Stuey Ungar Biography / Pictures

Stu UngarStuart Errol "Stuey The Kid" Ungar (September 8, 1953 – November 22, 1998) was a professional poker and gin rummy player, considered to be among the best in history at both games.

From gin to poker to drugs
Ungar was originally a champion gin player. When he was 10 years old in 1963 he won a local tournament, and by 1967 he was regarded as one of the best players in New York. He dropped out of school in 1968 to play gin rummy full time and began winning tournaments earning him $10,000 or more. He later moved to Miami, Florida to find more action, and in 1976 he left for Las Vegas, Nevada.

Despite the fact that he is more well known for his poker accomplishments, Ungar regarded himself as a better gin rummy player, once stating, "Some day, I suppose it's possible for someone to be a better No Limit Hold'em player than me. I doubt it, but it could happen. But, I swear to you, I don't see how anyone could ever play gin better than me."

In 1980 he entered the World Series of Poker looking for more high-stakes action. He won the main event becoming the youngest champion in its history (he would later be surpassed by Phil Hellmuth). Ungar looked even younger than he was, and was dubbed "The Kid". He would defend his title successfully the next year.

Ungar was a genius with an eidetic memory, and could easily keep track of every card in a six-deck shoe. In 1977 he was bet $100,000 by Bob Stupak, an owner and designer of casinos, that he could not count down the last three decks in a six-deck shoe. Ungar won the bet. His skill and reputation were so good that he was frequently barred from playing in casinos. He was virtually unable to play blackjack in Las Vegas.

Ungar and wife Madeline divorced in 1986.

His drug problem escalated to such a point that during one WSOP tournament in 1990 that Baxter had staked him on, Ungar was found on the third day of the tournament unconscious on the floor of his hotel room. However, he had such a chip lead that even when the dealers kept taking his blinds out every time around the table Ungar still finished 9th and pocketed $20,500.

After early success Ungar squandered virtually all of his winnings on cocaine and other forms of gambling (cheifly sports betting and horse racing). His addiction took such a physical toll on him that in an ESPN piece on Ungar, many of his friends and fellow competitors said that they thought that he would not live to see his 40th birthday. In the same piece, one friend said that the only thing that kept him alive was his determination to see his daughter Stefanie grow up.

Final years
In 1997, Ungar was deeply in debt, but received the $10,000 buy-in from close friend and poker pro Billy Baxter. Ungar clearly showed physical damage from his years of addiction, most notably to his nasal membranes. However, he showed that his mental capacities were still present. During the tournament, he kept a picture of Stefanie in his wallet, and regularly called her with updates on his progress. After his win, which was taped for future broadcast by ESPN, he showed the picture of his daughter to the camera, and dedicated his win to her. He and Baxter split the $1 million first prize 50-50.

During the 1997 WSOP, Ungar wore a pair of round, blue-tinted sunglasses to, according to co-biographer Peter Alson, "hide the fact that his nostrils had collapsed from cocaine abuse." As legend has it, Ungar had undergone a rhinoplasty to fix the nasal damage that cocaine had caused. Following the surgery he snorted cocaine again, causing his nostrils to collapse.

By the following year, he was broke yet again. Baxter again offered to pay his entry fee to the main event, but 10 minutes before play started, Ungar told Baxter he was tired and didn't feel like playing.

Seven months after the 1998 WSOP, Ungar was found dead in a Las Vegas motel room with $800 to his name. An autopsy showed traces of drugs in his system, but not enough to have directly caused his death. The medical examiner concluded that he had died of a heart condition brought on by his years of drug abuse.

Legacy
Ungar is still regarded by many poker insiders as the greatest pure talent ever to play the game; in his life, he is estimated to have won over $30 million at the poker table. Along with Johnny Moss, Ungar is the only three-time WSOP main event champion, winning it in 1980, 1981, and 1997. His win in 1997 is considered particularly remarkable as a comeback after 16 years of drug abuse. During his WSOP career, Ungar won 5 WSOP bracelets and more than $2 million in tournament play.

[Note: Johnny Moss' first win was in the first WSOP, in 1970, and was by vote, not because he was the "last man standing," as has been the case ever since. Thus, Stu Ungar is actually the only true three-time winner.]

Ungar also won the main event at the now-defunct Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker in 1983, 1988, and 1989, when it was considered the world's second most prestigious poker title. He won a total of ten major no limit Texas hold 'em events, still the most by anyone.

