Stuart Errol Ungar (September 8, 1953 – November 22, 1998) was an American professional poker, blackjack, and gin rummy player, widely regarded to have been the greatest gin player of all time and one of the best Texas hold 'em players.

Ungar is one of two people in poker history to have won the World Series of Poker Main Event three times. He is the only person to win Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker three times, the world's second most prestigious poker title of its time.

Ido died of a heart attack on July 25, 1967. Following his father's death, and with his mother virtually incapacitated by a stroke, Ungar drifted around the New York gambling scene until age 18, when he was befriended by reputed organized crime figure Victor Romano. Romano was regarded as one of the best card players of his time. He had the ability to recite the spelling and definition of all of the words in the dictionary and apparently shared a penchant and interest for calculating odds while gambling as Ungar did. By many accounts, the two developed a very close relationship, with Romano serving as a mentor and protector.

Ungar was infamous for his arrogance and for routinely criticizing aloud the play of opponents he felt were beneath him, which included just about 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 just show you a loser." However, his relationship with Romano gave Ungar protection from various gamblers who did not take kindly to his crass attitude and assassin-like playing style.

Gin rummy and transition to poker

Ungar won a local gin tournament at age 10. He dropped out of school to play gin rummy in the 1960s full-time to help support his mother and sister after his father died, and began regularly winning tournaments which earned him $10,000 or more. By 1976, he was regarded as one of the best players in New York City.

One of the reasons Ungar eventually took up poker exclusively was because gin action had dried up due to his skilled reputation. Ungar destroyed anyone who challenged him in a gin match, including a professional widely regarded as the best gin player of Ungar's generation, Harry "Yonkie" Stein. Ungar beat Stein 86 games to none in a high-stakes game of Hollywood Gin, after which Stein dropped out of sight in gin circles and eventually stopped playing professionally. As one observer who knew him put it, Stein "was never the same after that night." After beating Stein and several other top gin professionals, Ungar was a marked man. Nobody wanted to play him in gin. In the hopes of generating more action for himself, Ungar began offering potential opponents handicaps to even the playing field. He was known to let his opponent (professional or not) look at the last card in the deck, offer rebates to defeated opponents and always play each hand in the dealer position, all of which put him at a strong disadvantage. Ungar later said in his biography that he loved seeing his opponent slowly break down over the course of a match, realizing he could not win and eventually get a look of desperation on his face.

Ungar won the main event, defeating Brunson, who wrote the book on Texas Hold ‘Em, by reading the book the night before he entered, becoming the youngest champion in its history (surpassed first by Phil Hellmuth in 1989, then others). Ungar looked even younger than he was, and was dubbed "The Kid."

Ungar would defend his title successfully at the 1981 WSOP by defeating Perry Green. Ungar was nearly not allowed to defend his title. Several days before the main event, he was banned from Binion's Horseshoe by Benny Binion because he spat in the face of a dealer after losing a sizable pot in a high-stakes game. Binion's son Jack interceded and convinced his father to let Ungar play, citing the media attention that the defending champion would attract.

Other WSOP bracelets

As the reigning world champion, Ungar won his second bracelet in 1981 in the $10,000 Deuce to Seven Draw event, defeating 1978 world champion Bobby Baldwin in heads-up play. For this victory, Ungar received $95,000.

In the 1983 World Series of Poker, Ungar won his fourth bracelet. He defeated professional poker player and multi-WSOP bracelet winner Dewey Tomko in the $5,000 Seven Card Stud event, winning $110,000.

Blackjack

Ungar's prodigy-level IQ and total recall

In 1977, Ungar was bet $100,000 by Bob Stupak, an owner and designer of casinos, that he could not count down half a six-deck shoe and determine the last three decks (156 cards). Ungar won the bet.

