Video Poker Elite™ Table Design

Intellectual Property

Video Poker Elite™ is protected by 3 patents. Design patents D872752, D818482 and utility patent 10881967.

Cybergon and Video Poker Elite are Trademarked.

Product development includes 4 prototypes and numerous software versions.

Hardware

The Video Poker Elite table products are a 65” HDTV Budget Table and an 85” HDTV Deluxe Table.

Budget Poker Table

65” was chosen where 10 players can be seated comfortably around the table in chairs with armrests.

This table was designed using strong but lightweight extruded black anodized aluminum. This provides a sturdy table required to withstand the rigors of poker play.

For the most part, the frame pieces can be cut and machined at the factory and shipped as a kit so some assembly is required. Key pieces include:

• Frame/Spacers
• Leveling Foot
• HDTV
• Computer
• Plywood Base
• Armrest Cushions – dense foam covered with black vinyl on plywood backer
• Acrylic Touch Sensor – with thumbscrews to secure it to plywood
• Hole Card Lens – these lay in top of the acrylic touch panel to hide hole cards

The Budget Poker Table is meant to be somewhat portable so the weight is minimized and is currently about 140 pounds.

The racetrack long and short sides fasten to the brackets using threaded inserts screwed into the plywood. These are hand made but will eventually be cut and drilled using a CNC Router.

The armrests have two part plywood backing, a dense foam cushion surrounded by a vinyl covering and are bolted to the brackets from underneath.

Deluxe Poker Table

The Deluxe Table will be constructed with an 85” HDTV and, due to size and weight, be basically stationary. The bottom frame is made from decorative wooden legs and the upper portion surrounded by solid wood. Other than that, the HDTV, acrylic, onate Touch Panel and Armrest are the same as the Budget Poker Table but larger. Because of the nature of working with wood, everything will be more expensive.

Software

The software consists of three parts … the Remote Control, Web Server and Poker programs.

There are two options available:

• The first option involves a local small computer running Windows, responsible for controlling the HDTV, Touch Panel, and Web Service. While the HDTV in this setup doesn’t require special intelligence and is cost-effective, it necessitates the mounting of an external computer within the table.
  
• The second option features a Smart TV capable of autonomously managing controls without the need for an additional computer. Although these Smart HDTVs are typically more expensive, many manufacturers now include them as a standard offering. A critical consideration is that the operating system must seamlessly recognize the Touch Panel and efficiently handle both the Web Service Program and the Poker Program. It’s noteworthy that the Poker Program, developed in Unity, no longer supports Samsung’s Tizen operating system, limiting its use to Android operating systems.

Remote Control Program

The Remote Control Program is an application that runs on a smart phone such as iPhone, iPad, Android hand-held device, or a Windows or Mac computer. Its purpose is to act as a game/tournament and player contact manager.

Players are selected from a list of previously entered contacts. Game parameters are configured to determine how and when the game is played. All information is stored on a local networked SQL type database.

The program can handle multiple games/tournaments and tables. It is written in C# and .Net Maui using Microsoft Visual Studio.

All aspects of the game are controlled including chip colors and blinds.

Various database tables are:

Blinds – These control the games progression and duration by increasing after a desired interval. The main variables are the game duration, blind interval, beginning blind and total expected amount of chips.

For a cash game, the blinds are usually fixed and stay that way.

For a tournament, most games start to end when 10 big blinds are left. So the blinds start out rather small but increase exponentially after each level. Not only do they increase, but have to be matched to a desired chip increment.

So the progression looks something like this. If chip estimates are correct, the tournament should end close to the desired time.

The Remote Control Program does this calculation automatically:

Web Server Program

The Web Server Program accesses a local or remote database and delivers the data to the Remote Control Program and the Game Program using RESTful HTTP commands:

 It is written in C# and .Dot Maui using Microsoft Visual Studio.

Poker Program

The Program delivers the action to the HDTV.

Start of Program with Blast Doors and Countdown Timer

As countdown expires, the blast doors pull away exposing the game table.

Notice that the chip amounts are where the smaller chips to the right are maximized and the amounts clearly displayed. The chip stacks also have a 3D appearance and are centered.

The opening game screen shows players randomly placed around the table and random colors with appropriate chip amounts and a deck cards randomly placed next to one of the players.

Positions are indicated by these:  

The table has a radial gradient focusing user attention to center of screen with decorative elements in center where the community and burn cards and will land and in the corners.

The each corner, there is a spinning cube that displays countdown timer and big and small blinds.

After tapping the deck, the cards are then dealt, and players can sequentially choose to RAISE, CALL, or FOLD by pressing one of the colorful buttons.

The bet amount is controlled by using +, – ALL-IN or RESET. A status box is presented to display the current action.

Pressing + or – on the left side, changes the bet by the Big Blind amount. Pressing the right side changes the amount by 10 times the big blind amount.

The availability of buttons is contingent on the current play status and a few following buttons are currently disabled as no bet has been placed:

The PEEK button shows a small representation of the hole cards. Under normal playing conditions, the cards are hidden by an external lens placed on top of table hiding them from view from other players:

In the screen below, all players went all-in and had different chip amounts, so nine pots were made with the names of each player displayed above. Scarlet Witch had the most chips so she retains a small stack of 100. In showdown mode, the cards are automatically dealt.

At conclusion of hand, the hands are ranks and winners determined. The pots then show the winners:

The players are then awarded chips, cards are gathered to next dealer and their backs change to a different color. Notice since the next Big Blind was busted; the big blind is Black Panther:

When the STATUS button is pressed on left side, the current hand’s betting is shown with the community cards.

When the right side is pressed, the previous hand’s ranking appears.