Patent ID: 7666085

Claim:
A method of operating a gaming device having a game operable upon a wager, for a play of said game, said method comprising: (a) causing a random generation of a first set of symbols from a plurality of symbols and causing a display device to display said first set of symbols on a display including a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns; (b) determining if the displayed first set of symbols includes a winning symbol combination; (c) if the displayed first set of symbols includes the winning symbol combination, providing an award associated with the winning symbol combination to a player; (d) separately from the random generation of the first set of symbols, causing a determination of at least one, but not all, of the symbols from the first set of generated symbols to maintain on the display, wherein said determination is independent of any displayed winning symbol combination and wherein in each of the rows, at least one of the displayed symbols is maintained and in each of the columns, at least one of the displayed symbols is maintained; (e) removing any non-maintained symbols in the first set of generated symbols from the display; (f) causing the display device to display a second set of symbols, for each of the non-maintained symbols in the first set of generated symbols, by: (i) randomly generating one of the symbols from the plurality of symbols, and (ii) replacing on the display said non-maintained symbol with said randomly generated symbol; (g) after the second set of symbols is displayed, determining if the displayed second set of symbols includes the winning symbol combination; and (h) if the displayed second set of symbols includes the winning symbol combination, providing the award associated with the winning symbol combination to the player.