System and method for providing poker player tracking and bonus events

Abstract

A gaming system having a gaming table and including a progressive jackpot funded by a portion of the house rake of a card game played at the gaming table. The gaming system includes a tracking system capable of identifying and tracking cards dealt and wagers placed in order to identify frequent players and provide complimentary items accordingly. The gaming system is also capable of notifying a player at a remote gaming device that a seat at the gaming table is open.

1 . A gaming system operated at least partially under control of at least one processor, said gaming system comprising: 
 a table for a live card game, said table including a support structure, a playing surface, a plurality of player positions, a dealer position, and at least one wagering area, and wherein said card game employs at least one deck of playing cards;    a tracking system operable with the processor to determine for plays of the card game at the table, a total amount wagered in the wagering area and a house rake amount based on said total amount wagered; and    a progressive jackpot award provided if a hand in a play of the card game at the table includes a predetermined combination of cards, wherein the progressive jackpot award is funded at least partially by a portion of the house rake for plays of the card game at the table.    
   
   
       2 . A gaming system operated at least partially under control of at least one processor, said gaming system comprising: 
 a table for a live card game, said table including a support structure, a playing surface, a plurality of player positions, a dealer position and at least one wagering area, and wherein said card game employs at least one deck of playing cards;    at least one display device operable to display game information to a dealer at the dealer position;    a tracking system including at least one chip identifier operable to identify one or more chips representing an amount of each wager placed in the wagering area for plays of the card game at the table, said tracking system operable to communicate the identified wager amounts to the processor, wherein the processor is operable to calculate the value of a rake for plays of the card game at the table based, in part, on a sum of the wager amounts communicated from the tracking system; and    a progressive jackpot award funded at least partially by a portion of the house rake for plays of the card game at the table.    
   
   
       3 . The gaming system of  claim 2 , wherein at least a portion of the progressive jackpot award is provided if a hand includes a predetermined combination of cards.  
   
   
       4 . The gaming system of  claim 3 , wherein the card game is a poker game and the predetermined combination of cards is a Straight Flush or Four-of-a-Kind.  
   
   
       5 . The gaming system of  claim 4 , wherein the poker game is Texas Hold'em and the progressive jackpot award is provided only if a player achieves the predetermined combination of cards using both hole cards dealt to the player.  
   
   
       6 . The gaming system of  claim 4 , wherein the poker game is Seven Card Stud and the progressive jackpot award is provided only if a player achieves the predetermined combination of cards using both face-down cards dealt to the player.  
   
   
       7 . The gaming system of  claim 4 , wherein the predetermined combination of cards is a Royal Straight Flush.  
   
   
       8 . A gaming system operated at least partially under control of at least one processor, said gaming device comprising: 
 a table for a live card game, said table including a support structure, a playing surface, a plurality of player positions, a dealer position, and at least one wagering area, and wherein said card game employs at least one deck of playing cards;    a tracking system including at least one player identification input device, and a card identifier operable to identify each card dealt to each player position in a play of the card game and communicate the identity of the cards to the processor, wherein at an end of the play the processor updates a player profile associated with the player identification card with the rank of the player's hand; and    a progressive jackpot award adapted to be provided to a player, based at least in part, on game play information stored in the player profile.    
   
   
       9 . The gaming system of  claim 8 , wherein the progressive jackpot award is provided to the player that has achieved the highest ranking hand during a predetermined period of time over a series of plays of the card game at the table.  
   
   
       10 . The gaming system of  claim 9 , wherein the tracking system includes a chip identifier operable to identify one or more chips which represent the amount of each wager placed in the wagering area, said tracking system operable to communicate the identified wager amounts to the processor, wherein the processor is operable to calculate the value of the rake based, in part, on a sum of the wager amounts communicated from the tracking system.  
   
   
       11 . The gaming system of  claim 10 , wherein the progressive jackpot award is funded at least partially by a portion of the house rake, wherein the house rake is based on a value of a pot.  
   
   
       12 . The gaming system of  claim 9 , wherein the table includes an input device which enables a dealer to input the value of each wager.  
   
   
       13 . The gaming system of  claim 8 , wherein the progressive jackpot award is provided to a randomly selected player if the player had placed at least one wager during a determined period of time.  
   
   
       14 . The gaming system of  claim 13 , wherein the determined period of time is selected from the group consisting of: the previous twenty-four hours; the previous calendar day; the previous hour; and the previous calendar week.  
   
   
       15 . The gaming system of  claim 8 , wherein the card game is a no-limit poker game where each of a plurality of players have a number of wagering chips, and wherein the progressive jackpot award is provided to a randomly selected player, if said player has been registered at the table for a determined amount of time, and if on a determined play of the game said player wagers all of said player's remaining chips and loses the hand.  
   
   
       16 . The gaming system of  claim 15 , wherein the determined period of time is selected from the group consisting of: the previous hour; the previous twenty-four hours; the previous calendar day; and the previous calendar week.  
   
   
       17 . The gaming system of  claim 15 , wherein the progressive jackpot award is funded at least partially by a portion of a house rake for each play of the game at the table.  
   
   
       18 . A gaming system operated at least partially under control of at least one processor, said gaming system comprising: 
 a table for a card game, said table including a support structure, a playing surface, a plurality of player positions and a dealer position, and wherein said card game employs at least one deck of playing cards; and    a notification system operable to 
 (a) identify a vacant player position at the table,  
 (b) retrieve a waiting list of potential players, and  
 (c) determine if a next potential player on the waiting list is registered at one of a plurality of remote gaming devices connected to the gaming system through a network, and  
 (d) cause the processor to send a vacancy notification through the linked network to the potential player playing at the remote gaming device.  
   
   
   
       19 . The gaming system of  claim 18 , wherein each of the plurality of remote gaming devices include player identification input devices enabling player registration.  
   
   
       20 . The gaming system of  claim 18 , wherein the vacancy notification is a message displayed on a display device of the remote gaming device at which the potential player is registered.  
   
   
       21 . The gaming system of  claim 18 , which includes a progressive jackpot award, wherein the progressive jackpot award is funded at least partially by a portion of a house rake for each play of the game.  
   
   
       22 . The gaming system of  claim 18 , wherein the card game is a poker game selected from the group consisting of: Five Card Draw, Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud, Texas Hold'em and Omaha Hold'em.  
   
   
       23 . A gaming system operated at least partially under control of at least one processor, said gaming system comprising: 
 a table for a card game, said table including a support structure, a playing surface, a plurality of player positions, a dealer position and at least one wagering area, and wherein said card game employs at least one deck of playing cards; and    a tracking system including at least one chip identifier operable to identify one or more chips which represents an amount of each wager placed in the wagering area for each play of the card game at the table, said tracking system operable to associate a wager with a player and communicate the identified wager amounts to the processor, wherein the processor is operable to update a player profile with the wager amounts,    wherein a player comp rating is based, at least in part, on the total amounts wagered in the player profile.    
   
   
       24 . The gaming system of  claim 23 , wherein the player comp rating is further based on a percentage of the value of the pot for each play of the card game at the table.  
   
   
       25 . The gaming system of  claim 23 , wherein the player comp rating is further based on the amount of time a player actively plays.  
   
   
       26 . The gaming system of  claim 24 , wherein the player comp rating is further based on the amount of time a player actively plays.  
   
   
       27 . The gaming system of  claim 23 , wherein the player comp rating is further based on the number of plays of the card game stored in the player profile.  
   
   
       28 . The gaming system of  claim 24 , wherein the player comp rating is further based on the number of plays of the card game stored in the player profile.  
   
   
       29 . The gaming system of  claim 24 , wherein the player comp rating is based on a percentage of a house rake for each play of the card game at the table.  
   
   
       30 . A gaming system operated at least partially under control of at least one processor, said gaming system comprising: 
 a table for a live poker game, said table including a support structure, a playing surface, a plurality of player positions, a dealer position and at least one wagering area, wherein said poker game employs at least one deck of playing cards;    at least one display device operable to display game information to a dealer at the dealer position; and    a tracking system including at least one chip identifier, said chip identifier operable to identify one or more chips representing an amount of each wager placed in the wagering area for a play of the poker game at the table, wherein the tracking system is operable to communicate the wager amounts to the processor,    wherein the processor is operable to calculate a house rake for said play of the poker game based on the wager amounts and cause said display device to display said rake for said play of the poker game.