Systems, methods, and devices for monitoring card games, such as baccarat

A gaming system for managing a card game played with playing cards from a set of playing cards, the gaming system comprising:

• a card shoe from which playing cards having a respective machine-readable identifier may be dealt in a determined order;
• a first card hand-reader separated from the card shoe and sized to receive therein a respective first portion of each of at least two dealt playing cards forming a first hand of playing cards while the at least two dealt playing cards are positioned such that at least a respective human-readable symbol carried on a respective face of at least a respective second portion of a respective playing card of the at least two playing cards is viewably exposed to a wagering participant, and to read the respective machine-readable identifier carried by each of the at least two dealt playing cards while the respective first portions of the at least two dealt playing cards are positioned in the first card hand-reader;
• and
• a processor communicatively coupled to receive identifying data from the first card hand-reader and configured to compare a respective determined identity of each of the at least two dealt playing cards in the first card hand-reader to at least one respective expected identity for a respective playing card expected to be included in the first hand of playing cards received by the first card hand-reader based on the determined order in which the playing cards are dealt from the card shoe.

A card identification system for evaluating an outcome of at least one card game, the card game played with a set of encoded playing cards, the system comprising:

• a card shoe-reader sized to receive the set of playing cards;
• an optical scanner communicatively coupled to the card shoe-reader for reading the set of encoded playing cards to determine a sequence of the set of playing cards;
• a processor in communication with the card shoe-reader for evaluating the sequence of the set of playing cards based on a known dealing sequence and card game rules, the processor further configured to:
• determine an outcome of each card game that can be played from the set of playing cards,
• identify each dealt playing card based on, and independent of knowledge of the dealing sequence, the respective identifying data read from each of the cards dealt from the set of playing cards, and
• verify that the playing cards comprising the first hand and second hand are consistent with the determined outcome based at least on the identification of the dealt playing cards and based at least on the knowledge of the dealing sequence;
• an indicator in communication with the processor for indicating the outcome of the card game;
• and
• at least one card hand-reader to read identifying data from each of the playing cards dealt from the set of playing cards, the playing cards dealt from the set of playing cards forming a first hand and a second hand.