Ungar was fined in 1982 by the New Jersey Gaming Commission for allegedly cheating while playing blackjack in an Atlantic City casino. The casino said that Ungar "capped" a bet (put extra chips on a winning hand after it was over to be paid out more), something he vehemently denied. The fine for this offense was $500; however, paying it would have also forced Ungar to admit that he had cheated. Ungar believed that his memory and card counting ability were natural skills and thus he did not need to cap bets or partake in any form of cheating. Ungar fought the case in court and won, avoiding the $500 fine. The court battle, though, cost him an estimated $50,000 in legal and travel expenses. In his biography, Ungar claimed he was consequently so exhausted from travel and court proceedings that he was not able to successfully defend his WSOP main event title.

In 1997, a nearly-broke Ungar convinced the management at the Lady Luck Hotel & Casino to let him play single-deck blackjack. Since Ungar was a known card counter, the casino managers agreed on the condition that his betting would have a high and a low limit (a limited spread), which they presumed would render useless Ungar's card counting ability. However, in the game of single-deck blackjack, playing strategy (i.e. how to play a hand and deviate from basic strategy) brings more benefits to the player than betting strategy (i.e. how much to bet on the upcoming round). Ungar continued to play blackjack at the Lady Luck for six months. He built his bankroll up to as much as $300,000 but eventually busted out.

Drug addiction and divorce

Ungar's mother had died in 1979. It was also around this time that Ungar began using cocaine. He noted in his autobiography that at first he used it on the advice of fellow poker players because of the drug's ability to keep someone up and energized for a long period of time, something that would come in handy during marathon poker sessions. However, recreational use soon led to addiction.

Later life

"The Comeback Kid"

In 1997, Ungar was deeply in debt and clearly showed physical damage from his years of addiction. However, he would receive the $10,000 buy-in to the WSOP Main Event from fellow poker pro and friend Billy Baxter moments before the tournament started and was the last person added to the roster, mere seconds before the signup closed.

Death

On November 20, 1998, Ungar checked into room No. 6 at the Oasis Motel, a budget motel located at the end of the Las Vegas Strip.

Among his possessions was $800 of a $25,000 advance from Bob Stupak, with whom Ungar had signed a contract earlier in the month to pay off debts and finance his tournament play in exchange for future winnings.

Ungar is interred at Palm Valley View Memorial Park in East Las Vegas.

Personality

Ungar was once at an airport attempting to fly out of the United States to Europe for a poker tournament with several fellow pros. All of his friends had passports, but he did not. He did not even have a Social Security number until after his 1980 WSOP win and that was only because he was forced to obtain one in order to collect his winnings.

Despite owning several expensive cars, Ungar rarely drove. This could have possibly come from the time he purchased a brand new Mercedes sports car and drove it until the vehicle ran out of oil and broke down. He brought it back to the dealership and was told by a mechanic that it had no oil and thus would not run. Ungar replied, "Why the hell didn't you tell me you had to put oil in the car?" As Amarillo Slim himself put it, "Stu musta won a million dollars in my tournaments."

A movie based loosely on his life, High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story (alternate title Stuey), was made in 2003. He was portrayed by Michael Imperioli.

Ungar was inducted posthumously into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2001.

His biography, One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey 'The Kid' Ungar, the World's Greatest Poker Player by Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson was published in 2005. The Emmy-winning ESPN documentary One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stu Ungar was broadcast in 2006. It contains interviews with his wife and daughter and several other people who knew him. It also featured excerpts from tapes he recorded in the last year of his life for an autobiography that never appeared.

World Series of Poker bracelets

{| class = "wikitable"

!Year

!Tournament

!Prize (US$)

|-

|1980

|$10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship

|$365,000

|-

|1981

|$10,000 Deuce to Seven Draw

|$95,000

|-

|1981

|$10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship

|$375,000

|-

|1983

|$5,000 Seven Card Stud

|$110,000

|-

|1997

|$10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship

|$1,000,000

|}

References

Further reading

  • Card Player profile
  • Hendon Mob profile
  • PokerNews profile
  • WSOP profile