The basic reason for why Mr. Ungar switched from gin rummy to poker was that he was a little too good at it. So skilled was he, that no one was able stand up to him. Even the commonly called experts who were meant to be the best at gin were demolished when they faced Mr. Ungar. One such gin rummy masters was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry suffered such a crushing blow at the hands of Stu Ungar that he allegedly stopped playing it professionally and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.
Accordingly, with a notoriety like that it was not very long before players became afraid of playing against stu. He could find no games and in his desperation he began doing something no one had performed before. Stu provided starting handicaps to potential adversaries with the hope that they may compete against him if they thought they had an edge. He deliberately played from a disadvantageous position and one account has it that he even played against a constant bad egg. During the game, he received a few words of wisdom that the cheater was at it yet again but stu guaranteed that he was aware of the chicanery and he would still come away with a win, which he did, of course.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar into Las Vegas. He won so often that the casinos started requesting that he not to compete on their rooms anymore. The basis for it was that other poker room customers refused to be seated at the poker table if he were seated.
Stu Ungar is recollected more for his accomplishments in holdem poker but he always maintained that he was much more skilled at gin rummy.
He defeated 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 really was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".
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