Play strategy for a computer opponent in a electronic card game

Abstract

A process of dealing and drawing cards is provided wherein a player hand including N cards is dealt to the player from a computer card deck. An opponent hand including N cards is dealt to the opponent from the deck. The player and the opponent are provided with opportunity to draw cards. A gaming system determines which cards of the initial opponent hand to hold and which to discard using a play strategy-lookup table in accordance with the present invention. The strategy look-up table is addressed using an address set including all possible hands that could be dealt in an N card poker game. Each address of the address set stores a corresponding optimal hold scenario which provides information indicating which of the particular N cards of a hand to hold and which to discard in order have the greatest probability of winning. Cards are discarded from the initial opponent hand according to the look up table. A replacement card is dealt to the computer opponent from the deck for each card discarded from the opponent hand. The final opponent hand, including the final card values are then revealed and a winning hand is determined.