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The main basis for why Mr. Ungar changed from gin to poker was that Stu was a tiny bit too skilled at it. So skilled was he, that no one was able equal him. Even the so-called champions who were supposed to be the most favorable at gin rummy were beat when they played with Mr. Ungar. One such gin rummy masters was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry was handed such a debilitating beating at the hands of mr. ungar that he apparently stopped playing it as a pro and never resurfaced at a gin tournament.
Certainly, with a notoriety like that it was not too long before players became afraid of competing against mr. ungar. He couldn’t find any matches and in his desperation he began doing something no one had attempted before. He began offering beginning handicaps to potential adversaries with the wish that they may compete with him if they believed they held an advantage. He deliberately began from a bad arrangement and one tale has it that he even played with a regular bad egg. Mid match, he get warnings that the cheater was at it once more but Stu Ungar assured that he was aware of the chicanery and he would still actually win, which he did, of course.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar to vegas. He won so much that the poker rooms began requesting that he not to gamble on their poker rooms anymore. The explanation why was that other poker room visitors would not sit at the poker table if Stu was playing.
Stu Ungar is recollected better for his achievements in hold’em poker but he himself always insisted that he was a whole lot better at gin rummy.
He beat Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in Nineteen Eighty and became the youngest world camp. Because of his features that made him appear far younger than he really was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".
