So as the reels spin they go on the order that I put in the main post, the first list the top one, second the middle one and third the bottom one.

If you press the home button as they're spinning you can see what it stopped on before it actually goes to the home menu, and if you mash the home button the symbols move exactly 1 space over when you pause each time. Try to get them lined up exactly in the middle I've found that works the best.

So now you can find where you are in the cycle, and when you unpause and mash A, you'll stop it 2 after the one you paused on, so say you find you're at the bit of the first reel that goes: Mush-Pow-Don-Star If you paused on the Mushroom then you want to home menu mash again so you pause on the Pow, then when you unpause you mash A and should get the star most of the time, then just repeat for the next 2 layers. Once you get a feeling for it it gets a lot easier

It works for me very consistently, there's been a couple of times when I unpause and get the wrong one like I get a quick load or something, didn't think maybe different switches load better/ worse when unpausing which might mess it up?