The main reason for why Stu Ungar changed from gin rummy to poker was that Stu was a little too skilled at it. So good in fact, that no player was able stand up to him. Even the so-called experts who were meant to be the greatest at gin were decimated when they competed with Stu. One of these gin professionals was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry Stein suffered such a belittling defeat at the hands of Stu Ungar that he evidently quit playing it professionally and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.

Accordingly, with a notoriety like that it was not long before everyone became weary of competing against mr. ungar. He could find no games and in his boredom he started doing something no one had done before. He provided starting handicaps to likely adversaries in the wish that they may compete against him if they believed they had an edge. He at will began from a negative arrangement and one tale has it that stu even played with a regular absconder. Amid the match, he received advice that the absconder was at it again but mr. ungar guaranteed that he was aware of the dishonestly and he would still actually win, which of course, he did.

The same problem followed Stu Ungar into sin city. He won so often that the casinos began asking him not to play on their casinos anymore. The basis for it was that other casino customers would not be seated at the poker table if he were seated.

Stu Ungar is recalled more for his accomplishments in holdem poker but he himself always maintained that he was considerably better at gin rummy.

He beat Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in 1980 to become the youngest world camp. Due to his looks that made him appear far younger than he was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".