A gaming system configured to operate a game associated with a plurality of game elements is provided. The gaming system provides a quantity of the game elements to a player and a dealer. The gaming system forms a first dealer hand and a second dealer hand from the provided game elements according to one of a plurality of element setting rules. The gaming system enables the player to manually form a first player hand and a second player hand from the provided game elements or to instruct the gaming system to automatically do so according to one of the element setting rules. If the player manually sets the player hands, the gaming system indicates whether the player's hands were formed in accordance with any of the element setting rules. The gaming system determines any awards based on a comparison of the player hands with the dealer hands.