Poker Player: Stu Unger
The basic basis for why Mr. Ungar switched from gin rummy to poker was that he was a little too good at it. So skilled in fact, that no one possibly could stand up to him. Even the apparently champions who were meant to be the greatest at gin rummy were beat when they competed with Stu. One of these gin player was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Mr. Stein suffered such a crushing beating at the hands of Stu Ungar that he apparently quit playing it as a pro and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.
Accordingly, with a honor like that it wasn’t very long before people became afraid of competing against mr. ungar. He could not find any games and in his desperation he began doing something no one had attempted before. Stu issued beginning handicaps to likely opponents with the hope that they might just compete against him if they believed they had an advantage. He at will began from a negative position and one account has it that he even played against a regular absconder. Mid match, he received a few words of wisdom that the absconder was at it once more but Stu Ungar assured that he deduced of the chicanery and he would still win, which of course, he did.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar into vegas. He won so frequently that the casinos began asking him not to compete in their poker rooms anymore. The basis for it was that other casino players would not sit at the poker table if Stu was playing.
Stu Ungar is recollected more for his accomplishments in holdem poker but he always insisted that he was far more skilled at gin rummy.
He defeated Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in 1980 to become the youngest world champion. Due to his looks that made him appear far younger than he was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".
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