Patent ID: 7591722

Claim:
A method of operating a gaming device, said method comprising: (a) randomly generating a designated target number of player chips, wherein the designated target number of player chips is greater than zero; (b) causing at least one display device to display a playing board having a plurality of positions; (c) enabling a player to individually place one of a plurality of player chips at one of the positions, wherein placement of said player chip that causes at least one of a plurality of game chips to be flanked on opposite sides by player chips converts each said flanked game chip to a player chip; (d) causing the at least one display device to display the placed player chip at said position; (e) using a table in memory that is weighted according to said designated target number of player chips remaining to individually place one of the plurality of game chips at one of the positions, wherein placement of one of the game chips that causes at least one player chip to be flanked on opposite sides by game chips converts each said flanked player chip to a game chip; (f) causing the at least one display device to display the placed game chip at said position; (g) repeating steps (c) and (f) until the player has placed a provided amount of player chips onto the positions of the playing board; and (h) thereafter, providing an award to the player based on the remaining number of player chips after the player placed the provided amount of player chips onto the positions.