My most memorable wasn't a huge win. But it's the one I remember most anyway.
I'm normally a 3-5 line quarter player, and occasionally play quarter Spin Poker. But I never play dollars on anything.
Couple years ago the wife commented that our gambling felt like "work" a bit too often. Normally I get up around 315am and grind away for three or four hours while she sleeps (and the casino is its quietest with the best air quality it has all day). I try to get 80% of our coinin done that way so that the rest of the play can be low pressure and casual and it stays fun for her (she's usually playing nickels while I play quarters). We aren't doing this for income (even though we've been up four years in a row). We look at it as the cheapest resort vacations we could ever find.
Well her comment about the fun hit home. When you view sessions as work it's hard to get all that excited about a royal here or there. So we decided that every trip we would "blow" $100 on actual gambling. Money we fully intended to lose, separate from the ever-churning bankroll. Some trips it's on silly slots with bonus games, some it's on roulette, sometimes craps. We win occasionally off the "fun" money and if we do, that money goes to pleasure purchases, never to the bankroll and never to the regular bank accounts. It's fun money, period.
On a trip last year, it was my turn to decide what to do with the fun money. And I walked into the high limit at Atlantis and sat at a Spin Poker Deluxe machine. Twenty lines. Dollars. NSUD. $100 a spin. More than 20 times as big as my 5 play bets and 8 times as big as my "big stakes" play at quarter Spin Poker. I did the silly "what if I get a dealt Royal" math in my head... stared at the machine... pondered what kind of bankroll I'd have to have for playing this machine to not be a terrible idea... then hit the button.
Three deuces and a dealt straight flush.
I stared at that screen for probably five minutes. Yes the math is really obvious. But this wasn't a machine I'd ever play again. Or even beyond this hand. And a thousand bucks is a thousand bucks, especially when it's sacredly earmarked not to go back into the bankroll or the general fund. It's like being ten years old and grandma giving you money you're not allowed to save.
Ultimately I decided I had to go for the deuces. Worst case I was risking about $500. Couldn't see getting less than that terribly often off the twenty lines (and $400 as a guaranteed minimum). Depending on which of the six spots a deuce fell in, I'd get either $6k or $7k if it hit.
From the lede, you know it didn't hit. I did get a couple 5OAK so I wound up with $710 off the hand. It turned into a nice pair of earrings for the wife, and a bespoke suit for me in Bangkok. Completely guilt-free.
But in my mind I can still see the spinning "wheels" on that screen waiting for the 4th deuce to come...