A method of simulating a gaming tournament utilizing a plurality of electronic game machines in a quasi-tournament includes the steps of: a) receiving value from a plurality of human users of the electronic game machines, the received value corresponding to a plurality of wagering credits whereby each human user is provided with a plurality of wagering units enabling the human user to participate in the quasi-tournament by playing one or more games on one of the electronic game machines, b) initiating a machine-implemented game on each game machine used in the quasi-tournament, whereby a human user may play the game using the electronic game machine to participate in the quasi-tournament, c) receiving input from the human user via a user interface associated with the electronic game machine to play the machine-implemented game, d) determining an outcome for each machine-implemented game played by each of the plurality of human users using the electronic game machines, e) updating the number of wagering units held by each human user based upon each outcome determined in step d), f) repeating steps b)-e) for the duration of the tournament, g) comparing the number of wagering units won by each human user in the quasi-tournament and determining one or more winners of the quasi-tournament and h) providing value to the one or more winners of the quasi-tournament.