Stu Ungar
The basic basis for why Stu Ungar switched from gin rummy to poker was that he was a tiny bit too skilled at it. So good was he, that no one was able equal him. Even the apparently professionals who were meant to be the best at gin rummy were decimated when they faced Stu. One of these gin player was Harry Stein, nicknamed, "Yonkie". Harry suffered such a debilitating blow at the hands of stu that he apparently quit playing it professionally and never showed up at a gin rummy tournament.
Certainly, with a image like that it was not too long before players became weary of gambling against Stu Ungar. He could find no matches and in his desperation he began doing something no one had performed prior. He presented beginning handicaps to likely opponents with the hope that they might just play against him if they thought they had an advantage. He deliberately began from a bad arrangement and one account has it that stu even played against a consistent absconder. Mid match, he received advice that the bad egg was at it once more but Stu Ungar guaranteed that he deduced of the cheating and he would still actually win, which of course, he did.
The same problem followed Stu Ungar to sin city. He won so frequently that the poker rooms began requesting that he not to gamble on their casinos anymore. The reasoning behind it was that other poker room clients refused to be seated at the poker table if he were seated.
Stu Ungar is remembered more for his abilities in hold’em poker but he always insisted that he was much more accomplished at gin rummy.
He defeated Doyle Brunson in the World Series of Poker in Nineteen Eighty to become the youngest world camp. Because of his features that made him appear far younger than he really was, he was nicknamed, "The Kid".