One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey "The Kid" Ungar, The World's Greatest Poker Playerby Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson
It’s truly rare that an individual can be described as “born” to do something. The vast majority of successful people would have been successful not only in their chosen line of work, but in any number of fields. It is the rare case where an individual is supremely gifted in one particular field, without any sort of general aptitude. Off the top of my head, I would put four people on a very short list: Mickey Mantle in baseball, Miles Davis on trumpet, Albert Einstein in physics, and Stu Ungar in card games. The latter is the subject of a brilliant biography: One of a Kind
by Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson.At the world series in 1997 Stu Ungar etched his place in history in one of the greatest comeback stories in the history of all sport, let alone poker. One short year later, in August of 1998, Stuey Ungar was, to be blunt, a junkie on his last legs. Nolan Dalla, then media director for the World Series of Poker, was fresh off a disastrous press campaign where Ungar, the reigning champion did not show up to defend his title. Dalla approached Ungar about ghost-writing an autobiography, in part because Stuey’s story was so compelling, but mostly to give Stuey something to focus on, in the hope that Ungar would try to stay clean to see the book project through. After an initial series of interviews, Ungar passed away in October 1998, and the biography remained dormant for a number of years. Eventually, Dalla and co-author Alson pieced together Stuey’s story, and have woven an intricate tale of a savant who had unlimited ability to play cards, but an equally unlimited disability in most other aspects of adult life.
Stu’s own words and anecdotes are scattered throughout these pages, but the majority of the books is pieced together via countless interviews with the key players throughout Stuey’s life. The reader gets to know Ungar, from growing up as a bookmaker’s son in Brooklyn, to his adolescence as the world’s greatest gin rummy player, and his life in Vegas as equal parts brilliant poker player and degenerate gambler. Whenever possible, Dallas has filled in the gaps as to the details in Stuey’s life. Unfortunately, Stuey’s lifestyle led to plenty of gaps in his story. The book is completely unflinching in detailing Ungar’s decline into drug abuse, his failings as a husband and father, and his history in burning those who supported and backed him.
It is a great credit to Dalla and Alson that they crafted all of this negativity in such a way that highlights Stuey’s greatest attributes: his love for his daughter and stepson, his unfailing generosity when money was plentiful, and his brilliance as the greatest gin rummy and no-limit poker player ever to sit at a card table. Ungar’s life is, when all is said and done, a cautionary tale. The book does speak in generalities about what made Stuey such a great player, but the lessons learned in this story are more of the “what not to do” variety. Those lessons are very powerful, as is the attractiveness of the subject to which they apply. In many regards, Stu Ungar was the most charismatic figure ever to grace the felt. It is very fortunate indeed that his biography is as appealing as his brilliance.
To buy this book on Amazon.com click here: One of a Kind
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