Your delusion is noted.

good short doc whether you love or hate stuey, you can never say hes not extremely interesting.

Is that Milton Berle doing the "shuffle up and deal" at ~7:45?

Yes.

I showed it to my father in law and when that part happened he yelled "Milty!". So I think yes.

this is so cool

What's interesting to me is that the technique described really has no practical applications at a blackjack table beyond that bet because it only comes into play specifically if there is one card left or very very deep into a deck. A hi-low count with side counts for Aces, Nines Fives, and Eights would to be easier to apply and far more effective in providing guidance for bet sizes and hit/stand/surrender (yes, that is the System I used in younger days).

Stu either decided to learn it on the fly at the moment just after the bet is made, there is a time interval between the bet and the test, or Stu initiated the bet (knowing he had such a system already worked out) and Mike tells the story incorrectly though for greater affect.

yeah, we will never know! i like to believe he made his system up in a split second. but tbh i dont believe in these kind of things... if i had to bet on it i would say he either had learnt the trick before or had known a similar trick/system that required a small adaptation

Most interesting poker player I ever heard of.

Read a bio a long time ago and his early life was fascinating.

I would have no doubt the "tell me which card is left" trick was learned during his gin rummy days. There were all sorts of ways he had devised for learning his opponents cards it was amazing.

I'm +EV in tournament today and my knowledge of the game compared to the top pros today is pretty whatever so yeah Stu Ungar probably crushes it today.

Stuey has his double in the Pool world in a man named Keith McCready. They had similar personality traits and even looked a lot alike, slender and agile, with long dark hair, a quick wit and a sly grin. Keith was by far the most brilliant pool player of his era, playing in the biggest money games against the best players while still in high school - and winning! He was once busted by his gym teacher when Keith asked him to hold $10,000 so he didn't have to leave it in his locker.

Keith drove fear into the hearts of the best pool players in the world. All these future Hall of Famer's didn't want any part of him in a money game. Keith would bet everything he had on one set of Pool without hesitation and when he played it looked like he was just practicing, he was that relaxed. He rarely played tournaments, preferring the action games where the money was potentially a lot more than the tournament prize money. But when he did venture into the tournament arena, no one wanted to draw him. Not Steve Mizerak, Mike Sigel, Buddy Hall, Earl Strickland or any of the other legends of the time. There only hope was that he was either hung over or otherwise incapacitated and unable to play.

He was known to not show up for important matches because he had been up all night gambling and carousing. Keith was also a great dice player who could figure odds and payoffs faster than any dealer. If the dice got hot, he could make a big score and often did, only to blow the money betting the horses (his biggest leak). I remember one tournament at Caesars Palace where Keith failed to show up for his match late in the tournament. He was already in the final eight players and first prize was $25,000. I saw him walking down the hall toward the tournament room long after he had been forfeited. I asked him what happened and he pulled out a monster sized wad of crumpled up bills (all hundreds) and waved it in my face. Then he smiled and pulled a similar sized wad out of his other front pocket. He said he just won his own tournament, handed me $300 that he owed me and sauntered down the hall whistling to himself.

Keith hit rock bottom (like Stuey) by age forty and was literally sleeping in dumpsters outside the poolroom. Somehow, some way he was discovered by a woman who remembered him from years before and took him in. She had a high paying job with the federal court system and Keith didn't have to do anything but lay on the couch, drink beer and watch TV. He thrived in this environment and once again began playing in some regional tournaments on the East Coast (and doing well in them) and even got a third place in the U.S. Open. He also began playing low limit poker online to get his kicks and eventually gave up pool altogether. Keith is over sixty now but alive and well and still with the same gal.

poker players i would imagine loved this guy (unless you on his table or billy baxter in 1990)

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