Stu Unger: Poker Player
Posted in Poker on 04/28/2010 10:22 pm by Christopher
The main basis for why Mr. Ungar changed from gin rummy to poker was that he was a bit too good at it. So skilled in fact, that no one possibly could stand up to him. Even the apparently champions who were meant to be the best at gin were decimated when they faced Mr. Ungar. One of these gin professionals was Harry Stein, nicknamed, "Yonkie". Harry Stein was handed such a debilitating blow at the hands of stu that he allegedly quit competing in it as a pro and never showed up at a gin tournament.
Of course, with a image like that it wasn’t long before players became shy of playing against stu. He could find no matches and in his desperation he started doing something no one had done before. He offered beginning handicaps to likely competitors in the hope that they might just play opposed to him if they believed they held an advantage. He deliberately played from a bad arrangement and one tale has it that stu even competed with a regular absconder. During the match, he received warnings that the absconder was at it once again but stu guaranteed that he knew of the fraudulent activity and he would still win, which of course, he did.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar to Las Vegas. He won so frequently that the poker rooms started requesting that he not to play in their casinos anymore. The basis for it was that other casino players refused to sit at the table if Stu was playing.
Stu Ungar is recalled more for his accomplishments in holdem poker but he himself always said that he was a whole lot better at gin rummy.
He beat Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in Nineteen Eighty to become the youngest world champion. Because of his features that made him appear far younger than he really was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".