Poker Wagering Game with Forced Discard

Abstract

A wagering card game related to poker which can be used in a casino to accept and resolve real money wagers on a casino game table. Initial cards can be dealt to a player and a dealer. The player can be required to select one card out of his or her cards to discard after viewing some of the cards available to the player to form his or her poker hand but not all of the cards that will eventually be available to the player to form his or her poker hand. The player's poker hand can be formed out of the player's initial cards (not including any cards that were discarded) plus community cards which are used by all players at the table.

1 . A method to play a wagering game, the method comprising:
 receiving an initial wager from a player;   revealing to the player initial player cards;   dealing initial dealer cards;   revealing a first set of community cards;   requiring the player to discard at least one discarded card(s) out of the initial player cards after the player has viewed values of the first set of community cards but not a second set of community cards;   revealing the second set of community cards;   forming a best player poker hand using the initial player cards excluding the discarded card(s) and the first set of community cards and the second set of community cards;   forming a best dealer poker hand using the initial dealer cards and the first set of community cards and the second set of community cards;   determining which hand has a higher poker rank, the best player poker hand or the best dealer poker hand; and   resolving the initial wager based on the determining.   
   
   
       2 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 offering, after the revealing to the player a set of initial player cards but before the revealing the first set of community cards, the player an option to place a raise wager, wherein the resolving also resolves the raise wager based on the determining.   
   
   
       3 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the raise wager is required to be a particular multiple of the initial wager. 
   
   
       4 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the first set of community cards comprise three cards. 
   
   
       5 . The method as recited in  claim 4 , wherein the second set of community cards comprise two cards. 
   
   
       6 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the initial player cards comprise three cards. 
   
   
       7 . The method as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the at least one discarded card(s) comprise one card. 
   
   
       8 . The method as recited in  claim 7 , wherein while performing the determining, if a rank of the best player poker hand ties a rank of the best dealer poker hand, then the player's initial wager wins. 
   
   
       9 . The method as recited in  claim 7 , wherein while performing the determining, if a rank of the best player poker hand ties a rank of the best dealer poker hand, then the player's initial wager pushes.