The main reason why Mr. Ungar switched from gin to poker was that he was a little too skilled at it. So skilled in fact, that no player could stand up to him. Even the apparently experts who were supposed to be the best at gin were devoured when they competed with Stu. One such gin masters was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Mr. Stein suffered such a humiliating defeat at the hands of Stu Ungar that he evidently stopped participating in it professionally and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.
Of course, with a honor like that it wasn’t long before everyone became afraid of playing against Stu Ungar. He could not find any games and in his desperation he started doing something no one had performed before. He began offering starting handicaps to potential opponents with the wish that they might just play with him if they thought they held an advantage. He deliberately began from a bad position and one account has it that stu even played with a constant absconder. Amid the match, he received warnings that the cheater was at it yet again but Stu Ungar assured that he deduced of the cheating and he would still acquire a win, which he did, of course.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar to sin city. He won so much that the casinos started requesting that he not to play in their casinos anymore. The explanation why was that other poker room clientele refused to sit at the poker table if he were seated.
Stu Ungar is remembered more for his abilities in hold’em poker but he always maintained that he was considerably more skilled at gin rummy.
He beat Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in Nineteen Eighty and became the youngest world champion. Due to his looks that made him appear far younger than he actually was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".