Stuey The Kid Ungar: Poker's Card Savant
He won $30 million dollars at cards and lost that much and more. He is the only three-time winner of the World Series of Poker. He died broke and alone in a sleazy porn motel between The Strip and Downtown Las Vegas. Stuey “The Kid” Ungar was proud of the fact that Mafia bosses came to his Bar Mitzah. The son of a New York bookmaker who died in the arms of one of his many mistresses, he blew his inheritance within a couple of weeks on the ponies. Stu Ungar may have been the best card player of all time. He would learn a game and master it in record time. At 16 he was the world’s best gin rummy player. He dropped out of high school to play full-time. Not content to simply win a game, he had to win big. He abused his opponents along the way. Soon no one would play against him. Purportedly staked by the New York mob, he split for California when he gambled away what he owed them. They followed, told him what he had to do to be free of them, and paid an entry fee into a Vegas Gin Rummy tournament. Stuey won $50,000, paid them off, and stayed in Vegas. With a photographic memory for cards, he turned to blackjack. If half a deck had been dealt, he could read out which cards were left. He became a “card counter” – and casinos don’t like blackjack card counters - and he was soon barred from playing. He then turned to poker. After having played poker’s premier game, Texas Hold ‘em, for only a few months, he captured top prize in the 1980 World Series of Poker. He did it again in ’81. When asked what he would do with the $375,000 prize money, he mumbled, “Lose it.” And he did. Stuey was a card savant. Small and slight – hence the nickname “The Kid” - he knew cards and almost nothing else. He thought bank accounts were stupid because you couldn’t access your money at midnight if you needed it as he often did. When it was time to buy a house, the realtor met him at the poker table and he slid over the down payment in cash. He would buy Jaguars and Cadillacs, bang them up, and forget to change the oil. After winning the 1981 World Series he was invited onto the Merv Griffin TV show. He received a $300 check for his first appearance and a second check for $100 when the show was re-run. “This was the only legitimate money I ever earned,” Ungar said. He would win enormous sums at the poker table, then sprint to the casino sports book and lose it on baseball, football, or horse racing. He was never hesitant to borrow money, as he often did, because he knew (and his debtors knew, too) that he would win it back at poker. He took to golf. On his first outing he lost $80,000 on the putting green and never made it to the first tee. He married, had a child (Stefanie), divorced and fell into a downward spiral, fueled by cocaine. But as the candle flickers just before going out, so it was with Stuey. In 1997, in bad shape, he returned to the World Series of Poker. He wore blue sunglasses low on his nose because a part of it had collapsed from drug abuse. He pulled himself together just long enough to became the only person ever to win the World Series of Poker three times in competition. It is unlikely that this record will ever be broken. When he was found in the Oasis Motel in Las Vegas, a porn movie was on the TV. He had $800 dollars in his pocket, what was left of a $2000 loan a few days before. His poker buddies took up a collection to pay for his funeral. One movie, “High Roller,” has been made of his life and another is in the works, based on the book, “One of a Kind,” by Dalla and Alson. His friends, and he had many, are looking forward to a lasting memorial to whom Dalla and Alson call “the world’s greatest poker player.” (c) 2006 Murphy James
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