Patent ID: 8262455

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: at least one display device adapted to display a game; at least one input device; at least one processor; and at least one memory device which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to operate with the at least one display device and the at least one input device to control a play of the game by: (a) independent of any wagers placed by a player, displaying and providing a quantity of modifiers, said quantity of modifiers being at least two; (b) displaying a plurality of masked game components, wherein a plurality of said game components are different; (c) for each provided modifier, enabling the player to apply said modifier to one of said plurality of masked game components; (d) unmasking a plurality of said game components, wherein said plurality of unmasked game components include each of the modified game components; (e) for each game component with at least one applied modifier, modifying said game component based on each modifier applied to said game component; (f) after modifying each game component with at least one applied modifier, displaying a quantity of award opportunities, said quantity of award opportunities being at least one; (g) for each displayed award opportunity, (i) determining an awards, said determination based on at least one random determination and at least one of the modified game components, and (ii) displaying any determined awards.