BOOK - One Of A Kind: One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey ',The Kid', Ungar, The World's Greatest Poker Player
by Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson (Atria Books)
Reviewed by John Sekerka

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This was supposed to be an autobiography by world famous poker king Stuey Ungar, but then he went and died. A typical ending to the rock and roll kid of texas hold 'em. So bits and pieces were cobbled together and here we are, with the familiar live fast die young tale usually reserved for entertainers, but then in his own way Stuey was one hell of an entertainer. A sickly, scrawny kid raised by bookies and small time mobsters in Manhatten's Lower East side, Stuey failed at everything except cards. As a teenager he was so good at Gin Rummy that he couldn't get a game - even the Casinos would shut their doors, so he turned to the world of poker, where you could always get one. Soon he was on top of the poker world, collecting millions in winnings, and quickly losing it all at the race track - one of his two vices. Cocaine was the other, and a combination of both did him in. The story in itself reads like a crazy pulp novel, loaded with colourful crooks and cowboy poker studs, but Stuey's character takes the story to new levels of bizarre. Never having a job, a bank account or a social insurance number, Ungar always relied on friends and backers to convert his winnings into cash. Which he would flitter away in no time, whether at the track, buying drugs or through his overwhelming generosity. Using his own words, originally intended as the main core of the book but now scattered throughout, works well to bridge the outrageous episodes and the real life fun-loving wiseguy that Stuart Errol "The Kid" Ungar really was.

© 2007 - John Sekerka