Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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IN~3,QuucTIoM
This invention relates to a poker game and, more
particularly, to the playing of poker using a pool table
of any size.
BACKG~OUND OF THE INV~IQN
Poker is a game which has been played and
enjoyed for many years in many different variations. Pool
is likewise played and enjoyed. In recent years, however,
the number of variations in both games has become
substantially exhausted with the result that the
popularity of both games has declined. In respect of
pool, substantial investments may have been made in
expensive tables, cues, balls and the like which
investments are not now productive. A novel approach to
the playing of pool would therefore be desirable and a
combination of pool and poker would appear to be
attractive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the invention, there
is provided a poker type pool game operable to be played
on a standard rectangular pool table having six pockets,
one pocket being located at each corner of said table and
two pockets being located on opposite sides of the longest
sides of said table midway between said corner pockets,
said game comprising a plurality of balls, each of said
balls being marked to indicate a separate and particular
card of a deck, a scoreboard operable to be mounted
separate from said pool table, said scoreboard indicating
each of said cards corresponding with the card marking on
a respective ball, and a plurality of switches on said
scoreboard, one for each of said cards and each being
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mounted ad~acent a respective card marking, each o~ said
switches being manually operable to indicate which o~
said cards corresponds to a corresponding ball which
enters one of said pockets.
Also according to the invention, there is
provided a poker type pool game comprising a plurality o~
balls, each of said balls being marked to indicate a
separate and particular card of a deck, a scoreboard
operable to be mounted separate from a pool table, said
scoreboard indicating each of said cards corresponding
:with the card marking on a respective ball, and a
plurality of switches on said scoreboard one for each of
: 15 said cards and mounted adjacent thereto, each of said
`-~ switches being manuaIly operable to indicate which of said
cards corresponds to a ball operable to enter a pool table
-~ pocket.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION 0~ ~rK~ ,yl~w~5~ DRAWINGS
A specific embodiment of the lnvention will now be
described, by way of example only, with the use of drawings
in which:
Figure 1 is a diagrammatic isometric view of the
apparatus according to the invention;
Figure 2 is a simplified block diagram of the logic
circuitry used to evaluate the highest score according to
the invention;
Figure 3 is a detailed circuit diagram of the
central processing section of the logic circuitry;
Figure 4 is a further detailed circuit diagram of
~:~ the data input section of the logic circuitry; and
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Figure 5 is a detailed circuit diagram of the data
output section of the logic circuitry.
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENT
A poker-pool game known popularly as CARD BALL
(Trademark) is illustrated generally at 10 in Figure 1. It
comprises a pool table 11, a Plurality of balls generally
shown at 12 and a score board generally illustrated at 13.
The pool table 11 is a standard type pool table
with six (6) pockets located around the table 11. There are
four corner pockets 22, 23, 24, 25 and two oppositely
.~ located side pockets 30, 31 located midway between the
~:~ centre pockets on the longest sides of the table 11.
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:~: Twenty-two (22) balls are used for the CARD BALL
game. Each ball is marked to represent one card; that is,
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each of 10, J, Q, K and A in one of ~our card suits, namely
hearts, diamond~, spades or alubs. Ball 14, ~or example, is
marked to r~presant the ten o~ hearts and so on. One
additional ball 20 is the joker and a cue ball 21 is
provided which is used, of course, to direct the card marked
balls 12 into appropriate pockets on the pool table 11.
A score board 13 is positioned to be located
independently and separate from the pool table 11. It is
divided generally into two sections 32, 33, one section
being used for each player or team. Each section has the
individual cards presented thereon. That is, the 10, J, Q,
K and A of each suit are displayed together with the joker
34.
Under and adjacent to each displayed card on the
scoreboard 13, a switch in the form of a pushbutton 40 is
provided. Pushbutton 40 is used to illuminate the card
under which the individual pushbutton is located. The
; 20 pushbutton 40, when manually operated, also indicates to the
logic circuit used for determining the highest hand what
card has been illuminated, the logic circuit being described
below. One further button 41 is used to initiate operation
of the logic circuit and an additional pushbutton 42 is used
to empty the logic circuit and shut off the illumination of
the various cards in order to commence another game.
The circuit logic for determining the highest hand
held by the individual players is illustrated in Figures
2-5. It comprises a data input section 43 (Figure 2), a
central processor 44 and a data output section generally
shown at 45.
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All activity is controlled by the central processor
44. The particular action taken at any time is determined
- by the contents of memory 50 and the status of the
row/column pushbutton input buffers 51 which run from the
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pushbutton 40 on the scoreboard 13. Action taken by the
central processing section 44 ~ncludes lighting up one or
more of the indicator lamps 52 by way of the output data
latches and drivers 53.
Referring to Figure 4, three (3) address lines 62
originating from the processor section 44 are utilized to
determine which, if any, of the pushbuttons 40 in the
pushbutton array 60 are depressed. This is accomplished by
way of an input buffer decoder 61 which responds only to
specific bit patterns on the three line address bus 62.
Depressing a pushbutton in the array 60 causes a particular
bit to be set in the column buffer 63 corresponding to the
column in which the pushbutton 40 is situated. Likewise,
the same action causes a particular bit to be set in the row
buffer 64 corresponding to the row in which the pushbutton
40 is located. Data containing the row/column information
is then placed on the data bus 70 for analysis and action by
the central processor section 44.
Referring to Figure 5, a similar system is used to
select and light the selected lamp in the lamp array 71.
Three address lines 72 from the central processor section 44
are used to enable the lamp latches 73. Data from the
central processor is present on the data bus 74 and the bit
pattern of that data sets or resets the output of the lamp
latches 73. This, depending on the specific data, causes a
lamp driver 80 and a corresponding lamp 81 to go on or off
accordingly.
