The main reason for why Mr. Ungar changed from gin to poker was that he was a tiny bit too good at it. So skilled in fact, that no player possibly could stand up to him. Even the so-called champions who were meant to be the greatest at gin were decimated when they faced Mr. Ungar. One such gin player was Harry Stein, nicknamed, "Yonkie". Harry was handed such a belittling blow at the hands of stu that he apparently quit participating in it professionally and never showed up at a gin rummy tournament.
Accordingly, with a notoriety like that it was not long before everyone became shy of competing against stu. He could find no games and in his boredom he started doing something no one had performed prior. He began offering beginning handicaps to potential adversaries in the high hopes that they might play against him if they believed they held an advantage. He at will played from a disadvantageous position and one story has it that stu even played against a constant absconder. Mid game, he get warnings that the absconder was at it one more time but stu guaranteed that he deduced of the fraudulent activity and he would still acquire a win, which he did, of course.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar into sin city. He won so often that the casinos started asking him not to bet on their casinos anymore. The reason for it was that other poker room customers refused to be seated at the table if he were seated.
Stu Ungar is remembered more for his accomplishments in holdem poker but he himself always insisted that he was far better at gin rummy.
He beat Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in 1980 and became the youngest world champion. Due to his features that made him seem far younger than he was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".