Oct 142012
The primary reason why Stu Ungar changed from gin rummy to poker was that Stu was a tiny bit too skilled at it. So skilled in fact, that no player could equal him. Even the apparently champions who were supposed to be the best at gin rummy were devoured when they played with Stu Ungar. One such gin player was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry Stein was handed such a debilitating blow at the hands of Stu Ungar that he evidently quit participating in it professionally and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.
Of course, with a reputation like that it wasn’t very long before players became shy of playing against Stu Ungar. He couldn’t find any games and in his boredom he started doing something no one had done prior. Stu issued beginning handicaps to potential competitors in the wish that they may compete against him if they believed they had an edge. He deliberately began from a bad position and one account has it that stu even competed against a constant bad egg. During the contest, he get warnings that the absconder was at it yet again but Stu Ungar stated that he deduced of the cheating and he would still win, which he did, of course.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar into Las Vegas. He won so much that the casinos started asking him not to compete in their poker rooms anymore. The reason for it was that other casino players refused to be seated at the table if he were seated.
Stu Ungar is recollected more for his abilities in texas holdem poker but he always maintained that he was a whole lot better at gin rummy.
He defeated Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in 1980 to become the youngest world camp. Due to his looks that made him seem far younger than he actually was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
