The basic basis for why Stu Ungar changed from gin to poker was that Stu was a little too good at it. So good in fact, that no one was able equal him. Even the so-called champions who were supposed to be the greatest at gin were devoured when they faced Stu Ungar. One such gin professionals was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry suffered such a crushing defeat at the hands of stu that he allegedly quit participating in it professionally and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.
Of course, with a notoriety like that it was not too long before people became afraid of gambling against mr. ungar. He could find no matches and in his boredom he started doing something no one had attempted before. He issued beginning handicaps to potential adversaries with the hope that they may compete against him if they believed they had an edge. He deliberately began from a negative position and one account has it that stu even competed against a consistent bad egg. Mid contest, he get warnings that the cheater was at it once more but Stu Ungar assured that he deduced of the fraudulent activity and he would still actually win, which of course, he did.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar into Las Vegas. He won so much that the poker rooms started asking him not to compete on their rooms anymore. The explanation why was that other casino visitors would not be seated at the poker table if Stu was playing.
Stu Ungar is remembered better for his accomplishments in texas hold’em poker but he himself always insisted that he was much more accomplished at gin rummy.
He beat Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in 1980 and became the youngest world champion. Because of his features that made him seem far younger than he actually was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".
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