Johnny Chan. Phil Hellmuth. Phil Ivey. In today’s poker world, these names have reached the status of legend. They are the modern stars of the game, idolized by millions of aspiring poker pros. Before these modern poker stars though, there were other legends of the game, men who revolutionized poker for everyone who came before then. Some of these men, like Doyle Brunson, remain in the public consciousness, but the ones who passed on before the online casino and poker boom reached its height, such as Johnny Moss and Stu Ungar, are not even on the radar of newer poker players. They deserve their place among the game’s finest though, and though Stu Ungar was already a legendary Gin player when he arrived at the 1980 World Series of Poker main event, his poker legend was just beginning.
In 1980, a mere 73 players signed up for the main event, but, hard as it is to believe now, this was more players than had ever signed up before. Among them was “The Kid,” Stuey Ungar.
Stu Ungar was truly a player ahead of his time. He was a young player, 26 at the time of the event. While in today’s virtual world of online blackjack, online slots and poker freerolls, many players enter major tournaments just a few months past their 21st birthday, in Stuey’s time, a player without any gray hair was an anomaly. He truly was “the kid,” and when he reached the final table with a distinguished group including multiple WSOP final table winners Johnny Moss and Doyle Brunson, it truly seemed as if a young gun was challenging the old guard.
Ungar was not revolutionary just in the fact that he was young. He evinced a wild, aggressive style that is quite popular among the young online poker players of today, but was completely unheard of at the time. Ungar pushed his chips in with seemingly reckless abandon, and was a vicious table-talker, although with his mind for cards he always knew exactly what he was doing. (This, however, wasn’t always the case when he played slots, blackjack, roulette, video poker; and other casino games.) Opponents did not know how to handle the hyper aggressive Ungar, and he plowed his way to a heads up showdown with the legendary Texas Dolly, Doyle Brunson.
Another player in Doyle’s position - a two time champion against an unknown kid - might have been overconfident. But Doyle had had his eye on this young poker phenomenon for quite awhile, and knew exactly what he was up against. Doyle, another master of the aggressive style, was a good match for “the kid,” and battled back from the brink of defeat to give Stuey all he could handle.
Finally, with Stu holding a slight lead in chips, he called a raise by Brunson pre-flop with 4s 5s, a legendary “small-suited connector” hand such as the type which Brunson sang the praises of in his seminal poker work Super/System. The flop came Ad 7d 2c. This seemed like gin for Brunson, who held the Ah 7h, for two pair. Brunson made a pot sized bet, hoping to trap Ungar for a lot of chips. But Brunson had forgotten how vulnerable a hand two pair is. Ungar, hoping for a miracle, called, and he got one, as the 3h came on the river, giving Stu a straight. Stuey bet, Doyle went all-in, and Stuey naturally called immediately. Only an A or a 7 could save Doyle, and when a 2 came on the river, Stuey was world champion. He went on to win the event a record two more times, the next year, 1981, and in 1997, before dying an untimely death at 45. But it all started at that table with Doyle at the 1980 World Series of Poker