A video poker machine is provided which includes at least one display device, at least one input device and at least one computer. The computer is configured with the display device and the input device to deal a first hand of at least five cards, all face up, and to cause a selection of none, one or more of the face up cards from the first hand as cards to be held. The cards selected to be held from the first hand are duplicated into a second hand. The face up cards not selected to be held are discarded from the first hand. Each of the discarded cards are replaced with a face up card, and the second hand is completed to have at least five cards by dealing additional face up cards. The computer configured with the display device and the input device further determines the poker hand ranking of the resulting cards of the first hand and the second hand.