Poker Player: Stu Unger
Posted in Poker on 05/09/2010 11:21 pm by Valerie
The basic reason for why Mr. Ungar changed from gin rummy to poker was that Stu was a bit too good at it. So good in fact, that no one possibly could stand up to him. Even the so-called experts who were supposed to be the best at gin were demolished when they competed against Mr. Ungar. One of these gin rummy masters was Harry Stein, nicknamed, "Yonkie". Harry suffered such a debilitating beating at the hands of Stu Ungar that he allegedly quit participating in it as a pro and never showed up at a gin tournament.
Of course, with a image like that it was not too long before players became weary of competing against Stu Ungar. He could find no games and in his boredom he began doing something no one had done before. He began offering starting handicaps to potential opposing players with the high hopes that they may compete opposed to him if they thought they had an edge. He at will started from a negative arrangement and one account has it that stu even played with a regular bad egg. During the match, he received warnings that the absconder was at it yet again but Stu Ungar assured that he was aware of the fraudulent activity and he would still come away with a win, which of course, he did.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar into vegas. He won so often that the poker rooms began requesting that he not to bet in their casinos anymore. The explanation why was that other casino clients would not sit at the table if Stu was playing.
Stu Ungar is remembered more for his abilities in texas hold’em poker but he always insisted that he was much better at gin rummy.
He defeated Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in 1980 and became the youngest world camp. Due to his features that made him seem far younger than he really was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".