Patent ID: 7684882

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: at least one central controller; and a plurality of gaming machines, each gaming machine configured to communicate with the at least one central controller, said at least one central controller and said gaming machines configured to: (a) enable a plurality of players to play non-tournament games at the gaming machines; (b) provide a tournament during a first time period, said first time period including a plurality of different second time periods, said tournament including a plurality of rounds for each of a plurality of the players, and for each player, each of said rounds occurs during a different one of the second time periods, (c) for each of the plurality of rounds for each of the plurality of players, upon an occurrence of a tournament round qualification triggering event during play of non-tournament games by said player at one of said gaming machines during one of said second time periods, during said second time period, enable said player to play said round, said play of said round including a plurality of plays of tournament games each resulting in a displayed tournament game outcome; (d) after said first time period, determine which of said players played at least a selected number of rounds, said selected number being at least two; (e) determine at least one tournament winner from the players determined to have played at least the selected number of rounds based on results of the displayed tournament game outcomes, said determination, for at least one player that played more than the selected number of rounds, based on results of the displayed tournament game outcomes for less than all of said rounds played by said at least one player; and (f) display an indication of an award to be provided to the at least one tournament winner.