One of Ungar's most famous quotes sums up his competitiveness- "I never want to be called a 'good loser'. Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser."

A movie about Ungar, High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story (Also released as Stuey), was made in 2003.

Stu Ungar (1953 - 1998)
The Tortured Champion

Stuey Ungar Biography

Ungar, who was born in New York City and raised on the city's Lower East Side, became a professional gambler at age 14, a year after his father, who was a bookmaker and bar operator, had died.

Stu was an incredible gin rummy player. At age 10 in '63, he won his first gin rummy tournament in a Catskill Mountain Resort while vacationing with his parents.

At age 14, he was regularly playing and beating the best players in New York. At 15 he dropped out of school when a well known bookie staked Stu to the $500 buy-in in a big gin rummy tournament. Stu won the $10,000 first prize without ever loosing a hand, a record still held in the card rooms of New York City. A week later, after giving his parents $1,000, he lost the rest on horses at the Aqueduct racetrack. It was a sign of things to come.

Ungar moved to Miami where the juiciest Gin games were. He did well but his weakness for sports and track betting drained him of any success. In 1976 Stu reached Las Vegas, broke and just about beaten. Somehow he found the money to enter a $50,000 tournament. On the last two hands he forecast the losing player's cards - correctly. This bravado was another bad career move as it meant other players feared his skills. As a result, he could no longer find any games outside the tournaments.

It wasn't long before he decided to try his luck at blackjack. He'd cleaned up on poker tables from Nevada to New Jersey and the time was right to move on. One night at Caesars Palace he won $83,000 but the manager stopped the play. Stu retaliated by correctly forecasting the last 18 cards left in the single-deck shoe. That was the beginning of the end for single deck blackjack tables. They were removed from Caesars and later from other casinos, and Stu's picture was posted up in the security rooms of dozens of casinos. Result: Stu was banned for life.

His next feat was to bet any takers $10,000 that he could perform yet another memory miracle: he offered to count down the last two decks in a six-deck shoe! There were no takers. Then in January 1977 a former owner of Vegas World and designer of the Stratosphere Tower stepped into his life. Stu Ungar met Bob Stupak. The new taker offered Stu $100,000 to count down the last three decks, half-way through a six-deck shoe. If Stu lost he'd owe Bob $10,000.

Memories of this amazing feat still linger on today in Las Vegas. To the astonishment of onlookers, and Bob, Stu didn't miss a single call from a total of 156 cards. When Bob handed him a check for $100,000, it marked the beginning of a lasting friendship between them. In 1980 at 24, Ungar entered his first world championship. He won and to silence the critics of his "fluke" he won the next year as well. He wasn't done with pure gambling though and he lost $900,000 in RAZZ game in an afternoon, $1m in a craps session and picked up $5m from Larry Flint (the p--- king) over many heads-up sessions. Ultimately his fever for action took everything in the physical world and his drug addiction was close to taking his life.

By the 1997 WSOP tournament in Las Vegas, Ungar hadn't been in the frame for over 7 years. He was seen around the gambling Mecca playing in small games but was pretty much written off by the poker world. He didn't have the money to enter the Championship event but an hour before play an anonymous benefactor produced the $10,000 entry. Four days later the greatest comeback in poker history had occurred and the record of three victories established. In all he won 10 major No limit Hold'em tournaments out of the 30 he entered!

Two months later he was broke again. Another year of oblivion and Stu was on the comeback trail again with his old friend Bob Stupak offering to cancel his debts and signing him up for commissioned card play. With $2000 of Stupak's money in his pocket (spending money) he checked into a cheap downtown hotel. Two days later he was dead. He left behind a 15 year old daughter.

He once said although he could conceive of a better poker player than himself, not in the next 50 years of the world would there be a better Gin player. Nov 22nd, 1998 - Oasis Motel, 1731 S. Las Vegas Blvd - Stu Ungar found dead.

The Clark County Coroner's office on Monday ruled Ungar's death accidental based on the results of toxicology tests that came back from the lab Friday. A mixture of narcotics and pain killers triggered a heart condition that killed him. The drugs found in Ungar's system were cocaine, methadone and the pain-killer Percodan, Clark County Coroner Ron Flud said. No one drug by itself was enough to cause Ungar's death. "The cause is accidental death by coronary atherosclerosis". "The heart condition developed over a period of time. The attack was brought on by his life-style."

