The primary reason why Stu Ungar changed from gin to poker was that Stu was a bit too skilled at it. So good was he, that no player was able stand up to him. Even the commonly called professionals who were supposed to be the best at gin were demolished when they faced Stu. One of these gin rummy masters was Harry Stein, called, "Yonkie". Mr. Stein suffered such a humiliating defeat at the hands of mr. ungar that he evidently stopped competing in it professionally and never resurfaced at a gin rummy tournament.
Accordingly, with a notoriety like that it wasn’t long before players became afraid of gambling against mr. ungar. He could find no games and in his desperation he started doing something no one had performed prior. He began offering beginning handicaps to potential adversaries in the high hopes that they might compete opposed to him if they thought they held an edge. He deliberately started from a disadvantageous arrangement and one tale has it that he even played against a constant cheater. Mid match, he get warnings that the bad egg was at it once more but stu assured that he was aware of the dishonestly and he would still actually win, which he did, of course.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar into sin city. He won so much that the casinos began asking him not to wager in their rooms anymore. The reasoning behind it was that other poker room clientele would not be seated at the table if Stu was seated.
Stu Ungar is recalled more for his accomplishments in hold’em poker but he himself always insisted that he was a whole lot more accomplished at gin rummy.
He defeated Doyle Brunson in the WSOP in 1980 to become the youngest world camp. Due to his features that made him appear far younger than he really was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".