Method of conducting a poker game

1. A method of conducting a wagering game, comprising:

receiving a wager for a plurality of user-playable hands;

providing a plurality of cards to form the plurality of user-playable hands;

discarding, via player selection, at least one of the plurality of user-playable hands, creating a reduced plurality of user-playable hands, the reduced plurality of user-playable hands including at least two user-playable hands;

providing a plurality of community cards;

after providing the plurality of community cards, discarding, via player selection, at least a second one of the plurality of user-playable hands to create a further-reduced plurality of user-playable hands, wherein each of the further-reduced plurality of user-playable hands is capable of being combined with the plurality of community cards to form a plurality of individual best hands; and

allocating the entire received wager to the further-reduced plurality of user-playable hands.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising awarding a player a payoff for each of the individual best hands meeting a predetermined criterion.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a player with the ability to select a preferred hand from the further-reduced plurality of user-playable hands.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein a preferred individual best hand is created by combining the cards of the preferred hand with the plurality of community cards.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising awarding the player a primary payoff for each of the plurality of individual best hands, the primary payoff being based on a pay table containing payoff amounts.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising increasing the primary payoff for the preferred individual best hand by applying a multiplier to the associated payoff amount contained in the pay table.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of user-playable hands and the plurality of community cards are dealt from a deck including at least 52 standard playing cards.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the playing cards are combined to form poker hands.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the playing cards are combined to form seven-card poker hands.

10. A method of conducting a wagering game, comprising:

receiving a wager for a plurality of user-playable hands;

revealing a plurality of symbol-bearing objects to form the plurality of user-playable hands;

revealing at least one community symbol-bearing object; and

after revealing the at least one community symbol-bearing object, discarding, via player selection, at least one hand from the plurality of user-playable hands, creating a reduced plurality of user-playable hands; and

wherein the at least one community symbol-bearing objects is capable of being combined with each of the reduced plurality of user-playable hands to form an individual best hand; and

allocating the entire received wager to the reduced plurality of user-playable hands.

11. The method of claim 10 , the plurality of community symbol-bearing objects being capable of being combined with one or more of the reduced plurality of user-playable hands to form one or more individual best hands.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

discarding, via a second player selection, at least a second hand from the plurality of user-playable hands to form a further-reduced plurality of user-playable hands; and

revealing an additional community symbol-bearing object, wherein the additional community symbol-bearing object is capable of being combined with the first plurality of community symbol-bearing objects to form a second plurality of community symbol-bearing objects, and wherein the second plurality of community symbol-bearing objects is capable of being combined with each of the further-reduced plurality of user-playable hands to form one or more individual best hands.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising awarding a player a payoff based on a ranking of the one or more individual best hands in response to the one or more of the individual best hands meeting a predetermined criterion.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the predetermined criterion is a plurality of hand rankings contained in a pay table.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising providing the player with the ability to select a preferred hand from the further-reduced plurality of user-playable hands.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising revealing another additional community symbol-bearing object, prior to awarding the player a payoff, wherein the another additional community symbol-bearing object is capable of being combined with the second plurality of community symbol-bearing objects to form a third plurality of community symbol-bearing objects, and wherein the third plurality of community symbol-bearing objects is capable of being combined with one or more of the further-reduced plurality of user-playable hands to form one or more individual best hands.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein any awarded payoff earned by the preferred hand is increased.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the third plurality of community symbol-bearing objects are five community symbol-bearing objects and wherein each of the plurality .of user-playable hands comprise two symbol-bearing objects.

19. The method of claim 10 , the symbol-bearing objects being playing cards, the plurality of user-playable hands and the community symbol-bearing objects being dealt from a deck including at least 52 standard playing cards.

20. The method of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of user-playable hands are two user-playable hands and the reduced plurality of user-playable hands is a single user-playable hand.

21. A computer readable storage medium encoded with instructions for directing a gaming terminal to perform the method of claim 10 .