One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey "The Kid" Ungar, The World's Greatest Poker Player (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Creator), Mike Sexton (Foreword) "No one noticed him at first..." (more)
Key Phrases: Las Vegas, New York, World Series of Poker (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Begun as an as-told-to by Dalla with Stuey Ungar, this biography tells in painful detail the story of the poker and gin superstar. Ungar is certainly a fascinating subject. He was prodigiously dysfunctional, a manic sports bettor and cocaine addict who won an estimated $30 million during his life, but who, after his death in 1998, needed a collection from his friends to pay for his funeral. Unfortunately, the complexities of Ungar's personality aren't satisfactorily unraveled by the authors. They offer stories from the likes of poker legend Doyle Brunson and Mike Sexton, television's reigning poker guru, of Ungar's fabulous skills as a card player and spectacular need for "action," but few insights into the source of Ungar's self-destructive demons: he died prematurely at age 45 from the ravages of drug abuse. Without any analysis, the repetitious account of years of poker ups and downs, sports gambling losses, manic acts of generosity and descents into drug abuse, as tragic as it is, becomes tedious. Still, without distorting or downplaying Ungar's depredations, this is a heartfelt, respectful and accepting biography.
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Review

"Even though Stuey Ungar was perhaps the greatest poker player ever to live, his talent at card playing wasn't close to being his most compelling characteristic. Stuey was a little bit of a gangster, genius, madman, tragic hero, and cardsharp. Add it all up, as Dalla and Alson have done in captivating style, and you get one of the most unusual characters to ever appear on the Vegas scene."

--Andy Bellin, author of Poker Nation --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Atria (June 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743476581
• ISBN-13: 978-0743476584
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #548,092 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating close-up portrait of a brilliant, damaged card player, June 24, 2005

By	Michael Craig (Scottsdale, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews

Stu Ungar's legend transcends poker: he won the world championship three times (the third more than a decade and a half after the second and when he was regarded as a has-been or curiosity) and was supposedly an even BETTER gin player. He had a genius for games that was almost unfathomable. Then, just a year and a half after his greatest triumph, he was dead.

Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson have big-league credentials as researchers and writers of a story about a broken genius of cards. Among other things, Dalla is the media director for the World Series of Poker, can get in touch with ANYONE connected with poker, and interviewed Ungar several times before his death in 1998. Dalla has papered poker publications and web sites with excellent accounts. Alson wrote a highly-acclaimed book about his days as a bookie at Harvard and has written for a writer's wish-list of men's magazines.

Their account is so intimate that it's almost uncomfortable. I say this as a GOOD THING! Ungar was very private, closed even to most people in the poker world, and not a frequent interview subject. This was especially true regarding the two things we'd want to know about: his genius at cards and his self-destruction. Dalla interviewed him before his death and the periodic first-person accounts by Ungar are fascinating and shocking. In addition, the higher echelons of poker (especially where organized crime figures are possibly near, as they were in Ungar's early days and, socially, later on) can be a closed world. Even though men like Mike Sexton and Doyle Brunson are public figures, you would not expect them to be frank about their tragic friend, or about matters potentially at odds with poker's relatively recent, relatively wholesome reputation. But Dalla and Alson got the inside accounts from Stuey's closest friends and even those shadowy mobsters. They also obtained the story from Ungar's ex-wife and daughter; again, invaluable sources you'd expect would be difficult to get.

Stu Ungar's life story is fascinating, no matter how it is told, so the authors are starting with a good hand. From a research perspective, there can be no more authoritative work on the man.

But it is the writing and story telling that REALLY shine. The authors weave together Ungar's first-person accounts with the stories of their many sources in a way that is seamless and compelling. Ungar's essential mystery remains, but the authors allow us to experience the key moments of his bizarre life, always knowing what he's up to and why.

At the risk of mixing metaphors, Ungar lived a roller-coaster life that came to a train-wreck end. The story, ultimately, is a sad one, but it is a thrilling ride for the reader.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fire that Drives Also Destroys. , July 9, 2005

By	Bernard Chapin "Ora Et Labora!" (CHICAGO! USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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I recall that Jim Mcmanus, in his book on the World Series of Poker, mentioned that Stu Ungar was someone with a life truly in need of exploring, so I was pleased to find out about the existence of this book. I ordered it the minute it was released.

I could not be more pleased with the purchase. Its pages flow like frames in a motion picture. I could not put the biography down. This is a tribute both to the professional writer employed, Peter Alson, and also to the ornate texture of the life it documents.

