Stu is regarded by many to the greatest No Limit Texas hold’em Poker player ever.
The three time World Poker Champ was born in New York in 1953 and began betting poker prior to becomming a teenager.
The young gambler started out wagering gin and at the age of ten had won his primary gin tournament, while on holiday with his parents. By the age of fourteen the small poker maestro had turned pro and stopped going to school.
In 1954 Stu entered the history books by succeeding 10 grand in a gin rummy tournament without dropping a single hand, a record which still remains in New York today.
The fast speaking wiz kid has been compared, in poker terms, to athletic superstars like Joe Namath and Tiger Woods. Stu Ungar had a real ability for playing poker but regardless of his achievements in Hold’em poker, he preferred betting gin.
Stu once said that there might a number of day be a far better NL Texas holdem gambler than him but he could not see how anyone could ever be a greater gin gambler.
In 1980 Stu was put on the global map as one of the best Hold’em Poker gamblers in the planet when he was crowned World Poker Champion for the first time. Astonishingly it was the 1st time he had entered the tournament.
The following year he dismissed any thoughts that it had been luck, by effectively protecting his crown. And in 1997 Stu set the record by winning his third World poker championship.
Except this poker legend also battled with drug abuse and a year following winning his 3rd title Stu died in his hotel room. According to physicians, he had passed away from cardiac arrest which was caused by his lifestyle.
Stu had started out with nothing but his ability and expertise for the game which made this poker good a millionaire many times over.