Stuart Errol Ungar, popularly known as Stu Ungar was a professional Rummy, poker, and blackjack player. He was known as one of the youngest rummy players in the entire history. He was excellent in his game due to his expert bluff timings and aggressive playing style.
The early life of Stu Ungar
Stu Ungar was the only son of his Jewish parents who was born in September 1953 in Manhattan, New york. During his schooling days, he used to go to his father’s social club where he acquired the skills of card games. His father was against it but he managed to start playing Gin rummy without his knowledge. He was such a bright student that he directly got a promotion to 8 standards in school.
Unfortunately, when he was in 10 standards, he lost his father, and his mother got a heart attack and became almost disabled which forced him to drop out of his schooling.
Stu Ungar as a Rummy player
During his childhood days, he had achieved the first position in the Gin rummy tournament. After his father’s demise, he started playing Gin rummy to support his family. He won many such tournaments and collected above $10,000 at that time.
Later on, he decided to move to Miami to play more rummy games. His tactics and skills made his opponents so afraid of him that they denied playing with him.
Then he moved to Las Vegas in the hope to get more games. After beating one of the famous gin Rummy players of his time, he became an excellent rummy player. Unfortunately, casinos did not let him enter their place as other opponents use to run away after seeing him. These incidents lowered down his opportunities to play professional games so he was forced to take up poker instead.
Stu Ungar as a poker player
As soon as he started playing poker he defeated one of the professional Gamblers of his time, Billy Baxter for $40000. Then in 1980, he took part in the World Series of Poker where he won that event and became the youngest player in the history of poker games. He was one of the two players in the entire history to win the World Series of Poker title 3 times.
The Comeback Kid: Stu Ungar
In the later years, he got a divorce and get addicted to drugs because he was fully bankrupted. But one of his opponent friends, Billy Baxter lends him $10,000 so that he can play the World Series of Poker again in 1997. Undoubtedly, he became the winner of that series and the media announced him “The Comeback Kid” as he got his title after a gap of 16 years in between.