The main reason why Stu switched from gin rummy to poker was that Stu was a bit too skilled at it. So skilled in fact, that no one possibly could equal him. Even the commonly called professionals who were meant to be the most favorable at gin rummy were blow away when they played against Stu. One of these gin masters was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry Stein suffered such a debilitating defeat at the hands of mr. ungar that he allegedly stopped participating in it as a pro and never showed up at a gin rummy tournament.
Accordingly, with a notoriety like that it was not too long before people became afraid of competing against Stu Ungar. He could not find any matches and in his desperation he started doing something no one had performed prior. He provided starting handicaps to potential adversaries in the hope that they might compete against him if they believed they had an advantage. He deliberately started from a negative arrangement and one tale has it that stu even competed with a regular cheater. Amid the game, he get a few words of wisdom that the absconder was at it yet again but stu guaranteed that he deduced of the chicanery and he would still actually win, which of course, he did.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar into Las Vegas. He won so frequently that the poker rooms started asking him not to play in their rooms anymore. The basis for it was that other poker room clients refused to sit at the table if Stu was playing.
Stu Ungar is remembered better for his accomplishments in holdem poker but he himself always said that he was considerably better at gin rummy.
He defeated Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in 1980 and became the youngest world champion. Because of his looks that made him appear far younger than he was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".
