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. Additionally, Ungar is one of only four players in poker history to win consecutive titles in the WSOP Main Event, along with Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan.
Early life Ungar was born to Jewish parents Isidore (1907–1967) and Faye Ungar (1916–1979). He was raised on Manhattan's Lower East Side. His father, Isidore ("Ido") Ungar, was a bookmaker and loan shark who ran a bar/social club called Foxes Corner that doubled as a gambling establishment, exposing Stu to gambling at a young age. Despite Ido's attempts to keep his son from gambling after seeing its effects on his regular customers, Stu began playing underground gin rummy and quickly made a name for himself. Ungar was gifted at school and skipped seventh grade, but then dropped out of school in tenth grade.Dalla & Alson, p. 32
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.Dalla & Alson, pp. 28, 42. 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.
Ungar eventually had to leave New York due to gambling debts at local race tracks. He later moved to Miami, Florida, to find more action. In 1977, Ungar left Miami for Las Vegas, Nevada, where he reunited with Madeline Wheeler, a former girlfriend who would become his wife in 1982.
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."Dalla & Alson, p.53 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.
When Ungar first visited Las Vegas in 1977, gin was still popular in a tournament format, much like heads up poker tournaments. Ungar won or finished highly in so many gin tournaments that several casinos asked him to not play in them because many players said they would not enter if they knew Ungar was playing.Dalla & Alson, p. 86 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.
Shortly after arriving in Las Vegas, Ungar defeated professional gambler Billy Baxter for $40,000. Baxter noted that when Ungar first entered the room, Baxter did not believe he was his opponent because of Ungar's youthful looks and small stature. Baxter also said that during their match, a Coca-Cola crate had to be placed on Ungar's chair so he could reach the table.
Though he is nowadays more well known for his poker accomplishments, Ungar regarded himself as a better gin rummy player, once stating,
1980 and 1981 WSOP Main Event titles In 1980, Ungar entered the World Series of Poker (WSOP) looking for more high-stakes action. In an interview for the 1997 Main Event Final Table, Ungar told ESPN TV commentator Gabe Kaplan that the 1980 WSOP was the first time he had ever played a Texas hold'em tournament. Poker legend Doyle Brunson remarked that it was the first time he had seen a player improve as the tournament went on.
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 contributed to his blackjack card counting abilities, which were so sharp that he was frequently banned from playing in casinos; he was eventually unable to play blackjack in Las Vegas or anywhere else.
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).Wong, Stanford. Professional Blackjack, PiYee Press, USA, 1975 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.Dalla & Alson, p.269
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.
Ungar and Madeline were married in 1982 and had a daughter, Stefanie, that same year. Ungar also legally adopted Madeline's son from her first marriage, Richie, who adored Ungar and took his surname.
Ungar and Madeline divorced in 1986. Richie died by suicide in 1989, shortly after his high school prom.
Ungar's drug problem escalated to such a point that during the WSOP Main Event in 1990, Ungar was found on the third day of the tournament unconscious on the floor of his hotel room from a drug overdose. However, he had such a chip lead that even when the dealers kept taking his blinds out every orbit, Ungar still made the final table and finished ninth without playing another hand, pocketing $25,050.
His addiction took such a physical toll that in an ESPN piece, many of Ungar's friends and fellow competitors said that they thought that he would not live to see his fortieth birthday. In the same piece, one friend said that the only thing that kept him alive was his determination to see his daughter grow up.
Most of Ungar's winnings at the poker table he lost quickly betting on sports or horses, always looking for "action".
Many of Ungar's friends, including Mike Sexton, began to encourage him to enter drug rehab and offered to pay for Ungar to receive treatment at any facility in the world. Ungar refused, citing several people he knew who had been to rehab previously who told him that drugs were easier to obtain in rehab than on the street.Dalla & Alson, p. 235
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.
Ungar was exhausted on the tournament's first day as he had been up for over 24 hours straight trying to raise or borrow enough money to play in the event. At one point midway through the first day of play, Ungar began to fall asleep at his table and told Mike Sexton (who was also playing) he didn't think he could make it. After encouragement from Sexton and a tongue lashing from Baxter, Ungar settled in and made it through the day.