Patent ID: 8734218

Claim:
A gaming machine for presenting a poker game with a return feature, the gaming machine comprising one or more input devices and a display and configured to: associate one or more player cards with one or more players; present the one or more player cards on the display; accept an all-in wager from a first player via one or more of the one or more input devices and add the all-in wager to a single pot; receive a matching wager from a second player and add the matching wager to the single pot; after the all-in wager and the matching wager are received, compare a first partial hand comprising the first player's one or more player cards to a second partial hand comprising the second player's one or more player cards to determine a ranking for the first partial hand and the second partial hand; after the poker game completely ends, allocate a predetermined portion of the single pot to the first player if the first partial hand outranks the second partial hand, or to the second player if the second partial hand outranks the first partial hand, wherein a remaining portion of the single pot remains in the single pot after the predetermined portion of the single pot is returned; present one or more exposed community cards on the display to generate a completed hand for each of the one or more players; completely ending the poker game by comparing the completed hand of each of the one or more players to determine the highest ranking completed hand and a winning player, wherein the winning player is one of the one or more players holding the highest ranking completed hand; and allocate the remaining portion of the single pot to the winning player holding the highest ranking completed hand, the remaining portion of the single pot being the single pot minus the predetermined portion; wherein the winning player is a different player than the first or second player to which the predetermined portion of the single pot was allocated.