Stu Ungar
| Stu Ungar | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Nickname(s) | Stuey The Kid The Comeback Kid |
| Residence | New York City |
| Born | Stuart Errol Ungar September 8, 1953 Manhattan, New York |
| Died | November 22, 1998 (aged 45) Las Vegas, Nevada |
| World Series of Poker | |
| Bracelet(s) | 5 |
| Money finish(es) | 15 |
| Highest ITM Main Event finish |
Winner, 1980, 1981, 1997 |
Stuart Errol "Stu" Ungar (September 8, 1953 – November 22, 1998) was a professional poker, blackjack, and gin rummy player, widely regarded to have been the greatest Texas hold 'em and gin player of all time.
He is one of two people in poker history to have won the World Series of Poker Main Event three times (Johnny Moss also has three WSOP titles but his first was obtained by a vote of the players, not by winning a tournament). He is also the only person to win Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker three times, the world's second most prestigious poker title during its time. He is one of four players to win consecutive titles in the WSOP Main Event, along with Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan.
Ungar was born to Jewish parents Isidore (1907-1967) and Faye (1916-1979) Ungar. He was raised on Manhattan's Lower East Side. His father, Isidore ("Ido") Ungar, was a loan shark who ran a bar/social club called Foxes Corner that doubled as a gambling establishment, exposing Stu to gambling at a young age. Despite Ido's attempts to keep his son from gambling after seeing its effects on his regular customers, Stu began playing underground gin and quickly made a name for himself. Ungar was gifted at school and skipped seventh grade, but then dropped out of school in tenth grade.
Ido died of a heart attack on July 25, 1967. Following his father's death, and with his mother virtually incapacitated by a stroke, Ungar drifted around the New York gambling scene until age 18, when he was befriended by reputed organized crime figure Victor Romano. Romano was regarded as one of the best card players of his time. He had the ability to recite the spelling and definition of all of the words in the dictionary and apparently shared a penchant and interest for calculating odds while gambling as Ungar did. By many accounts the two developed a very close relationship with Romano serving as a mentor and protector.
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