The pushbutton array 60 is coordinated with the
lamp array 71 such that each pushbutton 40 is directly below
and associated with a particular lamp. Each pushbutton/lamp
combination is, in addition, labeled with a card name (e.g.,
ten of hearts). Additional lamps and buttons not associated
with playing cards are also present for announcing the
winner and signalling "game over".
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Referring to Figure 3, the master clock 82 provides
the necessary timing signals requlred by the microprocessor
83. A real time clock 84 is used to keep track of elapsed
time independent from the microprocessor 83.
The control program is stored in non-volatile ROM
90 and the RAM 91 is utilized to record the values of the
balls pocketed by each player. The design of the
microprocessor 83 and the configuration of the address
lo decoder 92 is such that the microprocessor 83 begins
execution of a program located in a specific memory location
in ROM 90 upon activation. The central processor 44
examines the status of the pushbutton array 60 and waits for
a pushbutton 40 to be pushed. During play of the game, when
a particular ball is sunk, the player responsible presses
the pushbutton 40 on the appropriate side of the scoreboard
13 (e.g., PLAYER/TEAM NO. 1 or PLAYER/TEAM NO. 2) which
corresponds to the ball sunk (e.g., ten of hearts). The
central processor 44 (Figure 2) performs a READ operation of
the pushbutton array 60 (Figure 4) by placing a specific
command on the data bus 93 (Figure 3) which is stored
temporarily in the addressing data latch 94. The output of
the latch 94 then goes to the three line address bus 62
(Figure 4) of the data input section 60. Data concerning
pushbutton status is returned to the microprocessor 83
(Figure 3) by way of the input data buffer 95 and the data
bus 93. Upon determining which pushbutton 40 has been
depressed the central processor 44 then stores the value and
suit of the ball sunk into a section of RAM 91 assigned to
that player.
The central processor 44 then performs a WRITE
operation to the output section by placing a specific
command on the data bus 93 (Figure 3) which is stored
temporarily in the addressing data latch 94. The processor
then causes the correct lamp in the array to light by
~; placing a second command on the data bus 93 which is stored
temporarily in the output data latch 96.
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This process continue~ untll the game is
complete. scorlng i8 performed by the central processor 44
through an analysis o~ the content~ of the memory sections
assigned to the respective players.
Each ball is assigned a binary numeric value, the
bit pattern of which corresponds to the suit and face value
marked on the ball. As there are a finite number of
possible scores, the central processor 44 searches the
memory assigned to each player for particular bit patterns
corresponding to a particular winning combination beginning
with the highest possible hand (e.g., five aces~ and working
down hand by hand for the entire binary array. When this
has been done the player with the highest score is declared
the winner by lighting the WINNER lamp on the appropriate
section of the scoreboard 13 and the GAME OVER lamp on both
sides of the scoreboard 13 by the same method as earlier
described~ In the event the highest hand (e.g., five aces)
is obtained, there is no search and that hand is immediately
indicated on the scoreboard.
OPERATION
When it is desired to play a game of CARD BALL, the
players push button 42 (Figure 1) on the scoreboard 13 to
clear the logic circuit and to turn off the illuminated card
panels on the scoreboard 13. The card marked balls 12 are
cued up with a triangle (not shown) as is usual when
commencing a game of snooker, eight ball or pool.
It is then the object to sink nine (9) desired
balls by each player. The balls 12, of course, are intended
to build a good hand as indicated on the scoreboard 13 or,
alternatively, to frustrate the opponents intention to build
a good hand. Once a ball enters a pocket, it is removed
from play. The shooting by each player will alternate but
another shot is given when a ball other than the cue ball is
pocketed. The players may, if desired, call the shots.
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As each ball 12 enters a pocket of the pool table
11, the proper pushbutton 40 ls pushed on the scoreboard 13
under the card corresponding to the ball which is
pocketed. After a player sinks nine (9) balls, he is
finished shooting and nine cards on his section of the
scoreboard 13 will be illuminated. The other player, if he
has not yet sunk nine ~9) balls, will shoot until that
number of balls is pocketed or he fails to pocket a ball
twice in accordance with the rules.
The cards are, of course, displayed and experienced
players may readily tell whether the highest five cards of a
player constitute the winning hand. In such event, the
logic circuit described will not be used. In the event,
however, it is desired to automatically tally the highest
hand, pushbutton 41 on scoreboard 13 is pressed and the
operation of the logic circuit earlier described is
initiated to automatically determine the highest hand. This
is evidenced by a flashing panel 43 on the appropriate
; 20 player or team side of the scoreboard 13. Following this
determination, pushbutton 42 is pressed to initiate another
game and play recommences as set out above.
Many modifications may be made to the apparatus
described. For example, while the electronic and logic
circuitry and components described have been found to be
appropriate, it is evident that any other suitable logic
circuits for determining the highest hand could also be
utilized. In addition, while the specific embodiment
~; 30 contemplates a poker game being played, it is clear that anyother games which utilize a deck of cards would also be
played on the pool table and represented on the scoreboard
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13. All that is required, in such event, is a new set of
appropriately card marked balls and an amended scoreboard
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appropriate overlay for the scoreboard 13. In a further
development, logic can be provided to indicate on the
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scoreboard when a speci~io ball, sueh as a wild card or
joker, is sunk.
Various other changes may be made to the invention
by those sXilled in the art and the speeific embodiments
described herein should be taken as illustrative only and
not as limiting the scope of the invention as eonstrued in
aeeordanee with the aeeompanying elaims.
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