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With the world series of
Poker's $10,000 main event attracting 6,600
players this year and an estimated $7.5m for
the first place, poker players would do well
to remember the days when poker was still an
underground pursuit. And, back in the 1980's
and 90's, no one personified this better
than Stu 'The Kid' Ungar, the three times
world champion, gin prodigy, sports betting
fanatic and drug addict.
As much of the first
two factors made him, the last two broke him
down entirely - after his WSOP wins in 1980
and 1981 he effectively entered a wilderness
period of decadence and financial penury,
and by the time the late 1990's arrived he
looked like a ghost. But still the few
friends he did have left were prepared to
give him a last spin. In 1996 his long time
backer Billy Baxter put up the $10,000 - but
he was a wreck and excited in thirty
minutes.
The next year, unable
to reach Baxter with an hour to the start of
play he scraped together $1,000 from his
close friend Doc Earle and others, and
played a ten- seater satellite. When it got
to heads up Stuey got it all in with A-Q vs
Q-7. The board came blanks for the first
four cards, then on the river - boom, a
seven. Bad beat!!
With no seat and
minutes to the start of play, the kid tried
Baxter one last time and got him, pleading
for the money to enter. He was reluctant,
but he had the sense that '(Stuey) wanted to
play in that tournament more than anything,
and in the end I didn't have the heart to
tell him he couldn't'.
The rest, as they say,
is history, although ironically Stuey would
also win that year on a bad beat, against
John Strzemp. Raising to $40,000 with A-4,
Strzemp called him to see a flop of A, 3, 5
and bet $120,000, only for Stuey to go
all-in. Strzemp called and was ahead with
A-8. The turn came a 3, offering some
split-pot possibilities, but the river was a
fatal deuce, and Ungar was crowned champion
for $1,000,000 in the same way he had nearly
missed out on playing.
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