"THE KID"
Stu Ungar was born to Jewish parents and grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. His father, Isadore ("Ido") Ungar was a loan shark who ran a bar-club in which you could also gamble. This exposed Stu to gambling at a young age. In spite of attempts to keep his son Ido away from the game, Stu soon began to play gin rummy tournament in making a name around. Ido
In 1968 he died of a heart attack in the arms of his wife. Following the death of his father, his mother made incapacitated by illness, Ungar began to spin off from New York gambling scene until the age of eighteen, when he entered into friendly relations with Victor Romano, alleged member of the Genovese crime family. Romano, whose memory was so brilliant as to enable him to memorize spelling and definition of each word in a dictionary (skills honed through time spent in prison), shared with Ungar's interest for the calculation of probabilities in gambling . The two reports are so intimate that shook the Roman Empire became a father figure for Ungar.
The proximity to the world of crime led Ungar finds itself in some interesting situations in his adult life. One day he was ready to fly to Europe to participate in a tournament. Stu was the only one among all poker players leaving not have a passport, not having even a social security number (acquired a "Social Security Number" only after winning the World Series in 1980, and only because it was necessary to collect the win). Ungar did this to the airport staff to have immediate need of the passport and they told him that for a small fee things could take place more quickly. Ungar misunderstood the meaning of words, considering that the were asking for a bribe. He was accustomed to things, having seen many similar situations during his friendship with Victor Romano, and gave the agent $ 100. In reality the agent referred to a "tax on the urgency," very common procedure in cases like that, and then was to stop Ungar for attempted corruption. But the intervention of fellow poker players resolved the situation.
Ungar was notorious for continuing strong criticism addressed to his opponents. In any event, his friendship with Roman protected him from players who do not willingly accept the way he acted at the table. It is said that a man, after being soundly defeated by Ungar, tried to hit him in the head with a chair. A few years later Ungar tell that a few days after the incident the man was found dead, shot to death by gunfire.
Ungar is still regarded by many players as talented as ever: his career has won at least 30 million dollars. By John Moss is the only poker player to have won the World Series three times: to be considered, however, that Moss was the first victory by popular vote, while the three victories have been won at the table Ungar.
[Source: Wikipedia]
0 comments:
Post a Comment