The main reason for why Mr. Ungar switched from gin rummy to poker was that he was a bit too good at it. So skilled was he, that no player was able stand up to him. Even the commonly called professionals who were meant to be the most favorable at gin were demolished when they faced Mr. Ungar. One such gin masters was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Mr. Stein was handed such a belittling blow at the hands of Stu Ungar that he allegedly stopped playing it professionally and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.
Certainly, with a distinction like that it was not long before people became afraid of playing against Stu Ungar. He could not find any matches and in his agony he began doing something no one had done prior. Stu presented starting handicaps to potential competitors in the wish that they might compete opposed to him if they believed they had an edge. He at will started from a negative arrangement and one story has it that stu even played against a regular bad egg. Amid the match, he received advice that the absconder was at it yet again but stu guaranteed that he deduced of the chicanery and he would still actually win, which he did, of course.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar into Las Vegas. He won so frequently that the poker rooms started requesting that he not to bet on their rooms anymore. The reason was that other poker room visitors would not sit at the poker table if he were playing.
Stu Ungar is recollected more for his achievements in hold’em poker but he himself always said that he was considerably more skilled at gin rummy.
He beat Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in 1980 and became the youngest world camp. Due to his looks that made him seem far younger than he really was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".
November 22nd, 2010
Everett
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