of a first card of the dealer's initial hand in the determined sequence of playing cards in the deck;
• determining a sequence of a number of collected playing cards including at least one player's complete hand and a dealer's complete hand, the collected playing cards collected from a dealer and the one or more players;
• and
• for each of the number of players, determining an identity of each of a number of hit playing cards forming a portion of the player's completed hand along with the playing cards of the player's initial hand based on the position of the player's initial hand of playing cards and a previous adjacent initial hand of playing cards in the sequence of collected playing cards.

A method of evaluating a card game, comprising:

• automatically determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a player's completed hand;
• comparing the identity of each of the number of playing cards from the player's completed hand to an expected set of playing cards for the player's completed hand;
• and
• producing a notification if the identity of each of the number of playing cards from the player's completed hand does not match the expected set of playing cards for the player's completed hand wherein automatically determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a player's completed hand, includes:
• reading in sequence an identifier from each of a number of playing cards in a deck of playing cards from which the playing cards forming the player's completed hand is dealt;
• reading an identifier from each of a number of playing cards forming a dealer's initial hand;
• for each of a number of players, determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming the player's initial hand from the sequence of identifiers read from the playing cards in the deck and from a position of a first card of the dealer's initial hand in the read sequence of playing cards in the deck;
• reading in sequence an identifier from each of a number of collected playing cards collected from a dealer and the one or more players including at least one player's complete hand and a dealer's complete hand;
• and
• for each of the number of players, determining an identity of each of a number of hit playing cards forming a portion of the player's completed hand along with the playing cards of the player's initial hand based on the position of the player's initial hand of playing cards and a previous adjacent initial hand of playing cards in the sequence of collected playing cards.

A computer-readable media, having instructions that cause a computer to evaluate a card game, by:

• automatically determining a value of a dealer's completed hand of playing cards from a sequence of playing cards collected from the dealer and from at least one player;
• automatically determining a value of at least one player's completed hand of playing cards from the sequence of playing cards collected from the dealer and from the at least one player;
• and
• automatically determining an outcome of a card game based on the determined value of the player's completed hand of playing cards and the determined value of the dealer's completed hand of playing cards.

A computer-readable media, having instructions that cause a computer to evaluate a card game, by:

• determining a sequence of a set of playing cards in a deck of playing cards, prior to a dealer dealing any of the playing cards from the deck in a card game;
• determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a dealer's initial hand;
• determining a sequence of a number of collected playing cards including at least one player's complete band and a dealer's complete hand;
• determining a position of a first card of the dealer's initial hand in the determined sequence of playing cards in the deck;
• determining a number of active hands corresponding to a number of hands played by one or more players during the card game based on the determined position of the first card of the dealer's initial hand;
• for each of a number of the players and for each hand played by the player, determining a value of each of a number of playing cards forming the player's completed hand;
• for each of the number of players and for each active hand played by the player, determining a value of the player's completed hand from the determined value of each of the number of playing cards forming the player's completed hand;
• determining a value of each of a number of playing cards forming a dealer's completed hand;
• determining a value of the dealer's completed hand from the determined value of each of the number of playing cards forming the dealer's completed hand;
• and
• for each of the players and for each hand played by the player, determining an outcome based on the determined value of the player's completed hand and the determined value of the dealer's completed hand.

A computer-readable media, having instructions that cause a computer to evaluate a card game, by:

• automatically determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a player's completed hand;
• comparing the identity of each of the number of playing cards from the player's completed hand to an expected set of playing cards for the player's completed hand;
• and
• producing a notification if the identity of each of the number of playing cards from the player's completed hand does not match the expected set of playing cards for the player's completed hand, wherein automatically determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a player's completed hand includes:
• determining a sequence of playing cards in a deck of playing cards from which the playing cards forming the player's completed hand is dealt;
• determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming a dealer's initial hand;
• for each of a number of players, determining an identity of each of a number of playing cards forming the player's initial hand from the determined sequence of playing cards in the deck and a position of a first card of the dealer's initial hand in the determined sequence of playing cards in the deck;
• determining a sequence of a number of collected playing cards including at least one player's complete hand and a dealer's complete hand, the collected playing cards collected from a dealer and the one or more players;
• and
• for each of the number of players, determining an identity of each of a number of hit playing cards forming a portion of the player's completed hand along with the playing cards of the player's initial hand based on the position of the player's initial hand of playing cards and a previous adjacent initial hand of playing cards in the sequence of collected playing cards.

A method of evaluating at least one round of at least one card game played with a plurality of playing cards selected from at least one deck of playing cards, the method comprising:

• determining a sequence of at least a subset of the plurality of playing cards from which the round of the card game will be dealt;
• determining a sequence of a number of playing cards collected after completion of the round of the card game;
• computationally recreating the complete hand of at least one participant in the at least one round of the card game based on the determined sequence of the playing cards collected after completion of the round of the card game and based on a pickup order that defines an order in which the playing cards are collected from all participants in the at least one round of the card game;
• and
• evaluating at least one aspect of at least one round of the card game based on the determined sequence of the at least subset of the plurality of playing cards from which the round of the card game will be dealt and the determined sequence of the number of cards collected after completion of the round of the card game.