A Brief Biography of Stu "the Kid" Ungar

Stuart Errol Ungar, also known as “Kid Ice” or simply “the Kid” was born in New York in 1953 and died in Las Vegas in 1998. Gambling was a big part of the childhood environment that made him a devastating winner in poker because his father, who died of a heart attack when he was still in his teens, was known to be a bookie who also owned a bar in which there was a lot of gambling going on. Legend has it that Stu lost his $90,000 inheritance at the track within a week after his father’s death.
Another big influence in Stu Ungar’s early life was a man named Victor Romano who was alleged to have had ties with the Genovese family. Like Ungar, he had a very good memory. In fact, he was observed to have been able to recite and define any word in the dictionary. The two became very close and Victor essentially became a new father figure to Stu. It was Romano who staked Stuey in some very high stakes Gin Rummy games in New York, Miami, and eventually Las Vegas. Stu became the gin king as a result of these ventures. In fact, by the time he was in early adulthood, he had already proven himself as the best gin player on the planet. He became so dominant that some Vegas casinos had to ask him not to join their gin tournaments because some players had threatened a boycott if he was allowed to enter. Ungar was once heard saying, "Some day, I suppose it's possible for someone to be a better no limit hold 'em player than me. I doubt it, but it could happen. But, I swear to you, I don't see how anyone could ever play gin better than me." As gin action dried up, Stuey started looking for other forms of high skill action. He found it in poker tournaments. Most notably, the World Series of Poker. He won the $10,000 WSOP Main Event the first time he played in it in 1980, beating the great Doyle Brunson in the finals, becoming the youngest player to win poker’s most prestigious title as a result. He followed up this win in 1981, thus cementing his status as an all time great. He was supposed to defend his title in 1983 but couldn’t. The reason was because he had to defend himself for alledgedly cheating at blackjack (Stu had a very high IQ and a photographic memory which came in handy for blackjack). He won the case but it cost him $50,000 in legal fees. He did save himself the $500 fine which he would have had to pay had he admitted guilt. He fought the case out of principle and won. Nevertheless, he was barred from playing blackjack everywhere. Stuey always gambled on the square.
Some very bad years followed, including the suicide death of a step son, divorce, and reported drug problems. On the bright side, he did have a daughter (named Stephanie) who he loved very much.
Stuey was poised to make a great comeback in the 1990 WSOP Main Event. But very deep into the money (in fact, he had a tremendous chip lead), he was found by his staker, the sports bettor Billy Baxter, laying unconscious on the floor of his hotel. He still managed to finish in 9th place that year without showing up at the final table. A week or two later, as Phil Hellmuth has described in one of his CardPlayer Magazine columns, Stu challenged that year’s eventual champion, Mansour Matloubi, to a $50k heads up match in which he dominated Matloubi. On one hand Stuey called with a 10 high on the river for a huge bet after correctly putting his opponent on a 7 high busted straight draw. Hellmuth claims that from that moment on Matloubi vowed to never play Stuey heads up again.
In 1997, Stu Ungar did the impossible. He became the first and only person to win the World Series of Poker Main Event three times in open competition (Johnny Moss also won three times but the first time he won the title, it was bestowed upon him by his peers through a vote not because he won a freeze-out). Stu says that he was inspired to win that title by his daughter Stephanie, to whom he dedicated his record breaking achievement to. It was then that he turned from being “the Kid” to becoming “the Comeback Kid”.
Unfortunately, and tragically, this was Stu Ungar’s last hurrah. Old demons and habits started to engulf him once again and in 1998, he was found dead in a Las Vegas motel room. The official cause of death was heart failure.
Stu Ungar was elected to the Poker Hall of Fame a few years after his death. His daughter Stephanie was given the honor to kick off the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event with the classic sentence, “Shuffle up and deal”.
Stu Ungar, you will be missed.