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The basic reason for why Mr. Ungar changed from gin to poker was that he was a bit too skilled at it. So skilled in fact, that no one could equal him. Even the so-called experts who were meant to be the best at gin rummy were devoured when they competed with Stu. One such gin rummy masters was Harry Stein, nicknamed, "Yonkie". Harry suffered such a belittling blow at the hands of stu that he evidently stopped playing it as a pro and never showed up at a gin rummy tournament.

Accordingly, with a image like that it was not too long before people became shy of gambling against mr. ungar. He could not find any matches and in his agony he started doing something no one had attempted before. Stu presented starting handicaps to likely competitors with the high hopes that they might just compete against him if they thought they had an edge. He deliberately played from a disadvantageous arrangement and one account has it that he even competed against a constant cheater. During the contest, he received a few words of wisdom that the cheater was at it one more time but mr. ungar assured that he was aware of the fraudulent activity and he would still acquire a win, which he did, of course.

The same trend followed Stu Ungar to sin city. He won so often that the poker rooms started requesting that he not to compete on their casinos anymore. The reasoning behind it was that other casino visitors refused to be seated at the poker table if he were playing.

Stu Ungar is recalled better for his abilities in hold’em poker but he always said that he was considerably more accomplished at gin rummy.

He beat Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in Nineteen Eighty to become the youngest world champion. Because of his looks that made him seem far younger than he actually was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".