[ English ]

The main reason for why Stu switched from gin rummy to poker was that he was a little too good at it. So good was he, that no one was able stand up to him. Even the so-called champions who were meant to be the most favorable at gin rummy were decimated when they faced Stu. One such gin player was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry was handed such a belittling beating at the hands of mr. ungar that he apparently quit participating in it as a pro and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.

Certainly, with a image like that it was not very long before people became weary of playing against Stu Ungar. He could find no matches and in his agony he began doing something no one had attempted before. He offered beginning handicaps to likely adversaries with the wish that they might just play opposed to him if they thought they had an edge. He deliberately played from a negative arrangement and one story has it that stu even competed with a consistent absconder. Mid contest, he get advice that the absconder was at it again but stu guaranteed that he knew of the dishonestly and he would still win, which he did, of course.

The same problem followed Stu Ungar to Las Vegas. He won so often that the poker rooms began asking him not to compete in their poker rooms anymore. The reason for it was that other casino clientele would not sit at the table if he were playing.

Stu Ungar is recollected better for his abilities in holdem poker but he himself always maintained that he was much more accomplished 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 actually was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".