Patent ID: 8246447

Claim:
A gaming method comprising: a. placing a wager to play a game; b. under the control of a processing unit, initiating a display of a plurality of spinning reels, each reel having a plurality of symbols on its periphery where one or more of the reels have one or more trigger symbols on its periphery as a subset of the plurality of symbols, and stopping the spinning reels to display a symbol combination, the plurality of reels displaying a single M×N array of symbols, forming a subset of the plurality of symbols on each reel, when stopped; c. under the control of the processing unit, upon displaying one or more of the trigger symbols on the plurality of reels when the reels are stopped, proceeding to steps d through i; d. shifting the stopped reels displaying a trigger symbol by one position; e. holding the reels in the plurality of reels that still display the trigger symbols, where reels that have not been held being remaining reels; f. giving a player a free spin by only rotating and stopping one or more of the remaining reels in the plurality of reels without requiring an additional wager; g. granting an award for winning combinations of symbols after step f; h. detecting the display of any trigger symbols in the M×N array after step f; and i. repeating steps d through h until no trigger symbols are displayed after the free spin.