The overnight game
Teenage Stu Ungar picked up Victor Romano in Queens at midnight, then headed to Manhattan’s Jovialite Social Club. They stayed until morning.
The upstairs room had bare floors, bright lights, and guards at the door. Romano was a Genovese crime-family soldier; Ungar was a small, restless prodigy who regarded him as a father figure. Their shared occupation was separating opponents from money.
Protection had a price
Romano took 20 percent of Ungar’s winnings for looking after him. Protection was a business arrangement as well as a personal bond.
Ungar left New York owing $60,000 to a connected bookmaker. He used his card-playing earnings in Las Vegas to pay it down.
More than a good memory
Ungar remembered the cards and used them to work out what his opponent held. His recall made every pickup and discard dangerous information to give away.
Elite gin demands recall, probability, and the ability to read an opponent’s choices. Ungar set the benchmark.
Memory alone does not decide what to throw. Suppose your opponent takes the six of hearts: it may join other sixes, extend a heart run, or replace costly deadwood.
The next discard gives you more information to work with. You have to keep revising your estimate of the opponent’s hand.
Computer players face the same task. A 2021 Gettysburg College paper on opponent hand estimation tested methods for predicting hidden cards from patterns of play.
Too good to get action
Ungar’s success created a peculiar business problem. To earn money at gin, he needed somebody willing to sit opposite him.
Ungar offered favorable playing conditions to attract opponents, but the games dried up as word spread. Poker offered a larger pool of players.
He even offered to return 10 percent of an opponent’s losses. Few accepted.
Ungar had exhausted his own market. Elsewhere, gin players kept competing for substantial prizes after his death.
What the legend leaves out
Ungar set the standard for elite gin. His opponents’ reluctance to play him was the measure of his dominance.
His life away from the gin table was marked by destructive gambling and drug use.
For more on the decisions involved in gin, see our guide to knocking.
Your turn at the table
Play gin rummy against Gus. It’s free and requires no signup.
Sources and further reading
- Steve Fishman, “The End of the Game,” New York, March 29, 1999. Reporting on Ungar’s New York circle.
- Michael Konik, “The Gin Mill,” March/April 1999. Players’ reputations and the tournament scene.
- Michael Kaplan and Brad Reagan, “To Live and Die in L.V.,” Card Player. Excerpt from their 2005 book Aces and Kings, including a 1998 Ungar interview.
- Francis, Just, and Neller, “Opponent Hand Estimation in the Game of Gin Rummy,” 2021.