The primary reason why Stu Ungar changed from gin to poker was that he was a tiny bit too skilled at it. So good was he, that no one could stand up to him. Even the apparently professionals who were meant to be the greatest at gin rummy were devoured when they faced Stu. One such gin rummy professionals was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry Stein was handed such a humiliating blow at the hands of mr. ungar that he apparently stopped competing in it professionally and never showed up at a gin rummy tournament.
Accordingly, with a notoriety like that it wasn’t too long before gamblers became weary of playing against mr. ungar. He could not find any matches and in his agony he started doing something no one had done before. Stu offered beginning handicaps to likely opposing players in the hope that they might compete against him if they believed they held an edge. He at will played from a bad position and one tale has it that he even played against a consistent bad egg. Mid match, he received warnings that the bad egg was at it yet again but stu stated that he was aware of the dishonestly and he would still come away with a win, which of course, he did.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar to sin city. He won so often that the poker rooms began requesting that he not to bet on their rooms anymore. The reasoning behind it was that other poker room customers refused to sit at the table if Stu was seated.
Stu Ungar is recollected more 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 WSOP in Nineteen Eighty and became the youngest world champion. Due to his looks that made him appear far younger than he was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".