Today, the game of Texas Hold`em creates instant celebrities. Win a tournament on the World Poker Tour or a World Series Event and your face is seen by millions watching ESPN or the Travel Channel. In the days before widespread televising of poker though, there were only a few real giants of the game and rarely somebody so distinctive that everyone seemed to have a story about him. One such poker legend was Stuey the Kid Ungar. In the 35-year history of the World Series of Poker, only four players have pulled off the miraculous feat of winning the Main Event outright more than once. Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan managed to do it twice. Stu Ungar won the big one three times, the last in 1997, 16 years after his second win, in one of the most talked about comebacks in poker history.

Stuart Ungar was born in New York City in 1953, son of a local bar owner and bookmaker. His fathers occupation gave Stuey an opportunity to get to know some of the citys seediest characters, the hustlers, the con men, the gamblers. Stuey was a born gambler and a born card player as well. As a young boy, Stuey honed his skills at gin and poker during family vacations in the Catskills. After Stueys father died when he was thirteen, Stuey found himself in one of the many illegal card clubs spread around the city. He challenged a local gangster to a game of gin and the amused man accepted. Stuey promptly beat him game after game, getting the attention of the other patrons of the club. The owner of the club was so impressed that he hired Stuey as a dealer.

Stuey had an innate ability for cards and mastered every card game he ever learned in short order. What Stuey never managed to master was his impulse control. Stuey gambled on things where he had no control over the outcome, like sports or horse racing and even things where he was at a decided disadvantage such as golf. For this reason, Stuey found himself broke over and over again in his life. In 1978, having run up an enormous debt and having a hard time finding anyone willing to play gin against him, Stuey abandoned the east coast for California. While out there, he heard of a gin tournament in Las Vegas and promptly entered. The tournament boasted the best gin players from all over the world. Stuey won it all of course. Another win of this nature convinced Stuey that Las Vegas was the place for him and he made it his permanent home. Unfortunately, by 1979 he had won so many tournaments that the organizers would no longer let him play. Stuey would have to find another way to make his card playing skill pay off. Thats when Stuart Ungar rediscovered poker.

Stuey had never played No Limit Hold`em before he came to Las Vegas, but it didnt take him long to catch on. People who witnessed Stuey play said he was the most aggressive player they had ever seen, in an era where aggressive poker play had not reached nearly the prominence it has today. In 1979, Stuey sat down to play his first hand of No Limit Hold`em poker. In 1980, he was World Champion. In 1981, Stuey repeated this feat and looked poised to take over the poker world as he had done with gin. But Stueys fondness for cocaine, women, gambling and the Vegas lifestyle was too much for him to overcome and it seemed he would never be able to repeat as pokers champion.

Suddenly, in 1997, Stuey reemerged. With no money to put up for the tournament entry fee, he was forced to turn to an old friend and fellow poker player, Billy Baxter, who put up Stueys $10,000, more out of a sense of loyalty than a belief that Stuey could win. But win he did. Shocking the world, Stuey bested a field of 312 players to earn his third World Series of Poker championship.

Sadly, Stueys story did not have a happy ending. In November 1998, little more than a year after his amazing comeback, Stuart Ungar was found dead at the Oasis Motel at the age of 45, victim of a heart attack. Though he had won millions playing poker, Stuey died alone and penniless.

Some see Stuart Ungars story as a cautionary tale, other as an epic story of a flame that burned bright and went out too soon. Either way, his is a name that will always be remembered in the annals of poker history.