The primary reason why Stu switched from gin to poker was that Stu was a tiny bit too good at it. So good in fact, that no one possibly could stand up to him. Even the apparently champions who were meant to be the best at gin were blow away when they competed with Stu Ungar. One such gin player was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry Stein suffered such a debilitating beating at the hands of mr. ungar that he evidently quit competing in it professionally and never showed up at a gin rummy tournament.
Accordingly, with a honor like that it was not very long before everyone became afraid of playing against Stu Ungar. He could find no games and in his desperation he started doing something no one had performed before. Stu provided starting handicaps to potential opponents in the hope that they might compete against him if they believed they had an edge. He deliberately began from a negative arrangement and one tale has it that stu even played with a consistent cheater. During the contest, he get warnings that the bad egg was at it once again but Stu Ungar guaranteed that he deduced of the dishonestly and he would still come away with a win, which of course, he did.
The same trend followed Stu Ungar into vegas. He won so much that the poker rooms began asking him not to play in their poker rooms anymore. The explanation why was that other poker room clientele would not be seated at the table if he were seated.
Stu Ungar is recollected more for his achievements in holdem poker but he himself always insisted that he was a whole lot more accomplished at gin rummy.
He beat Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in Nineteen Eighty to become the youngest world camp. Due to his looks that made him seem far younger than he was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".