The basic reason for why Stu switched from gin rummy to poker was that Stu was a tiny bit too skilled at it. So skilled was he, that no one possibly could equal him. Even the apparently experts who were meant to be the best at gin were defeated when they played against Stu Ungar. One of these gin rummy professionals was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry was handed such a humiliating beating at the hands of mr. ungar that he apparently stopped playing it as a pro and never resurfaced at a gin tournament.
Accordingly, with a reputation like that it wasn’t long before people became weary of competing against mr. ungar. He could not find any games and in his desperation he began doing something no one had attempted prior. Stu issued beginning handicaps to potential opposing players in the high hopes that they might just compete with him if they believed they had an edge. He at will began from a negative arrangement and one story has it that stu even played with a constant cheater. Mid match, he received advice that the cheater was at it yet again but Stu Ungar assured that he deduced of the fraudulent activity and he would still win, which he did, of course.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar into vegas. He won so frequently that the casinos started asking him not to gamble in their casinos anymore. The reason was that other casino players refused to sit at the table if Stu was seated.
Stu Ungar is recalled better for his achievements in hold’em poker but he himself always maintained that he was much better at gin rummy.
He beat Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in Nineteen Eighty and became the youngest world camp. Due to his looks that made him seem far younger than he actually was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".