Legendary stories · 1980–1997

Stu Ungar: the Comeback Kid

Many players call him the most naturally gifted card player who ever lived. His story is about genius, excess, and one last run that nobody expected.

The story in short: Stu "The Kid" Ungar won the World Series of Poker Main Event three times, in 1980, 1981 and 1997, one of only two players ever to do it. He also won Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker three times. He died in Las Vegas in 1998, at 45.

The gin rummy prodigy

Ungar was born in Manhattan in 1953 and became a gin rummy phenomenon as a teenager. He was so dominant that he struggled to find opponents willing to play him, and many still consider him the greatest gin player of all time. Ungar himself believed he was even better at gin than at poker.

Back-to-back world champion

When he turned to no-limit hold'em, he learned fast. He won the WSOP Main Event in 1980, then again in 1981, a young player beating the best in the world with relentless aggression and an uncanny read on his opponents.

The fall

Away from the table, his life was much harder. Years of drug addiction and money troubles took him away from the game, and by the 1990s many in poker thought his best days were long behind him.

1997: the comeback

In 1997, his friend Billy Baxter put up the $10,000 buy-in moments before registration closed. Ungar won the Main Event once again, his third title, sixteen years after his second. He split the $1 million first prize with Baxter, and the Las Vegas media gave him a new name: the Comeback Kid.

Sixteen years between titles, and he won it like he'd never left.

Legacy

Ungar died in Las Vegas in November 1998. His story has been told in books and on film, and his three Main Event titles remain a record shared with only one other player.

The biography One of a Kind tells his full story. See it in our list of the best poker biographies.