Patent ID: 8226469

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: at least one input device; at least one display device; at least one processor; and at least one memory device which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor for a gaming session, cause the at least one processor to operate with the at least one input device and the at least one display device to: (a) receive a wager from a player to start a play of a card game; (b) randomly select a plurality of cards to form a first set of cards; (c) display the formed first set of cards to the player; (d) enable the player to select none, one, or more than one card from the first set of cards; (e) hold said selected cards from the first set of cards; (f) discard each card not selected to be held from the first set of cards; (g) provide a replacement card to each discarded card from the first set of cards; (h) form a first hand of cards with the held cards from the first set of cards and any replacement cards provided to the first set of cards; and (i) evaluate the first hand of cards to determine if a predetermined criteria is satisfied; (j) if the predetermined criteria is not satisfied, provide the player any awards associated with the first hand of cards; (k) if the predetermined criteria is satisfied, start a bonus gaming session; and (l) in the bonus gaming session: (1) evaluate the first hand to determine whether: (i) the first hand qualifies as a first winning hand; (ii) the first winning hand has a non-flush ranking; and (iii) the first winning hand has a flush ranking (2) if the first hand is not a winning hand: (i) increment a flush counter by one; (ii) re-display the held cards from the first set of cards; (iii) replace each card not held from the first set of cards with a randomly drawn card to form a modified first hand with the held cards from the first set of cards; and (iv) determine if the modified first hand qualifies as the first winning hand; (3) if the first winning hand has said non-flush ranking: (i) increment the flush counter by one; (ii) determine any non-flush award according to a first paytable; (iii) provide the non-flush award to the player; and (iv) end the bonus gaming session; and (4) if the first winning hand has said flush ranking: (i) determine a current flush counter number; (ii) based on the current flush counter number, determine a second paytable, wherein said second paytable includes increasingly higher relative corresponding awards than said first paytable for each flush counter number greater than zero; (iii) determine a flush award associated with the second paytable; (iv) provide the flush award to the player; (v) end the bonus gaming session; and (vi) end the gaming session.