Stu Ungar is thought to be by most to the greatest NL Hold em Poker player ever.
The three time World Poker Champ was born in New York in ‘53 and started playing poker before becomming a teenager.
The young gambler started out playing gin and at the age of 10 had won his 1st gin rummy tournament, while on holiday with his parents. By the time he turned fourteen the small poker genius had turned professional and stopped going to school.
In ‘54 Stu Ungar entered the record books by winning 10,000 dollars in a gin tournament without losing a single hand, a record which still stands in New York today.
The quick talking superstar has been compared, in poker terms, to sporting greats like Joe Namath and Kobe Bryant. Stu had a actual skill for wagering poker but despite his successes in Texas holdem poker, he favored betting gin.
Stu once said that there may some day be a greater No Limit Texas hold em player than him except he couldn’t see how anyone could ever be a much better gin gambler.
In 1980 Stu was put on the world map as one of the finest Hold’em Poker gamblers in the earth when he was crowned World Poker Champion for the very first time. Amazingly it was the first time he had entered the tournament.
The subsequent year he put aside any thoughts that it had been a fluke, by successfully defending his crown. And in 1997 Stu set the record by winning his third World poker championship.
Except this poker master also fought with drug abuse and a year after winning his third title Stu past away in his hotel room. According to doctors, he had died from a cardiac event which was brought on by his lifestyle.
Stu Ungar had began with practically nothing but his skill and natural talent for the casino game which made this poker good a millionaire several times over.