The main reason for why Stu Ungar changed from gin rummy to poker was that Stu was a tiny bit too skilled at it. So good in fact, that no player was able equal him. Even the apparently professionals who were supposed to be the best at gin rummy were decimated when they competed against Stu. One such gin professionals was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Harry Stein was handed such a crushing beating at the hands of mr. ungar that he evidently stopped competing in it as a pro and never resurfaced at a gin tournament.
Accordingly, with a honor like that it was not very long before gamblers became weary of competing against stu. He couldn’t find any games and in his boredom he began doing something no one had done prior. Stu provided starting handicaps to potential opponents in the high hopes that they may compete with him if they thought they held an advantage. He deliberately began from a bad position and one tale has it that he even played against a constant bad egg. Mid match, he received a few words of wisdom that the absconder was at it once more but Stu Ungar guaranteed that he was aware of the chicanery and he would still win, which he did, of course.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar into sin city. He won so much that the poker rooms began requesting that he not to bet in their poker rooms anymore. The reason was that other poker room clientele would not be seated at the table if he were playing.
Stu Ungar is recalled more for his achievements in hold’em poker but he always insisted that he was considerably better at gin rummy.
He defeated Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in Nineteen Eighty and became the youngest world camp. Because of his features that made him seem far younger than he was, he got the nickname, "The Kid".