Patent ID: 7950994

Claim:
A gaming device comprising: a display device; an input device; a processor; and a memory device which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to operate with the display device and the input device to: (a) receive an input made by a player, the received input corresponding to a wager placed by the player for a play of a game; (b) display a plurality of reels, each of the reels including a plurality of different symbols; (c) for each of the reels: (i) randomly determine each of a predetermined quantity of the plurality of different symbols to be displayed on said reel, the predetermined quantity being at least one; and (ii) display each of the predetermined quantity of the randomly determined symbols on said reel; (d) determine if any one of the displayed symbols corresponds to a predetermined trigger symbol; and (e) in response to any one of the displayed symbols corresponding to the predetermined trigger symbol and without any additional wager required from the player for the play of the game: (i) display a replacement reel, the replacement reel including a plurality of different replacement symbols, the plurality of different replacement symbols including at least one terminator symbol; (ii) associate the replacement reel with at least one of the displayed symbols on the reels; (iii) randomly determine at least one of the different replacement symbols to be displayed on the replacement reel; (iv) display the at least one randomly determined replacement symbol on the replacement reel; and (v) in response to the at least one displayed replacement symbol corresponding to any of the different replacement symbols other than the at least one terminator symbol: (A) replace the at least one displayed symbol associated with the replacement reel with said at least one displayed replacement symbol; (B) determine whether to provide one of a plurality of awards to the player, the determination based on the at least one displayed replacement symbol and at least one of the other displayed symbols, each of said other displayed symbols being on one of the other reels which has not been replaced; (C) if the determination is to provide one of the awards, provide the award to the player; and (D) repeat (iii) to (v) until the at least one displayed replacement symbol corresponds to the at least one terminator symbol.