Video poker wagering game for playing multi-level hands

1 . A gaming system for playing a video poker game having a plurality of ranked winning card combinations from a deck of cards, comprising:

a wager-input device for receiving a wager input from a player to purchase a plurality of poker hands for playing said video poker game from a deck of cards, said poker hands including a first hand and a second hand to be played by the player;

a display for displaying a plurality of first cards as a first played hand of said first hand; and

a controller coupled to said display and programmed to

create said second hand initially consisting of said plurality of first cards in response to said first played hand being at least a predetermined one of said plurality of ranked winning card combinations, and

allow the player to create a second played hand of said second hand, said second played hand including at least one player-selected card of said plurality of first cards and at least one randomly selected card from said deck of cards.

2 . The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein the displaying of said plurality of first cards includes the player replacing undesired cards with other cards from said deck of cards.

3 . The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein said display further displays a pay table having at least one award associated with said plurality of ranked winning card combinations.

4 . The gaming system of claim 3 , wherein said display further includes multiplier values for said first and second hands, said multiplier values being used to multiply said at least one award associated with at said at least one ranked winning card combination.

5 . The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein said pay table further includes said plurality of multiplier values.

6 . The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein said display is internal to a gaming terminal, said controller being external to said gaming terminal.

7 . The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein said display shows each one of said plurality of poker hands generally simultaneously on a single gaming screen.

8 . The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein said controller is further programmed to award a total award, said total award including a plurality of awards, each one of said plurality of awards being associated with a ranked winning card combination of said first hand and said second hand.

9 . A method of conducting a video poker game on a gaming machine, the method comprising:

receiving a wager input from a player to purchase a plurality of poker hands for playing said video poker game from a deck of cards, said poker hands including a first hand and a second hand to be played by the player;

displaying a plurality of first cards as a first played hand of said first hand, said first played hand indicating an outcome;

in response to said first played hand being at least a predetermined one of a plurality of ranked winning card combinations, creating said second hand initially consisting of said plurality of first cards; and

allowing the player to create a second played hand of said second hand, said second played hand including at least one player-selected card of said plurality of first cards and at least one randomly selected card from said deck of cards.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein said displaying of said plurality of first cards includes the player replacing undesired cards with other cards from said deck of cards.

11 . The method of claim 9 further comprising:

listing a plurality of awards in a pay table, each of said plurality of awards corresponding to a respective one of said plurality of ranked winning card combinations; and

multiplying said awards according to a multiplier value corresponding to each one of said poker hands.

12 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising

displaying a plurality of second cards as said second played hand;

in response to said second played hand being at least another predetermined one of said plurality of ranked winning card combinations, creating another hand consisting initially of said plurality of second cards; and

allowing the player to create another played hand of said another hand, said another played hand including at least one player-selected card of said plurality of second cards and at least one randomly selected card from said deck of cards.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein said another predetermined one of said plurality of ranked winning card combinations is a corresponding hand ranking that is higher than a hand ranking corresponding to said predetermined one of said plurality of ranked winning card combinations.

14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein said predetermined one of said plurality of ranked winning card combinations is a ranking of Jacks-Or-Better and said another predetermined one of said plurality of ranked winning card combinations is a ranking that is at least equal to a Three-Of-A-Kind ranking.

15 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

awarding a first award for said first played hand if said second played hand does not meet said predetermined one of a plurality of ranked winning card combinations; and

awarding a second award for said second played hand if said another played hand does not meet said another predetermined one of said plurality of ranked winning card combinations, said second award being awarded instead of said first award and being larger than said first award.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein said second award is twice larger than said first award.

17 . A computer readable storage medium encoded with instructions for directing a gaming device to perform the method of claim 9 .

18 . A method of conducting a video poker game on a gaming machine, the method comprising:

receiving a wager input from a player to purchase a plurality of poker hands for playing said video poker game from a deck of cards, said poker hands including a qualifying hand and a subsequent qualifying hand to be played by the player;

displaying a plurality of initial cards for playing said qualifying hand, said initial cards being randomly selected from said deck of cards;

allowing the player to create a qualifying played hand of said qualifying hand, said qualifying played hand indicating an outcome; and

in response to said qualifying played hand being at least a predetermined one of a plurality of ranked winning card combinations, creating a subsequent qualifying hand initially consisting of said initial cards.

19 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising awarding an award if said qualifying played hand is a winning hand.

20 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising increasing said award if a subsequent qualifying played hand of said subsequent qualifying hand is a subsequent winning hand.