Known for poker prowess, Ungar had deeper side

Friday, Nov. 27, 1998 | 11:20 a.m.

Stu Ungar was a high-stakes gambler who made millions of dollars playing poker and lost millions more at the tables and betting on sports games and horses.

He was an admitted drug addict who did cocaine and partied with friends until the wee hours of the morning.

Yet, even such a man had the unconditional love of at least one person -- his 16-year-old daughter, Stefanie Ungar.

"There was nothing phony about my dad. What you saw was what you got," said the Bishop Gorman High sophomore. "He never pretended to be something he was not.

"A lot of people knew my dad only as a great poker player. But he also was a generous man who did not have a mean bone in his body. He was funny and he was the gentlest man I knew."

Ungar's destructive lifestyle caught up with him last Sunday, when he was found in a room at the Oasis Motel, 1731 S. Las Vegas Blvd. The man who was once nicknamed "The Kid" because of his youthful appearance was dead at 45. An autopsy conducted this week was inconclusive with toxicology tests pending.

Services for Ungar, who won the 1980, '81 and '97 Binion's World Series of Poker, were scheduled for earlier today at Palm Mortuary Eastern. Interment will be in Palm Valley View Cemetery.

On Thanksgiving Eve, Stefanie talked about her father to show another side of one of the most colorful Las Vegas characters of the last quarter century.

"I don't want to talk about his poker and gambling, because a lot of people have already done that," she said. "I want to talk about the man who would call me 20 times a day just to tell me he loved me and to make sure I was taking care of myself."

Stefanie, who lived in Florida from 1989 to '97 before moving back to Las Vegas, lives with her mother and Ungar's ex-wife, Madeline Ungar, a Forum Shops clothing clerk, at the Las Vegas Country Club.

"My dad would ask me things like are you eating? If I said no, he would say he was coming over to take me out to eat. If I needed something, he'd give me his last $200 without me knowing it was all he had. Then he would walk around broke for days."

At the 1997 World Series of Poker, Stu "The Kid" became known as Stu "The Comeback Kid" for his incredible performance. That day, he carried in his shirt pocket a photo of Stefanie for inspiration. He would occasionally look at it between hands en route to winning the $1 million first prize.

"He'd call at every break in the tournament and tell me there are only 18 players left, then six left and so on," Stefanie said. "When he won, he called and said they were opening a bottle of champagne in his room. My dad couldn't drink alcohol."

But he did take drugs, something that was no secret in the poker world. Nor was it something Ungar tried to hide from his daughter.

"I talked to him about it all the time and encouraged him to check into a rehab program," Stefanie said. "But he told me people don't understand what it's like when you have money -- you can't get away from it. People who claimed to be his friends would come up to him and push it on him.

"He told me the only way he would be able to get away from that lifestyle was to move away from Las Vegas. I told him maybe you can move away and just come back every year to win the World Series of Poker. He laughed at that."

Stefanie says she has no interest in even trying cocaine. In Florida, she said, she dumped a boyfriend who snorted it in front of her.

A week before Stu died, Stefanie recalled, they were able to share a tender moment.

"We were watching TV and I told him how proud I was that he was my dad," she said. "He told me he was not proud about some of the things he had done, and he said that maybe if he had spent more time with me, his life would have been different."

On one visit to Las Vegas several years ago, Stefanie saw a discarded letter written to Ungar from then-president George Bush, inviting her father to the White House.

"I asked my dad if he was going to go and he said no," Stefanie said. "I said, 'Dad, you know how rare it is to get an invitation to the White House?' He said: 'What am I going to talk to the president about? We have nothing in common.' Dad said he wouldn't even know which fork to use at dinner."

Former Las Vegas hotel-casino owner Bob Stupak, who in recent weeks was forming a business partnership with Ungar to sponsor him at major poker tournaments, said his longtime friend indeed was not a sophisticated man.

"He did not understand much about anything other than poker," Stupak, himself a world-class poker player, said.

"For example, in 1980, Stu got invited to Ireland to play in a poker tournament but did not have a passport. He went to get one and was told it would take a while to process. Stu asked if there was a way to get it quicker, and the clerk said for 'a few extra dollars' it could be ready in a couple of days."

The clerk was referring to an additional processing fee for a rush job, but, said Stupak, "Stu looked to his right, then to his left and then tried to slip the guy $300. That's what Stu thought the guy meant by a few extra dollars."

Ungar was born Sept. 8, 1953, in New York City, and was raised on the Lower East Side. His father, a bookmaker and bar operator, died when Ungar was 13. Three years before that, he had taken Stu to the Catskills on vacation, where his son learned to play gin rummy and began hustling waiters in card games.

At age 14, Ungar quit school and became a professional gambler, winning thousands of dollars from seasoned players four or five times his age. He became one of the world's top gin rummy players.

Ungar came to Las Vegas in 1978 and learned how to play Texas hold 'em. He set the poker world on its ear in 1980, when he won the coveted $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas hold 'em World Series of Poker title.

When he repeated as champion of the granddaddy of all gaming tournaments the next year, Ungar secured a place for himself in poker annals and in gambling folklore.

But 16 years and millions of won and lost dollars later, Ungar was broke. A friend paid his way into the 1997 World Series main event, where he made history. But the million-dollar purse he won did not last long. After paying off gambling debts and suffering heavy losses on horse and sports wagers, Ungar was broke two months later.

On Friday, he signed a contract with Stupak, who paid off Ungar's gambling debts around town, giving him a fresh start.

"I felt he was a good investment," Stupak said, referring to Ungar's ability to overcome major odds and at times make incredible amounts of money for his backers.

After signing the contract, Ungar asked Stupak for some "walking around money," and Stupak gave him $2,000.

Stupak said Ungar called him Friday and left a message on Stupak's answering machine. Stupak tried to call Ungar all day Saturday but couldn't reach him, he said.

The next morning, Ungar was found lying face up in his motel bed. The motel manager said he had about $800 in his pocket. Ungar had spent about $120 for the two-night stay in the motel. What happened to the rest of the money is unknown.

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