Poker Player: Stu Unger

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

The primary reason why Stu changed from gin to poker was that he was a little too skilled at it. So skilled was he, that no player possibly could equal him. Even the apparently experts who were meant to be the greatest at gin rummy were devoured when they competed with Stu. One such gin rummy masters was Harry Stein, nicknamed, "Yonkie". Mr. Stein suffered such a debilitating beating at the hands of stu that he allegedly quit competing in it as a pro and never showed up at a gin rummy tournament.

Certainly, with a distinction like that it wasn’t very long before everyone became shy of gambling against stu. He could find no games and in his agony he started doing something no one had performed prior. Stu offered beginning handicaps to potential opponents in the wish that they may play against him if they believed they had an edge. He at will began from a negative arrangement and one story has it that stu even competed with a regular cheater. Mid match, he get a few words of wisdom that the cheater was at it yet again but Stu Ungar assured that he knew of the dishonestly and he would still come away with a win, which he did, of course.

The same problem followed Stu Ungar to Las Vegas. He won so frequently that the casinos began asking him not to wager in their respective premises anymore. The reason for it was that other poker room players refused to be seated at the table if Stu was playing.

Stu Ungar is remembered more for his accomplishments in holdem poker but he himself always said that he was considerably more skilled at gin rummy.

He beat Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in Nineteen Eighty to become the youngest world champion. Due to his looks that made him appear far younger than he was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".