Hold and Win Slots: How Money Respin Features Work
Wolf Gold was a huge game in UK lobbies, and I remember it coming out. In its Money Respins, Money symbols stay where they land while the empty positions spin again. Each new one is held too and puts the counter back to three, and the round runs until the counter runs out or the grid fills.
Three is common, but it isn’t a rule. Some games start with more, call them lives instead of respins, or pay something other than a jackpot when the grid fills.
What are Hold and Win slots?
Qualifying symbols lock in place, the rest of the grid respins, and the feature runs on a limited counter that new symbols can top up.
Hold & Win and Money Respins: what’s the difference?
Hold & Win is the familiar name for this sort of feature, but developers use their own labels: Wolf Gold calls its round Money Respins, Cowboy Coins has Free Respins, Myth of Ra calls it Ra’s Gold and Gopnik calls it Kiosk Raid. Here, Money Respins means the version where dedicated prize-bearing symbols are held. The name on screen doesn’t tell you what the game holds or how its counter works.
How do Money Respins work?
Wolf Gold‘s round starts when six or more Money symbols land. They stay locked on its 15-position grid while the other positions respin, with three respins to start and a reset to three for every new Money symbol. It ends when the respins run out or all 15 positions are full.
Depths of Fortune describes the same loop in terms of lives. Five Coins start the feature, a spin without a new Coin uses up a life, and a new Coin puts you back to three.
Pick any two games in the Face-Off to compare how their rounds start and end.
Compare Hold & Win and Money Respins features
Choose two games to compare what stays held and how their respin rounds unfold.
At a glance
| Wolf Gold | Pots of Power: Mummy’s Treasure | |
|---|---|---|
| What stays held | Triggering and newly landed Money symbols remain fixed while empty positions respin for more Money symbols. | Prize-value coins stay held on the bonus grid; Power Frames can add to their values. |
| How it starts | Six or more Money symbols on a spin trigger the feature, in either the base game or Free Spins. | A random bonus trigger can occur when at least one Bonus symbol is present at spin end. A Pre-Bonus Wheel then determines the setup. |
| How respins work | Starts with three respins. Any new Money symbol resets the count to three; the round ends when no respins remain or all 15 positions fill. | The wheel sets three, four or five starting spins. New coins reset the counter. The feature ends when spins run out, the grid fills or the game’s overall win limit is reached. |
Explore the Hold & Win and Money Respin features
These games all use a round in which prize-bearing symbols can remain on the grid while more spins take place. The trigger, held symbols and spin-counter rules vary. Some developers call the feature Hold & Win; others use different names.
Wolf Gold
Respin featureMoney RespinsBase game and Free Spins
- What stays held
- All triggering and newly landed Money symbols remain locked in place. Empty positions continue to respin.
- How it starts
- Six or more Money symbols trigger the feature in base play or Free Spins. Ordinary payline awards are resolved beforehand.
- How respins work
- The feature starts with three respins; each landing of one or more new Money symbols refreshes the counter to three.
- When it ends
- The feature ends when the counter expires or all 15 positions are occupied; held values are then totalled.
- Full-grid rule
- Filling the whole 15-position area also awards the Mega Jackpot.
Sources: Current In-Game Rules Screenshots; Pragmatic Play Official Game Page; UK Rules
Pots of Power: Mummy’s Treasure
Respin featureHold & WinBonus feature
- What stays held
- Coin symbols retain their positions through the Hold & Win bonus. Power Frames can add value to held coins.
- How it starts
- If a Bonus symbol is on-screen at spin end, a random trigger can activate the feature; the Pre-Bonus Wheel determines its starting setup.
- How respins work
- The wheel starts the feature with three, four or five spins. Each new coin landing resets the remaining-spin counter.
- When it ends
- The feature stops when the counter expires, the grid fills or the game’s overall win limit is reached.
- Full-grid rule
- A completely filled grid ends the feature immediately and applies a size-dependent multiplier: ×2 on 5 × 4, ×3 on 5 × 5 or ×4 on 5 × 6.
Sources: AvatarUX Game Sheet; Developer Description; In-Game Rules and Interface Screenshots
What stays held during the feature?
Wolf Gold and Pyramid King hold Money symbols, while Myth of Ra holds gold coins. Cowboy Coins locks both Money and Special symbols during its Free Respins. Gopnik is the odd one out: Kiosk Raid holds prize labels, each new label takes a multiplier value from the top row, and it keeps that value until the bonus ends.
How the counter works
In most of the games here, Wolf Gold, Pyramid King, Cowboy Coins and Myth of Ra among them, a new qualifying symbol puts the counter back to three. Depths of Fortune does the same with lives. Cowboy Coins can also end early if the maximum win is reached, which is the one ending here that isn’t a full grid or the counter running out.
