The Kid was born as Stuart Errol Ungar in New York City on September 8, 1953 with a Jewish father named Isadore “Ido” Ungar. His father ran a bar named Foxes Corner which also became a gambling establishment that exposed Stu in gambling world at a very young age. Ido tried to keep away his son from gambling as he seen from his customers the bad effect of this addiction. But despite of this, Stu played underground gin and made his mark on this kind of game.
At the very young age of 10, Stu won on a local gin tournament. When his father died, he decided to quit school and play gin gummy instead to support his family in 1960. By the year of 1976, Stu was known as one of the best gin player in the city of New York.
One of the best gin player considered in Stu's era was Harry "Yonkie" Stein. Stein was a professional player on this game of chance but then because of Stu, he decided to disappear and not to show his self again on gin circles. Stu has destroyed Stein after he beat him for 86 games. After this, one of the games observer said that Stein "was never the same after that night.". Due to lack of players to beaten again, Stu switched gin gummy to Poker.
After then, Stu shifted into playing Blackjack. One moment that made his gambling life changed was when he won $83,000 at Caesars Palace. The manager then stopped the game, because of this Stu wanted to take even on the single-deck blackjack table by foreseeing the remaining eighteen cards. As a result, single-deck blackjack tables was removed in Caesars palace and on other casinos too. Stu, from that moment was banned from playing on many casinos.
Stu met a girl named Madeline which then became his wife. Madeline has a daughter from her first husband but Stu accepted and adopted the child. On this moment of his life, Stu started using cocaine to keep him energized while playing. Soon after, it became his addiction. His addiction to cocaine and drugs grew much further when WSOP main event on 1990 has started. On the tournament's third day, he was found blacked out on his hotel room for taking too much drugs. Nevertheless, Stu became 9th placer with $20,500 on his account.
On some WSOP main events, Stu became bankrupted but found help through some of his friends and benefactors. As a result of lending him some money, Stu made again his name on Poker history and won 10 No Limit Hold'em tournaments throughout 30 games.
Seven months later after 1998 WSOP event, Stu was found dead with $800 with him on Oasis Motel at Las Vegas. From an autopsy report, drugs was shown through his system that can be a factor of his death. But a medical examiner concluded that Stu died due to heart failure because of drug addiction.
Even though he won million bucks on his Poker career, people closed to Stu didn't find money on his account. For his burial to be successful, a friend named Bob collected money from people.
Stu was considered as one of the Famous Poker Player in the World by having the record of being good at playing cards.
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