Patent ID: 7357713

Claim:
An electronic game device for a player comprising: a) a display; b) a game processor and a data structure storing data representing a plurality of game symbols and data representing a predetermined award schedule for winning outcome sets; c) a wager input apparatus for the player to input a wager to play the game and prompt play, the processor configured to, in response to prompting of play, (i) select, assign and control the display to display a selected game symbol into each coordinate of a game matrix having columns C and rows R, where C and R are at least 3, (ii) compare the symbols displayed in the game matrix to determine whether a predetermined number of like symbols are disposed in at least one of a plurality predetermined winning patterns defining a winning outcome set, (iii) determine an award for each winning outcome set, (iv) remove the symbols of each winning outcome set from the display, (v) select, assign and display symbols to replace the removed symbols to reconstitute the game matrix, and (vi) repeat steps (ii) through (v) until there are no winning outcome sets.