The main reason for why Stu switched from gin to poker was that he was a tiny bit too good at it. So skilled was he, that no one possibly could stand up to him. Even the commonly called professionals who were supposed to be the greatest at gin rummy were blow away when they competed against Stu Ungar. One such gin rummy player was Harry Stein, nicknamed, "Yonkie". Harry was handed such a crushing blow at the hands of mr. ungar that he apparently quit participating in it as a pro and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.
Accordingly, with a notoriety like that it was not long before gamblers became afraid of competing against Stu Ungar. He could find no matches and in his boredom he started doing something no one had done before. Stu provided starting handicaps to potential opposing players with the hope that they might play against him if they thought they had an edge. He deliberately began from a bad position and one tale has it that he even played against a regular bad egg. Amid the contest, he received advice that the bad egg was at it one more time but Stu Ungar stated that he was aware of the dishonestly and he would still actually win, which of course, he did.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar to sin city. He won so often that the poker rooms started requesting that he not to compete in their poker rooms anymore. The explanation why was that other poker room clients would not sit at the table if Stu was playing.
Stu Ungar is recalled more for his achievements in texas hold’em poker but he always said that he was considerably 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 was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".
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