Stu Ungar
Posted in Poker on 09/16/2010 05:21 pm by Izaiah
The primary reason for why Stu changed from gin rummy to poker was that he was a tiny bit too skilled at it. So good in fact, that no player possibly could stand up to him. Even the apparently professionals who were meant to be the greatest at gin were decimated when they faced Stu Ungar. One such gin player was Harry Stein, nicknamed, "Yonkie". Harry Stein was handed such a debilitating defeat at the hands of mr. ungar that he evidently quit competing in it as a pro and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.
Accordingly, with a notoriety like that it was not too long before players became afraid of wagering against stu. He couldn’t find any matches and in his desperation he began doing something no one had done before. He began offering starting handicaps to likely adversaries with the high hopes that they may play with him if they thought they had an advantage. He at will began from a disadvantageous arrangement and one account has it that stu even played against a constant cheater. During the match, he get warnings that the cheater was at it again but stu assured that he deduced of the fraudulent activity and he would still acquire a win, which of course, he did.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar to Las Vegas. He won so frequently that the poker rooms began asking him not to wager on their poker rooms anymore. The reason for it was that other casino clients refused to sit at the poker table if he were seated.
Stu Ungar is recalled better for his achievements in hold’em poker but he always maintained that he was much better at gin rummy.
He beat Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in 1980 to become the youngest world camp. Because of his looks that made him seem far younger than he was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".