Patent ID: 7351144

Claim:
A gaming method for playing a reel selection slot machine, the method comprising: spinning a plurality of reels within a display window, the plurality of reels each displaying one or more game symbols; selecting a subset of the currently spinning reels from the plurality of reels for use in determining a game outcome, wherein the selection of the reels for use in determining a game outcome is player controlled; removing the non-selected reels from a player's view within the display window; consolidating the selected subset of the reels within the display window, wherein consolidating the selected reels within the display window comprises juxtapositioning the selected subset of the reels to eliminate any non-contiguous positioning of the selected reels produced by the removal of the non-selected reels; and stopping the subset of the currently spinning reels and determining if the selected subset of reels produce a winning game outcome, and awarding a prize if a winning game outcome is achieved.