1. A method of playing a poker wagering game with a dealer and at least one player comprising the steps of:
(a) providing at least one standard deck of 52 playing cards plus at least one joker;
(b) providing a published poker ranking of winning hands ranked from highest to lowest;
(c) providing a pre-determined pay scale for winning hands;
(d) providing a pre-determined minimum hand ranking for a dealer to achieve as a qualifying hand;
(e) starting a round of play wherein each player making certain initial wager(s) of the following types of wagers;
(i.) a first wager against the dealer, and
(ii.) a voluntary wager against a predetermined pay scale,
(f) dealing only two cards to each player to form a player’s two card poker hand;
(g) dealing only two cards to the dealer to form a dealer’s two card poker hand, wherein the two cards dealt to the player and the two cards dealt to the dealer are the only two cards dealt during the first round of play;
(h) giving the player the option of ending wagering game and forfeiting all initial wagers made in step (e) above if said player does not wish to continue to play the wagering game;
(i) giving the player option of proceeding to play the wagering game against the dealer by player placing a third support wager in support of the first wager against the dealer;
(j) the game ending if the dealer fails to achieve said qualifying hand in accordance with said pre-determined minimum hand ranking and dealer paying the player’s certain initial wager(s), if wagered, against said predetermined pay scale;
(k) the game proceeding if the dealer has achieved said qualifying hand in accordance with said pre-determined minimum hand ranking and the player has not ended game in step (h) above;
(l) comparing the player’s two card poker hand against the dealer’s two card poker hand;
(m) identifying the outcome of the wagering game by correlating the player’s and dealer’s two card poker hands to the published ranking of winning hands, and paying the winning hand as follows:
(i.) if the player’s hand outranks the dealer’s hand according to the published ranking of winning hands, dealer pays the player’s certain initial wager(s) against the dealer and player’s third support wager;
(ii.) if the player has achieved a rank at least as high as the first ranking according to the published ranking, dealer pays the player’s separate voluntary wager against said predetermined pay scale;
(iii.) if the dealer’s hand outranks the players hand according to the published ranking of winning hands, dealer takes the player’s certain initial wager(s) against the dealer and player’s third support wager;
(iv.) if the player fails to achieve at least the minimum ranking according to the published ranking of winning hands, dealer takes the player’s separate voluntary wager against said predetermined pay scale; and
(v.) if the player has the same ranking as the dealer according to the published ranking of winning hands, the dealer returns the player’s certain initial wager(s) and player’s third support wager;
(n) giving the player option of starting a new round of play by repeating steps (e) through (m) before a shuffle of the standard deck of 52 playing cards plus at least one joker is made and ending the first round of play and new rounds of play by collecting the playing cards and returning the played cards to the at least one standard deck of 52 cards plus at least one joker.
2. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein the game is played with a standard deck of 52 cards with no jokers.
3. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein there is only one round of cards delivered before the shuffle.
4. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein there is more than one deck of cards used for the wagering game.
5. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein the number of rounds dealt to the players before the shuffle is greater than two.
6. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein a player is provided an opportunity to make a bad beat wager including the further steps of:
Providing a pre-determined published ranking of winning bad beat hands;
Permitting the player to place an additional wager against said pre-determined published ranking of winning bad beat hands;
Providing that the player may win said additional wager even in the event the player’s hand is outranked by the dealer’s hand so long as the player’s hand appears on the said pre-determined published ranking of winning bad beat hands.
7. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein the player may bet on the value of the dealer’s hand.
8. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein the game may have a designated wild card, produced electronically.
9. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein a different version of the game may have the player needing to qualify to continue play.
10. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein no participant had to qualify to continue play.
11. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein the number of jokers used is two.
12. The method of playing a wagering game as set forth in claim 1, wherein a third support wager may be a multiple of the first wager against the dealer.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
storing in memory a queue descriptor for a queue, the queue descriptor including a count identifying a number of elements in the queue and at least one pointer related to the queue;
in response to a command to perform either an enqueue operation with respect to the queue or a dequeue operation with respect to the queue, fetching from the memory to a cache at least a portion of the queue descriptor, including the count;
modifying at least a portion of the queue descriptor within the cache in response to the enqueue operation or the dequeue operation; and
returning to the memory from the cache at least the portion of the queue descriptor modified based on the enqueue operation or the dequeue operation.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the at least one pointer related to the queue comprises at least one of a head pointer or a tail pointer.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the head pointer points to a first element in the queue and the tail pointer points to a last element in the queue.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 including:
fetching the count and the head pointer and not the tail pointer in response to a command to perform a dequeue operation or fetching the count and the tail pointer and not the head pointer in response to a command to perform an enqueue operation.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the at least a portion of the queue descriptor comprises the count and at least one of a head pointer or a tail pointer.
6. A computer-implemented method comprising:
storing in memory of a computer a queue descriptor for a queue;
determining whether a pointer of the queue descriptor that was fetched from the memory to a cache of the computer in response to an operation on the queue had been modified by the operation;
returning a count from the cache to the memory identifying a number of elements in the queue; and
returning the pointer to the memory from the cache if that pointer had been modified.
7. An apparatus comprising:
memory for storing queue descriptors which include a count identifying a number of elements in a queue and a pointer related to the queue;
a cache for caching queue descriptors from the memory’s queue descriptors; and
a processor configured to:
fetch from the memory to the cache the count and the pointer related to a particular queue in response to a command to perform an operation with respect to a particular queue descriptor; and
return to the memory from the cache portions of the particular queue descriptor modified by the operation.
8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the processor is configured to fetch the count and a head pointer and not a tail pointer in response to a first command to perform a dequeue operation; or fetch the count and the tail pointer and not the head pointer in response to a second command to perform an enqueue operation.
9. An article comprising a computer-readable medium that stores computer-executable instructions for causing a computer system to:
store in memory a queue descriptor for a queue, the queue descriptor including a count identifying a number of elements in the queue and at least one pointer related to the queue;
in response to a command to perform either an enqueue operation with respect to the queue or a dequeue operation with respect to the queue, fetch from the memory to a cache at least a portion of the queue descriptor, including the count;
modify at least a portion of the queue descriptor within the cache in response to the enqueue operation or the dequeue operation; and
return to the memory from the cache at least the portion of the queue descriptor modified based on the enqueue operation or the dequeue operation.
10. The article of claim 9 including instructions to cause the computer system to:
fetch the count and a head pointer and not a tail pointer in response to a command to perform the dequeue operation; or
fetch the count and the tail pointer and not the head pointer in response to a command to perform the enqueue operation.
11. The article of claim 9, wherein the at least a portion of the queue descriptor comprises the count and at least one of a head pointer or a tail pointer.