Stu Ungar was a thoroughly compulsive, brilliant man who was given many gifts that he, with unprecedented impatience, smoked away through the tube of a crack pipe. There was no "could have been a champ" with Stuey though. He won The World Series of Poker three times and was victorious in 381 competitions overall. His memory was photographic and his mind a spinning computer, yet it was his ever-present need for instant gratification that finished him. A lack of concern for money was his greatest No Limit characteristic, but it was also his biggest weakness as he blew millions on sports betting, the ponies, and every other proposition put before him.

Ungar was a man of total contradictions. He loved being a father and cared intensely for his daughter and stepson, yet he disappeared for weeks at a time and could often not be reached when they needed him. Stuey lived for competition but allowed drugs to cause him to skip the 1998 WSOP and sleep through the last two days of the 1990 one. He could be charming and entertaining but had few social graces. This genius had parts which canceled out his whole.

The book succeeds at many levels. We feel tremendous sympathy for the main character, but wonder what more any single person could have done to save him. The finest of the poker players are emotionally non-responsive at the table and possess "alligator blood." However, with Stuey, they brought misery upon themselves in the hopes of diverting him from his inevitable destruction. Doyle Brunson let him move in with his family in El Paso, while Mike Sexton, the same cheeseball who provides color for the World Poker Tour, paid Ungar's hotel bills time and again just so his friend would have a place to live. Chip Reese had written him off, but, finally, as Ungar sat in a jail cell, he pulled out 55 C notes to secure his release.

Stuey Ungar had more talent than practically anyone else on this earth, and being rich should have been a sure thing, but his love of life never equaled his lust for action. He died by his own hand even if the coroner's report said otherwise.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Death Of Stuey Ungar, March 19, 2006

By	Daniel McKinnon (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I was originally going to title my review "The Life & Death Of Stu Ungar" but this book is more about the downfall of the poker legend rather than the highs. He's been called the greatest poker player who ever lived by many people, and whether you believe that others in the past or present are better than "The Kid", there can be no denying that Stuey Ungar certainly knew how to play cards better than 99.99% of other players out there. It seems that the best players have a type of 'sixth sense' that others just do not possess, and this talent led Stu Ungar to heights of success that many can only hope to dream to achieve.

Born into a seedy lifestyle where his father took bets ever day out of his shop for all the sporting events, Stuey knew only one thing in his life: gambling. It was a constant throughout his every day in his childhood and his entire, short life. The book chronicles how Stuey got his early "training" to become the great card player that he was today, but this introduction which planted the seeds for his success also planted the same seeds for his destruction.

Winning 2 World Series of Poker main events soon after he was legal to drink, Stu couldn't help the fact that he wasn't just a card player, he was a GAMBLER. Cards came easy to this legend, it was other challenges like sports handicapping and horse racing that really got him excited. Games like poker and especially gin just didn't have the action that he continuously craved. If Stuey had just played cards and was able to avoid the other demons in his life, no doubt he would be wealthier than players like Chip Reese, Doyle Brunson and the like. Sadly, because of these demons, Stuey would have moments of greatness that just would be few and far between after the early 1980s.

And then there were the drugs.

Cocaine and later crack after his nasal membranes were burnt away, Stu Ungar's story is that of a drug addict who could never escape the mistakes that he made. You've heard the warning your whole life: don't do drugs. Mr. Ungar's story is just one example of millions that could be used to show why doing drugs can ruin everything you strive for in life. Stuey made a mistake, the same mistake that anyone could make, and he wasn't strong enough to overcome this mistake, dying at the young age of 44 years old. To die so young just shows the amount of abuse that he did to his body, a tragic loss for the poker world, and his young daughter that he loved so much.

This is a great book that took a long time to come out, due mainly to the fact that Stuey died only 3 months after the agreement was signed for this book to be written. Probably another 100 pages or more could have been added to this biography if Stu had been alive to share more of his experiences. No doubt readers would have learned of more big games, and more insight into the drug problems that plagued Stu his entire life. Because of the limited quotes that could be obtained, it feels like the book can't go into the amount of detail that the author would love to share, but that's life.

If you play poker and want to learn about possibly the greatest player to ever grace the felt, you owe it to yourself to read 'One Of A Kind'. If you know nothing about poker and want to read about how drugs can ruin your life, you might get more out of this than the seasoned poker professional.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED