Poker Player: Stu Unger
The basic reason for why Mr. Ungar changed from gin rummy to poker was that Stu was a tiny bit too good at it. So good in fact, that no one possibly could equal him. Even the so-called experts who were supposed to be the most favorable at gin were defeated when they played against Stu Ungar. One of these gin professionals was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry was handed such a humiliating beating at the hands of Stu Ungar that he allegedly stopped participating in it professionally and never showed up at a gin rummy tournament.
Accordingly, with a notoriety like that it was not long before everyone became weary of betting against Stu Ungar. He could find no games and in his bleakness he began doing something no one had performed before. He offered starting handicaps to potential opposing players with the wish that they may compete against him if they thought they held an edge. He deliberately played from a negative arrangement and one account has it that stu even competed against a consistent cheater. Mid match, he received advice that the cheater was at it yet again but mr. ungar guaranteed that he knew of the chicanery and he would still win, which of course, he did.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar into vegas. He won so much that the poker rooms began asking him not to compete on their respective premises anymore. The reasoning behind it was that other casino clientele would not sit at the table if Stu was seated.
Stu Ungar is recollected more for his abilities in hold’em poker but he himself always said that he was far better at gin rummy.
He beat Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in Nineteen Eighty to become the youngest world champion. Because of his looks that made him seem far younger than he was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".