Patent ID: 7819737

Claim:
A method of conducting a wagering game on a slot machine, the slot machine including a plurality of rotating symbol bearing reels, a display device, and a controller having a processor and a memory, the method comprising: providing an option for manual reel set-up of symbols on the rotating symbol bearing reels, the symbols being displayed in the display device; detecting a manual reel set-up wager from a player, the manual reel set-up wager being received in a wager input device and indicating player selection of the manual reel set-up option; in response to detecting the manual reel set-up wager, enabling manual reel set-up by the player; in response to using a user input device by the player, detecting manual rotation of the symbol bearing reels by the player to place the symbols on the reels in a first symbol array, the first symbol array selected by the player; using the controller for rotating and stopping the plurality of symbol bearing reels in a second symbol array, the second symbol array selected by the controller; and using the controller for awarding a value payout if the second symbol array includes one of a plurality of winning symbol combinations of the wagering gaming.