I only got into poker three years ago and I consider him a legend. I wish I had been able to see him play when he was alive, but I was very young when he died and hated watching the WSOP on ESPN until a few years ago because I didn't know how to play and thought it was a stupid card game. Ungar is the GOAT in my opinion and Tom Dwan is just a wannabe copycat who will lose it all if he keeps playing recklessly in those high stakes cash games.


What were Stuey's results in the World Series of Poker (Main Event obviously)? It seems like the internet gives a very fragmented history of his Main Event results, and it leads a lot of people to think he only played in it 4 or 5 times and won it 3 times, but I highly doubt that, and I would guess he played in it virtually every year from 1980 to 1997, and just didn't do well in it for 13 or 14 years. Does anyone know his results? I'm also interested in knowing every reputable pro's results in the WSOP over their entire careers. You might think it's useless, but I think there are interesting patterns that you can draw out with this data in front of you.

Hey Stu.

Really? This joke? With respect to someone who has been dead for almost 17 years?

To soon

I was actually thinking the opposite.

If there's to(o) soon and to(o) late, what's the acceptable timeframe after a persons passing to make that joke?

The longer it has been, the better the joke is.

OP: No one really knows how many tournaments anyone's entered, making most tournament results pretty meaningless (although a few things like winning the main event 3 times are very impressive regardless of how many times he entered).

Apart from the fact that back then, they wrote all the entrants names on a whiteboard...

Also important to note that field sizes were so much smaller back then.

1980 - 73 entrants
1981 - 75 entrants
1997 - 312 entrants

Good post OP. Not sure why you'd mention Durrrr when commenting about Stu. There are so many other players - both past and present - with better game and better results than Tom Dwan has had.

Also, Ungar was a recognized genius at card games other than NLHE. Never heard that about lots of other players, especially Dwan. I think that makes Stu's story even more fascinating. That and the self-destructive, drug abusing, reckless family life he led.

A+++ thread

Please post moar OP and tell us about these "interesting patterns"

And skill level presumably identical to that of a 11$ buy in mtt with 4k gtd on Stars nowadays

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Get over yourself. Poker was different then.
The top players had the game to win back then and that's all that mattered.
If today's play was around then, who's to say whether they would've adapted or not?
Just presuming that they wouldn't have been able to shows a great deal of arrogance.

Exactly. The only fair way to judge a player is by in comparison to his peers (of that day). This is true for all sports heroes as well. It's not a fair comparison as the style today might not have been successful back then and vice versa.

Yeah I'm just gonna guess that he busted outside of the money in the other 14 WSOP championships he played in. I watched the '88 Main Event last night on YouTube (or whatever abridged ESPN coverage the person who uploaded it decided to upload) and Ungar was shown playing and smiling for the cameras in the opening, but he wasn't at the final table, nor is he listed in the "notable results" section of the Wikipedia page for the 1988 World Series of Poker.


That's why I think today's game would be somewhat perilous for Ungar. It seems he was a boom or bust aggro player. He'd either take a big lead with his aggressive mixed style of timely bluffing and maximizing the pots on his monsters or he'd get caught and end up finishing middle of the pack or worse. With today's fields of 6,000+ entrants, not being able to curtail your aggression increases the chance that you'll need to bailed out by luck along the way AND/OR that you'll lose a significant portion of a big stack you might have built up by not switching from your overly aggressive style of play.


I just think it'd be hard for anyone to sustain a living playing tournament poker these days.

Stu Ungar battled more with his inner demons then any players he faced at the tables.

If he was around in this era with a clear head and demons under control he would be a favourite for some deep runs at the very least in the wsop.

Hi Razzplayer

First off he definitely would have been able to do that. He would have been able to adapt. He was incredible at cards. He was a genius, probably would have the most WSOP bracelets if he was alive today.

+1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGbm9GMkWvs

I like the story that he would be brought in to play really great rummy players, some of the best around and he would total obliterate them like they didn't even know how to play the game.

He was chip leader going into the FT one year, "over indulged" the night before, and his stack blinded into about 6th. Much to the dismay of Billy Baxter, who'd put him in the tourney.

(This is from memory, some of the details might be wrong)

Stuey defo played the player to exploit his weakness, if u read his book 1 of a kind u will learn that a age of 10-11 he could counts odds for his dads bookmaking with ease.
By the age of 15-16 he took on not only 1 of the best gin rummy players in new york but the guy was also 1 of the most feared gangsters in nyc.( Which proves he had NO FEAR)
So looking at the finer details with his high IQ-ability to exploit any player, his incredible gift for stats/maths i'd say he would have been as good as IKE if not better, the better part is that i believe he played a wider range of games at a more proficient level. And with his photographic memory he had a HUD in his brain. )

(stueys weakness was tilt & boredom, as he 1ce said i gamble at the track cause u can't work out with odds & stats what a horse will do-so its a real gamble/rush.)

Not really hard to find, but alas, seems like a weird level of some sort.

RESULTS

ESPN shows the 1997 final table every once in a while and you might be able to order it from On Demand or another service, or YouTube.