Patent ID: 8083578

Claim:
A method of operating a gaming system, said method comprising: (a) causing a processor to operate with a display device and an input device for a play of a poker game to: (i) receive an initial wager of a quantity of credits from a player to play a quantity of at least two poker hands, wherein the quantity of credits of the initial wager is greater than the quantity of poker hands and the initial wager is placed prior to displaying any cards of any of the poker hands; (ii) for each of the quantity of poker hands, display face-up a partial poker hand; (iii) automatically apply a first amount of at least one credit from the initial wager of credits to each of the displayed partial poker hands, wherein the sum of all the first amounts of credits is less than the quantity of credits of the initial wager; (iv) display individual probabilities for each of the displayed partial poker hands winning in a final hand game against all of the other quantity of partial poker hands; (v) display distinct payout rates for each of the displayed individual probabilities; (vi) display enhanced payout rates for each of the displayed individual probabilities; (vii) after displaying: (1) the partial poker hands face-up, (2) the individual probabilities for each of the displayed partial poker hands, (3) the distinct payout rates for each of the displayed individual probabilities, and (4) the enhanced payout rates for each of the displayed probabilities, enable the player to select one of the displayed partial poker hands; (viii) automatically apply a second amount of at least one credit from the initial wager of credits on the player selected partial poker hand, wherein the second amount of credits is equal to the initial wager of credits minus the sum of each of the first amounts of credits; (ix) for each of the poker hands, determine and display a result and any associated award; (x) if the result of the player selected poker hand outranks the results of each of the remaining poker hands, determine an enhanced payout award according to the enhanced payout rate associated with the player selected poker hand; and (b) causing the processor to operate with the display device and the input device to provide any awards associated with said displayed results for the play of the poker game.