Gin rummy and would fleece waiters of their tips while in the Catskills on family vacations, Ungar showed an immense talent for numbers, which, as he grew up, would lead him into the world of gambling and poker at a very young age. Main Event bracelets and vast sums in the toughest high-stakes cash games, he was fighting addictions which would ultimately see him die a lonely and penniless death in a Vegas motel.įrom the age of ten, when he learned to play Stu Ungar was the original ‘Kid’ in poker, a fearless genius at the tables who won millions at a time when millions still meant something to the world’s best. When it all comes crashing down, the fallout is a ghastly sight as we’re about to see…
It distances players from the lives they once led and replaces them with a new world where money can buy everything. Poker genius and massive wins are the stuff of legend, but it brings with it a downside - the opportunities to gamble at huge stakes in other games, easy access to drugs and alcohol, and ‘friends’ who are nothing of the sort. It’s incredibly difficult for the average poker player to imagine winning millions at the tables and then somehow going broke within a year or two, but this fate has befallen more pros in our game than in any other.
