Floater bonus poker

Abstract

An electronic video gaming machine is programmed to play a multi-hand video poker game which initially displays to the player a five-by-five matrix of twenty-five cards. This five-by-five matrix generates twelve five card hands—the five horizontal rows, the five vertical columns and the two diagonals. The player makes a wager of fifty credits which makes the player eligible for all twelve hands, with five credits applied to each hand, in effect given the player two free hands at five credits each. Five separate decks of playing cards are used with the five cards in each horizontal row being dealt from a separate deck of cards. The player may select one card from each horizontal row to be held and the selected card is also duplicated into an adjacent row location in that row. Replacement cards for the discarded cards are dealt into each horizontal row. Each of the twelve different five card hands are analyzed to determine its poker hand ranking and winning hands are paid in accordance with a pay table. The suits of the cards can be ignored in the analysis of the hands. This eliminates the need to consider any flush card combinations and simplifies the pay table.