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The main reason for why Stu Ungar changed from gin rummy to poker was that he was a bit too good at it. So skilled was he, that no one possibly could stand up to him. Even the apparently professionals who were meant to be the most favorable at gin were defeated when they competed against Stu Ungar. One of these gin professionals was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Mr. Stein suffered such a humiliating defeat at the hands of mr. ungar that he allegedly stopped competing in it professionally and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.

Certainly, with a honor like that it wasn’t too long before people became shy of playing against stu. He could find no games and in his bleakness he started doing something no one had done prior. Stu began offering beginning handicaps to likely opposing players in the wish that they might just compete opposed to him if they thought they had an advantage. He deliberately began from a disadvantageous arrangement and one story has it that stu even played with a consistent cheater. Amid the contest, he received warnings that the absconder was at it once again but mr. ungar stated that he was aware of the chicanery and he would still come away with a win, which of course, he did.

The same trend followed Stu Ungar into vegas. He won so much that the casinos started requesting that he not to compete on their respective premises anymore. The reason was that other poker room customers refused to sit at the poker table if he were seated.

Stu Ungar is recollected more for his achievements in hold’em poker but he himself always said that he was far more accomplished at gin rummy.

He beat Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in Nineteen Eighty and became the youngest world champion. Because of his features that made him seem far younger than he actually was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".