The primary reason why Stu Ungar switched from gin rummy to poker was that he was a little too skilled at it. So skilled was he, that no player was able stand up to him. Even the so-called experts who were meant to be the greatest at gin were beat when they competed with Mr. Ungar. One of these gin rummy masters was Harry Stein, nicknamed, "Yonkie". Harry suffered such a crushing beating at the hands of Stu Ungar that he apparently stopped participating in it as a pro and never resurfaced at a gin tournament.
Certainly, with a distinction like that it was not very long before players became afraid of playing against Stu Ungar. He couldn’t find any games and in his boredom he began doing something no one had done before. Stu offered starting handicaps to potential opponents with the high hopes that they may compete against him if they believed they had an advantage. He at will started from a bad position and one tale has it that he even competed against a consistent cheater. Mid match, he get a few words of wisdom that the absconder was at it one more time but stu guaranteed that he deduced of the cheating and he would still come away with a win, which he did, of course.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar to Las Vegas. He won so often that the poker rooms started asking him not to gamble in their poker rooms anymore. The explanation why was that other casino clients refused to be seated at the table if Stu was seated.
Stu Ungar is remembered better for his abilities in hold’em poker but he always insisted that he was far more skilled at gin rummy.
He defeated Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in 1980 to become the youngest world champion. Due to his looks that made him seem far younger than he actually was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".
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