The trigger: it counts symbols, not lines
An ordinary slot needs symbols connected from the left along a payline. PP's tumble games ask whether a fresh combination forms after the drop. Hold & Spin does neither — it watches one class of symbol only: the money symbol (games call it a cash symbol, coin or chest, but it's always the one carrying a number on its face).
When enough money symbols share the grid at once — six is the common threshold — the base game stops dead and the feature begins. Three things happen in that instant: the money symbols already showing are locked in place; every other position is cleared; and the game hands you a starting number of respins.
In a PP game built on Hold & Spin, payline wins in the base game are background noise. What actually decides the session is how fast money symbols accumulate — watch that, not the win lines.
The core rule: how the respin counter resets
All of the tension in Hold & Spin comes from one rule: every new money symbol that lands resets the remaining respins to the starting value. That starting value is commonly three.
Nothing lands → respins remaining −1
Counter hits zero, or the grid fills → feature ends, everything settles at once
That turns the feature into a tug of war: two empty spins in a row and you watch the counter fall from three to one; land a single money symbol on the third and the whole thing springs back to three. Which is why the length of a Hold & Spin round is genuinely open-ended — it can be over in three spins, or run on until the grid is full.
A counter that has reset several times doesn't mean the machine has "warmed up." Each spin remains an independent event; whether the last one landed a money symbol changes nothing about the next. What the reset rule amplifies is the tension of the process, not its predictability.
The payout: values totalled, plus the full-grid tier
Money symbols usually carry their own value, expressed as a multiple of your stake. When the feature ends, every locked symbol's value is added up and paid in one go — and that's where the "flat process, concentrated payout" character comes from. Across the whole feature you see no scattered pays at all; everything is held back for a single final total.
Most PP Hold & Spin games hang a set of fixed jackpot tiers off the structure too, awarded by fill level or by specific symbols, with the top tier usually tied to filling the grid completely. That tier is the ceiling of the format, and it's also the source of its volatility — the overwhelming majority of features finish nowhere near a full grid.
| Where the money comes from | How it's produced | Typical share |
|---|---|---|
| Money symbol values | Locked symbol values totalled | The bulk of the feature |
| Lower jackpot tiers | Filling a set number of rows / columns | Reached occasionally |
| Top jackpot tier | Grid filled completely | Rare |
Against the tumble games: two opposite rhythms
Put Hold & Spin next to the tumble format PP is far better known for, and the contrast is immediate. These aren't two versions of the same temperament — they're opposite routes:
| Compared on | Tumble games | Hold & Spin |
|---|---|---|
| How wins are produced | Several evaluations inside one paid spin | One total when the feature ends |
| Weight of the base game | Heavy — a chain can start at any moment | Light — mostly accumulating money symbols |
| Feel of the process | Busy, constant feedback | Quiet; the tension sits in the counter |
| Where the ceiling is | The progressive multiplier in free spins | The full-grid top jackpot tier |
So "I like PP's tumble games" and "I like PP's Hold & Spin" are close to two different preferences. The first wants something happening constantly; the second wants a long hold followed by a single reckoning. Working out which one you're after is worth more than reading a spec table.
The nine in our library: naming patterns and two hybrids
Among the PP slots we've catalogued, 9 carry the Hold & Spin structure tag. Their naming follows an obvious pattern — the mechanic is written straight into the title, in three interchangeable spellings: Hold and Spin, Hold Spin, Hold Spinner. Ultra Hold and Spin, Hot To Burn Hold and Spin, Dragon Hot Hold and Spin, Jokers Jewels Hold Spin and Floating Dragon Hold and Spin all sit in this group.
Two deserve pulling out on their own — the hybrids: Big Bass Hold Spinner Megaways and Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold Spin. They stack variable reels and locked respins into a single game: the base game runs on Megaways' shifting ways count, and the feature cuts across to Hold & Spin's locked settlement. Layering like that means reading two rule sets at once, so it's worth going through the mechanic description on the game page before you start.
If you want a clean look at the structure, Ultra Hold and Spin is the most typical of the set: nothing else in the name, a relatively uncluttered build, and a good first place to feel what the counter reset actually does. Treat all figures as whatever your operator displays — everything we list carries a "parameters pending verification" note.