Years ago, I was playing a $10 game in AC and a really sharp looking guy walked up to the middle of the table with a rack of big chips that I eyeballed to be about $10,000. He'd apparently been pre-cleared to play any amount he chose at any table he chose. (A security guy was within five feet of him at all times.) He stood in the middle of our puny $10 table and, having never sat down, turned his $10K into $55K in about half an hour. He seemed to know what he was doing, but wasn't using any Counting strategy I recognized.

There I was at 3rd base continuing to play my $10 game. I even asked him if he would like me to sit out. "Nah. It's your money." At one point he had a $3K bet that turned into a Double-down. I asked him what he wanted me to do with my hand. (I'm sure we both knew it didn't make any difference, but what the hell - I had $20 up.) He just said, "You seem to know what you're doing. Play your hand, son." 4 decks into an 8 decker, I had a TC +4 and passed on hitting the 12 v. dealer deuce. The next card was the Queen which broke the dealer. When the first card of the next round came out it was a damned 9 which would have given the dealer 21. The guy smiled at me, flipped me a black and said, "thanks".

As he left the table, I congratulated him on the win and he said, "Yea. If I don't lose it all back, maybe I can pay off some of my markers in Vegas."

Story #2:
Back when I first started playing, I was ending a session at the old Playby in AC about 1am. I walked by a roulette game where there seemed to be some commotion, so I stopped to watch. I saw a guy lose $45K in about 20 minutes. He asked the dealer to hold the table for a few minutes because he had to get some more money. (I don't know why he wasn't using markers.) Ten minutes later he came back with another rack of $50K - which he also lost in about 20 minutes. Cool as a cucumber, he flipped the dealer a two black tip and said, "Guess it's not my night darlin'. I'm gonna get some sleep and come back in the morning. I'll see you when you get in tomorrow."

I spend enough time in casinos that I've got a million stories, but it's those that happened when I was new to it all that I seem to remember with the greatest fondness.

And then there was the guy at Resorts who turned $10K into $245K at a craps table one night ... nah - I'll stop. :-)