Stu Ungar: Welcome to the Hall of Fame — Part I
by Mike S--ton

Stuey Ungar Biography

When anyone talks about the greatest poker players of all time, Stu Ungar’s name surfaces immediately. If it doesn’t, it should. His accomplishments in poker are second to none. I’m happy to tell you that Ungar will be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas on May 14.
Ungar is considered by many, and put me on that list, to be the greatest no-limit hold’em player of all time. But don’t take my word for it — just check the record books. Ungar was a three-time world champion, and had five World Series bracelets. He won 10 major no-limit hold’em championship events in which the buy-ins were $5,000 or more. The next two guys in line, T.J. Cloutier (the all-time leading money winner at the WSOP) and Johnny Chan (a two-time world champion), have won half that many. Amazingly, Ungar played in no more than 35 of these championship events in his life!

To further understand Ungar’s greatness, think about this: For years, the second-largest poker tournament in the world was Amarillo Slim’s Super Bowl of Poker. Throughout the 1980s, every great poker player attended Slim’s tournaments. Like the WSOP, the main event at the Super Bowl of Poker was a $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em championship. Only one man in history captured titles at both the WSOP and the Super Bowl of Poker. That man was Stu Ungar — and he won them three times each!

Ungar had a genius IQ and a photographic memory. He also had the quickest mind of anyone I’ve ever known. I first met him in 1978. He was a 22-year-old (but looked 14) streetwise, fast-talking whiz kid out of New York. He ventured to Las Vegas to play high-stakes gin rummy against all comers. He played anyone for any amount of money. He beat the best gin players in the world like Secretariat handled the Kentucky Derby.

As great as Ungar was in no-limit hold’em, he was better at gin rummy. Several months after he captured his third world poker title, he said to me, “Someday, I suppose it’s possible for someone to be a better no-limit hold’em player than me. I doubt it, but it’s possible. But I swear to you, Mike, I don’t see how anyone could ever play gin better than me.”

Ungar turned to poker when his gin action dried up. From the outset, he played in the biggest games in town. In 1980, with virtually no experience at no-limit hold’em, he entered the $10,000 buy-in world championship event at Binion’s Horseshoe for the first time — and won it. And he beat the toughest players in the world. Two-time world champion (and eight-time bracelet winner) Doyle Brunson finished second, Jay Heimowitz (five-time bracelet winner) was third, and the legendary three-time world champion (and eight-time bracelet winner) Johnny Moss finished fourth. The press dubbed him Stu “The Kid” Ungar.

The next year, he successfully defended his title. Think about that! Ungar had entered the world championship twice and was a two-time world champion at the age of 25. In what seems to be fitting, he captured his third world championship (in 1997) the last time he played in the event.

Ungar was a relentless, fearless warrior in no-limit hold’em. He took control of every table at which he played. And if he got ahold of some chips, look out. Describing how Ungar played no-limit hold’em is like talking about someone with the focus of Tiger Woods, the artistry of Mozart, the moves of Michael Jordan, and the killer instinct of a gladiator. He hated to lose, and was a poor loser. He always said, “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.”

Ungar was a gambler, and I mean an ultra high-stakes gambler at everything — poker, gin, sports, horses, golf, you name it. He never had a job in his life, so he never really had respect for money. Money was simply a tool with which to gamble, and the more he had, the more he bet.

For most of his life, money came easy to him. It also disappeared quickly. He was a high roller and a big spender. He was also a big tipper, whether he had money or not. He went from being broke to a millionaire to broke again at least four times. Gambling was his life. He craved action. He was hyper and couldn’t sit still. He never sat through a meal. He had to get back to the action.

Sadly, all is not cheerful and bright when talking about Stu Ungar. His biggest problem was his sickness. For 20 years, he abused himself with drugs. I can’t help but think what might have been. His life, even with the exciting times and conquests, was a tragedy. Drugs consumed him. I’m astounded when I think of what he achieved in poker, but I shudder to think of what he might have accomplished. He died in 1998 at the age of 42.

Some can’t see the “greatness” of Ungar. To them, he was a gambling degenerate and a drug addict who died broke. They confuse his lifestyle, bad habits, and sickness with his ability, extraordinary talent, and poker accomplishments. Don’t make that mistake. When it came to “playing the game,” Stu Ungar was in a league of his own. At no-limit hold’em, he was the best of all time.

Forgive Ungar for his drug abuse and mistakes, and recognize him for what he was: the greatest player ever to grace the green felt. He deserves his place in the Poker Hall of Fame. On behalf of poker players everywhere, “Congratulations, Stuey!”