Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a gaming system and method providing a card game with one or more decay value cards having a decay value. The decay value represents a quantity of plays of the card game that the decay value card will remain or be provided for a player. Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a gaming session with one or more plays of a card game, wherein for a play of a card game, the gaming system: (1) designates one or more cards within a set of cards to be decay value cards; (2) determines a decay value for each decay value card; (3) determines whether to provide a decay value card during the play of the game; and (4) holds each decay value card having at least a minimum decay value for a subsequent play of the game.