Patent ID: 8721415

Claim:
A method of operating a computer-based solitaire game playable by a player for a player's fee, the method comprising the steps of: generating an electronic representation of a randomly-ordered card deck for playing a game; generating an electronic representation of a play field based upon the randomly-ordered card deck; receiving player inputs at a user interface for advancing the game; accepting the player inputs according to a predetermined set of game play rules, updating the play field according to the player inputs, the predetermined game play rules and the card deck; and upon detecting an end of game indication according to the predetermined game play rules, performing the additional steps of: determining an actual number of cards transferred to foundation stacks as of the end of game indication; and providing a payout to the player that is calculated as a function of a per-card payout award and the actual number of cards transferred during the game, wherein the per-card payout award is determined as a function of an expected number of transferred cards and the player's fee, wherein the expected number of transferred cards is determined as a function of a discrete probability density function including probability values for each possible number of cards transferred, the discrete probability density function being calculated from game outcomes produced in a multi-game computer-based simulation, and wherein the number of games simulated in the multi-game simulation is selected to provide a statistically stable result.