Stu Ungar

Stu Ungar was the original poker savant and gambling degenerate, who won a fortune in his short lifetime and has arguably the best No Limit Hold’em tournament record of any player in history, including winning the World Series of Poker main event three times. But he died alone and virtually broke in a rundown motel of a heart condition brought on by years of drug abuse, a fragile, shattered remnant of his former self. Phil Shaw takes a look at the player behind the legend…

Stu Ungar’s incredible story began in the New York Jewish community where his father Isidore, a bookmaker, ensured he was immersed in the gambling world from the beginning (as well as that of the mob who hung out in the bar and sports book he ran). After his untimely death, and free of restraints due to an alcoholic mother, Stuey began gambling around the city, gradually establishing a reputation for himself and being taken in by the mob, who both remembered his father and saw his potential as a Gin rummy prodigy.

But he was no hustler, and after beating the best there effortlessly word spread and no-one would play him - so he turned to poker, which he had first learned watching his mother play and practised in the clubs of New York. His ascent in the poker world was equally rapid, winning the World Series in 1980 and 1981 (and the Superbowl of poker three times) which soon catapulted him from a rumour into a legend, and long standing relationships with Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese and many other ensued, often based around a fanatical love of sports betting.

But with success came the drugs - first cocaine and then later heroin and crack, which effectively put him out of action for over a decade. Even then though, there was still the legendary comeback of 1997 where a ravaged and sickly Ungar found backing at the very last minute, and the rest, as they say, is history and now immortalised in that year’s WSOP broadcast.

But what is the truth behind Ungar’s remarkable success and the iconography that has sprung up around him? It has often been said that he was the best No Limit Hold’em tournament player that ever lived, and a detailed look at his records certainly reflects this. In an age where $10,000 events were scarce, and given the brevity of Ungar’s active poker career, managing to win nine outright as well as having numerous other results (including winning two $5,000 events) is nothing short of astonishing, and is testament to the ferocious chip gathering style he employed years before it became the forte of many modern tournament pros. In fact, so devastating was his impact that he is said to be the primary cause of current European star Andy Black’s long time retreat from the poker scene after the 1997 World Championship event where Ungar demolished him on his way to victory.

As you would expect then, there are many stories of remarkable hands that Stuey played over the years, and one that has become particularly famous as an example of his hand reading abilities and sheer bottle took place against 1990 World Series of Poker Champion Mansour Matloubi during the Four Queens Poker Classic 1991. Having won in style the previous year, people were beginning to tout Matloubi as the ‘new’ Stu Ungar, and having none of it Ungar challenged him to a $50,000 freezeout.

After some aggressive play, Ungar found himself leading $60,000 to $40,000 when the following hand came up. Stuey opened for $1,600 and Matloubi called with 45 offsuit in the big blind and checked the flop of 337 rainbow to Ungar who bet $6,000. Matloubi called and both players checked the King on the turn. Then on the river Queen, Matloubi dramatically moved all in for over twice the size of the pot! Ungar thought and, according to Phil Hellmuth who observed the hand, ‘looked “right through” Mansour, and within ten seconds he said, “You have 45 or 56, I’m gonna call you with this”.

‘This’ as it turns out was T9, meaning that Ungar had just called for twice the pot with ten high when he could only beat a handful of bluffs, and still lose to plenty of others! As with many a player who took Ungar on and lost, Matloubi summed the situation up perfectly afterwards: “When a guy makes a call like than against you, you just give up. Its like he’s taken the wind out of your sails. I decided that I couldn’t play any more heads up no limit Hold’em, at least on that day, if not forever.”

The most poignant and spectacular display Stuey made however clearly came at the 1997 World Championships, where despite being flat broke he played like a man possessed and went after the title with no thought of second place. As his backer Billy Baxter told him the night before the final: ‘Tomorrow. It’s all over. The rest of them - they’re playing for second place’. And it certainly looked that way. The day before Stuey had been on fire, amassing a huge stack and at one point calling a raise and an all-in with KQ on a raggedy board, confident his hand was ahead.

He was clear chip leader going into the final and established his authority early, then dealt a fatal blow to one of his main threats, Ron Stanley. In a blind confrontation, both players checked the A96 flop and Ungar raised Stanley’s $25,000 turn a further $60,000 with just QT when an eight fell, giving him a gutshot. Stanley called with 97 and checked the river King, a complete blank. Ungar smelled weakness now and made a bet that threatened to cripple his opponent, of $220,000. Stanley buckled and folded, and Ungar showed his hand, leading ultimately to his opponent’s unravelling.

His aggression subsequently led Mel Judah to exit third after over playing a middle pair against Ungar, and then he famously caught a gutshot on the first hand of heads up play vs. Strzemp when his A4 outdrew A8 on a board of A25. It was a jubilant performance and talking to Gabe Kaplan afterwards Stuey himself summed up his experience of life and poker: ‘I’ve done a lot of stupid things to my myself, but I want to tell you one thing for a fact: There’s nobody who ever beat me playing cards. The only one who ever beat me was myself, my bad habits. But when I get to play the way I was, when I’m on stroke the way I was in this tournament, I really believe that no-one can play with me.’

What the pros say…

Stuey was a relentless force. He played in and won more than twice as many hands as anyone else in any game in which he played. At the end of each session he was invariably either the big winner or he was broke. If he detected weakness in an opponent, he would take the pot away. He was a hard player to bluff, since he was an expert at figuring out when his opponent was on a draw that didn’t get there. There are stories about great calls Stuey made, but I haven’t heard any about great laydowns.

He wasn’t much of a poker player when he won the first of his three WSOP final event bracelets. As Doyle Brunson commented, “If Stuey ever got top pair beat, he would have been knocked out.” Actually, Stuey picked up enough pots along the way that he could withstand occasional losses incurred against his short-stacked opponents.

Stuey was a hopeless steamer. Over his playing career he may not have been an overall winner in the side games and he often needed to be staked when he played. Towards the end, he was so messed up as a result of drug use that he was scared to play his own money. Stuey was generally regarded as the best in the world at gin rummy and he may have had the best record in no-limit hold’em tournaments. He supposedly won ten of the thirty no-limit tournaments he entered that had a buy-in of $5000 or more. There is no doubting the talent Stuey possessed, but the big question is how good he would have become if he hadn’t been ravaged by drugs.

Barry Greenstein