Patent ID: 8708806

Claim:
A method for controlling free plays awarded in a wagering game conducted through a gaming machine, the method including: (a) receiving a wager for a play in the wagering game, the wager being received through a player input system of the gaming machine and correlating to a respective wagering game play sequence; (b) displaying a result for the play in the wagering game through a display system for the gaming machine; (c) in response to a free play triggering event in the play in the wagering game, awarding one or more free plays of the wagering game, each free play requiring no wager; (d) through the display system, displaying a respective result in the wagering game for each awarded free play for which a respective result has not previously been displayed; (e) through the display system, displaying a secondary game and secondary game result obtained for the secondary game from among a number of potential secondary game results, the secondary game being displayed after a respective result has been displayed for each respective awarded free game play at step (d) of this claim, and the potential secondary game results including at least one additional free play triggering result and at least one result that does not trigger any additional free play; (f) for a respective additional free play triggering result obtained in the secondary game, awarding one or more free plays of the wagering game and conducting steps (d), (e), and (f) of this claim in that order for the respective one or more free plays awarded for the respective additional free play result; (g) for a respective result in the secondary game that does not trigger any additional free play, ending the respective wagering game play sequence for the wager received at step (a) of this claim; and (h) awarding a prize at the gaming machine for each winning aspect of the result displayed for the play and for the respective result displayed for each free play.