Quick background on how I got into advantage slot play after reading Gambling 102. My wife and I found a nice little edge on 8/5 Bonus Poker at Ameristar in Black Hawk. The mix of bounce-back offers, a Sunday kiosk free-play promo, and a Sportsbook app bonus made it a consistently positive play for us.
We'd also make a loop through town, walking from Monarch Casino on the east end up to Z Casino on the west end, vulturing machines at every casino along the way. It usually took about an hour, and honestly, it doubled as a pleasant morning walk.
In the short three years we did this, things changed. We went from finding a handful of playable machines on each walk to, more recently, not finding anything worth sitting down at.
Yesterday, Breaking the Slot Code arrived in the mail. After flipping through it, learning about games I didn't know, and getting deeper insight into the ones I already knew, I started thinking about how to actually use the information. For me, spending hours strictly vulturing machines isn't worth the effort, so trying to memorize every game in the book doesn't feel like a good use of time.
I think the best approach is simpler; bring the book on casino trips. Walk the floor, note which games from the book are actually there, and put notes on your phone about each one. Then, as you go about your normal routine, check those machines whenever you pass by. It keeps things easy and still gives you a shot at catching good plays when they appear.