Ungar looking for another million-dollar prize

Thursday, May 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Two-time world poker champion Stu Ungar entered today's final round of the World Series of Poker's $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold 'em finale with a commanding chip lead and his sights set on the $1 million first prize.

Ungar start-ed day four of the world championship event at Binion's Horseshoe with $1,066,000 worth of tournament chips -- an amount greater than all the chips in the game when he won his first title in 1980 and his second crown in 1981.

Ungar, who also won the Amarillo Slim Super Bowl of Poker championship in 1988 and '89, has been shut out of major titles in the '90s and has been struggling as a professional gambler.

Should he win today in the 28th annual granddaddy of all gaming tournaments, it would cap a sparkling comeback by a gambler whose ups and downs epitomize the very essence of the profession.

"In 1981, I was low man going into the final day with $30,000, and in 1980 I was in the middle of the pack with $120,000 in chips," Ungar said Wednesday after day three of the marathon event.

"Right now, the other five players are a little in awe of my chip lead (his nearest competitor, Ron Stanley, also from Las Vegas, had $372,000), so I'll look to steal a lot of the smaller pots and wait for the heads-up showdowns."

During day two Tuesday, Ungar won a hand with aces and 10s against a player he thought might have had a straight, but called him anyway. Winning that large pot gave Ungar $90,000 "and I just coasted in from there," he said.

Ungar has $1,081,478 in career World Series earnings, 16th on the all-time money list. A victory today would make him the tournament's second double millionaire. He would trail only fellow-two-time world champion Johnny Chan, the reigning deuce-to-7 draw world champ, with $2,313,694 in all-time WSOP earnings.

Ungar took the chip lead Wednesday when he raised George Geros of Pleasant Hill, Calif., all-in to make a $300,000 pot. The board read 6-jack-8, and Ungar's hole cards were jack-8 to Geros' king-8. When a king did not come on the next two community cards, Ungar's two pair held up and gave him $800,000 in chips.

Earlier, Stanley won a pot of equal size against Poker Hall of Fame member Doyle Brunson, another two-time world champion, who raised all-in with king-jack suited. Stanley, the 1991 $2,500 buy-in limit Texas hold 'em world champion, then looked at his hole cards and found what poker players call "pocket rockets" and also pushed all in.

"Naturally, I was happy to see the two aces (the best possible hand before the "flop," poker talk for the first three community cards), but at that point I would have raised if I had two jacks, queens or kings," Stanley said, noting that he would need some of that good fortune today.

"Right now, Stuey has an overpowering chip lead and can break any one of us on any hand. And, there are other players to worry about, as well. But anything can happen in no-limit (poker)."

Bob Walker, a Las Vegan, opened the day in third place with $611,000 worth of chips. Mel Judah of London, who last week won the world 7-card stud title, is fourth with $301,000.

John Strzemp, the president of Treasure Island, is fourth with $245,000. Peter Bao, the first-day leader and fifth Las Vegan in the field, is sixth with $204,000.

The chip counts reflect only a means of keeping score and have no cash value. The player who wins all the chips in the freeze-out format wins the tournament, which started Monday with a record 312 players.

The money remaining to be earned from the player-generated prize pool is: $583,000 for second, $371,000 for third, $212,000 for fourth, $161,120 for fifth and $127,200 for sixth. Prize money is paid to the top 27 finishers.

Tournament Coordinator Jack McClelland noted that none of the 27 money winners from last year's finale to the 21-event tournament won money in this year's no-limit hold 'em event.