Karas destroyed the tag-team duo of Berman and Chan and doubled up. Berman backed Chan, but both Berman and Chan played Karas heads-up and alternated every two hours. As soon as Karas arrived, a game was quickly arranged. He headed to theīicycle Club in Los Angeles and played (Johnny) Chan heads up. When Karas was down to his last million, he made a terrible decision that cost him the remainder of his money and dignity. When the line of opponents willing to hand him their money dried up, he turned to poker, soon becoming a skilled player who could win millions – but lose them just as quickly. Like Ungar, Karas had a troubled childhood, running away from an abusive father at the age of 15 and working his passage to the US where he soon became a feared pool shark. However, while for Ungar it was drugs and sportsbetting which took him down to the bottom again, for ‘the Greek’ it wasĭice and baccarat which wiped out his winnings in three short weeks. His famous ‘Run’ from 1993 to 1995 saw him turn his last $50 into a $40million fortune! Larry Grossman, 'Stu had his faults but was an extraordinary person.”Īrchie ‘the Greek’ Karas is another poker player and gambler with legendary status. 'It's wasted genius,' said Las Vegas gaming analyst and radio talk-show host Oasis Motel in Vegas, the poker and gambling world mourned the troubled yet meteoric life of one of the game’s true legends. After he died alone at the age of 45 in the The money was gone in two short months, his old ‘friends’ cocaine and the racetrack, as ever, wiping out his fortune every time he won big. It's so tough to come back.' TheĬomeback Kid became his new nickname, but it was to be short-lived. 'That was by far my greatest performance ever,' said a tearful Ungar afterwards. $1million payday which was a result of being backed to play in the event at the last minute. It wasn’t until 1997 that he managed to win his 3rd Main Event bracelet – a His legend grew as he took down the best NoLimit title events the game had to offer throughout the 80’s.īut the drugs and the gambling problems took their share of Ungar, often forcing him to play when seriously ill or in dire need of a win to cover other debts. I guarantee you it's taken 10, 15 years off my life.'ġ980 WSOP Main Event he was the youngest-ever champion, and he repeated his success the following year. When you have access to it and the money don't mean nothing. “You use it as an excuse to stay up and play poker, but then you take it home with you. I did coke to keep up,” he told New York’s Icon magazine many years ago. $10k in a marathon gin rummy game in New York, he lost it all at the Belmont and Aqueduct horse tracks in a few days this was just a taste of how his life would go – huge wins and devastating losses. Gin rummy and would fleece waiters of their tips while in the Catskills on family vacations, Ungar showed an immense talent for numbers, which, as he grew up, would lead him into the world of gambling and poker at a very young age. Main Event bracelets and vast sums in the toughest high-stakes cash games, he was fighting addictions which would ultimately see him die a lonely and penniless death in a Vegas motel.įrom the age of ten, when he learned to play Stu Ungar was the original ‘Kid’ in poker, a fearless genius at the tables who won millions at a time when millions still meant something to the world’s best. When it all comes crashing down, the fallout is a ghastly sight as we’re about to see… It distances players from the lives they once led and replaces them with a new world where money can buy everything. Poker genius and massive wins are the stuff of legend, but it brings with it a downside - the opportunities to gamble at huge stakes in other games, easy access to drugs and alcohol, and ‘friends’ who are nothing of the sort. It’s incredibly difficult for the average poker player to imagine winning millions at the tables and then somehow going broke within a year or two, but this fate has befallen more pros in our game than in any other.

Pokerth players are mostly dumb niggers