Team poker game

Abstract

A team-poker tournament includes having at least two teams play poker either for a predetermined period of time, a predetermined number of hands, or until the members of one team have no chips remaining. A team captain may call a timeout and implement strategic moves.

1 . A method of playing a poker tournament involving teams with multiple members, comprising: 
 having the members of each team play hands of poker;    selecting a game-ending criterion;    determining the scores of each team when the game-ending criterion is met; and    declaring a winner with the best determined score.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , further including, 
 providing chips to the team members before playing the poker hands, and wherein determining the scores includes    determining the number of chips possessed by the team members when the game-ending criterion is met.    
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the game-ending criterion includes selecting a game end after a predetermined period of time.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein declaring a winner includes identifying as the winner the team whose members have the greatest number of chips.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the game-ending criterion includes selecting a game end after a predetermined number of hands.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein declaring a winner includes identifying as the winner the team whose members have the greatest number of chips.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the game-ending criterion includes selecting a game end when none of the members of a team have any chips.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein declaring a winner includes identifying as the winner a team with members that still have chip when none of the members of another team has chips.  
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 1 , including allowing each of the teams to call a timeout.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 1  including allowing the replacement of members of a team for a hand of poker.  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the replacement of team members occurs during a timeout.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 2 , including 
 allowing the cashing out of a member of a team, and    allowing the distribution of the chips of the player cashed out to members of the team.    
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 1 , including 
 allowing the request of a new deck.    
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 1 , including 
 allowing each team a preset number of timeouts.    
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 1 , including 
 allowing each team a preset number of timeouts during a set period of time.    
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 1 , including 
 allowing each team a first preset number of timeouts during a first set period of time, and    allowing each team a second preset number of timeouts during a second set period of time.    
   
   
       17 . A method of playing a card tournament involving teams with multiple members, comprising: 
 having the members of each team play hands of a selected card game;    selecting a game-ending criterion;    determining the scores of each team when the game-ending criterion is met; and    declaring a winner with the best determined score.    
   
   
       18 . A method of playing a card tournament involving teams with multiple members and multiple games, comprising: 
 having the members of each team each play a corresponding game;    selecting a game-ending criterion for each game;    determining the scores of each team when each of the game-ending criteria is met; and    declaring a winner with the best determined score.    
   
   
       19 - 20 . (canceled)