Not always three
Pots of Power: Mummy’s Treasure spins a Pre-Bonus Wheel before the round starts. It sets the starting spins (three, four or five), the grid size (5×4, 5×5 or 5×6) and the number of Power Frames (two, three or four). A new Coin still resets the counter, but the count you start from isn’t fixed, and neither is the size of the grid, until the wheel stops.
What happens when the grid fills?
In Wolf Gold, filling all 15 positions ends Money Respins and awards the Mega Jackpot. Pyramid King awards its 1,000x Grand Jackpot for a full 15-position grid. Pots of Power: Mummy’s Treasure ends the feature and multiplies the collected pot instead: x2 on a 5×4 grid, x3 on 5×5 and x4 on 5×6.
Even the jackpot names aren’t standard. Wolf Gold and Pyramid King are both Pragmatic Play games, but Wolf Gold’s tiers are Mini, Major and Mega, while Pyramid King’s are Minor, Major and Grand.
What prizes can held symbols carry?
Wolf Gold‘s Money symbols carry values from 1x to 100x total bet, or a Mini or Major jackpot. Pyramid King‘s can carry its Minor or Major jackpot, with the Grand kept for a full grid. In Gopnik, the held Kiosk Raid labels carry multipliers from x1 to x100.
Money Respin examples compared
| Game | Held symbols | Counter rule | How it ends / what’s different |
|---|---|---|---|
 Wolf Gold |
Money symbols. | Starts with 3 respins; new Money resets to 3. | Ends on expiry or 15/15 filled; full grid also awards Mega. |
 Pots of Power: Mummy’s Treasure |
Coin symbols. | Starts with 3, 4 or 5 spins from the Pre-Bonus Wheel; new Coin resets the counter. | Full board applies x2, x3 or x4 depending on grid size. |
 Cowboy Coins |
Money or Special symbols. | Starts with 3 respins; new qualifying symbol resets to 3. | Can also end if all positions fill or the max-win cap is reached. |
 Depths of Fortune |
Coins. | Starts with 3 lives; new Coin restores lives to 3. | Loaded Reel rewards can interact with the held-coin round. |
 Myth of Ra |
Gold coins. | Starts with 3 spins; each new Coin resets to 3. | Ends on expiry or full positions; Minor, Major and Grand are available. |
 Gopnik |
Prize labels with multiplier values. | Starts with 3 spins; each new label resets the counter. | Held label values plus Collect contributions form the Kiosk total. |
 Pyramid King |
Money symbols. | Starts with 3 respins; new Money resets to 3. | Full 15-position grid also awards the 1,000x Grand Jackpot. |
 Fire in the Hole 2 |
Upgraded Dynamite, Beer and Dwarf effects, until Lucky Wagon Spins end. | Starts with 3 spins; a Coin resets to 3. | An Upgrade can keep the triggering Coin active for one more spin. |
Hold & Win vs Money Collection
Money Collection is about a collector gathering or awarding eligible values. Hold & Win is about positions staying fixed while a limited number of respins continue. A game can do both. Depths of Fortune holds Coins during its respin feature but also offers separate Collect and Collect & Multiply rewards. Those collector events are not what makes the feature Hold & Win.
What about other held-position respins?
Not every feature that holds symbols is built around dedicated Money symbols. Monopoly Megapots starts Hold and Spin with six or more Coins, Houses or Cards. Each position then becomes its own mini reel, and every new Coin, House or Card is held and resets the counter to three. It looks familiar, but it holds a wider range of symbols than the Money Respin examples above.
Hold & Win vs Free Spins
Free Spins award a set of spins under a bonus rule. Hold & Win runs a held-position sequence with a counter that can reset. The two can overlap: Wolf Gold can trigger Money Respins during Free Spins, and in Pyramid King‘s Free Spins, a randomly chosen expanding symbol can be the Money symbol, which can land enough of them to start the feature. Getting there through Free Spins doesn’t make them the same mechanic.
Hold and Win FAQ
Does filling the grid always award a jackpot?
No. Wolf Gold and Pyramid King have full-grid jackpots, but Pots of Power: Mummy’s Treasure multiplies its collected pot instead.
Does a Hold & Win feature need a collector?
No. A collector can turn up inside some Hold & Win rounds, as in Depths of Fortune, but what makes it Hold & Win is the held symbols and the respin counter.
Does Hold & Win change RTP or the chance of winning?
Not on its own. Having the feature doesn’t tell you the RTP, how often the round triggers or how likely you are to win.
Sources reviewed
I checked these games against their own rules, developer game sheets and game pages. Some evidence is only available in-game or through authenticated sources; the public links identify the games.
Pragmatic Play
AvatarUX
Red Rake Gaming
Sneaky Slots
Nolimit City
Big Time Gaming
Where this guide comes from
I check each game’s own rules for what gets held, how the counter starts and resets, and what happens when the round ends. Where the sources don’t settle a detail, I leave it out rather than guess. Read the full research methodology