Patent ID: 7566267

Claim:
A method of operating a gaming machine including a program, said method comprising: (a) causing a display device to display a finite number of game objects to a player for a play of a game, each of the finite number of game objects having a probability of success and an associated award; (b) causing the display device to display a player object to the player; (c) enabling the player to choose one of the displayed game objects; (d) causing a processor to execute said program to determine either a successful result or an unsuccessful result for the chosen game object, wherein said determination is based on the probability of success for the chosen game object; (e) for each determination of the successful result for the chosen game object, awarding to the player the associated award for the chosen game object; (f) for each determination of the unsuccessful result for the chosen game object, causing the processor to execute said program to separately and randomly determine if a game end result occurs for the displayed player object, wherein said separate and random determination is based on an end game probability which is greater than zero; and (g) when the game end result is determined to occur for the displayed player object, causing the processor to execute said program to end the play of the game; and (h) when the end game result is not determined to occur for the displayed player object: (i) enabling the player to chose another one of the game objects for the play of the game, and (ii) causing the processor to execute said program to repeat (d) to (h) at least once.