People

Stuart Errol Ungar was an American professional Poker, Blackjack and Gin Rummy player. He was widely regarded as the greatest Texas Hold ’em and Gin Rummy player of all time. He is also one of two individuals to have won the World Series of Poker Main Event three times.

Born in Manhattan, New York, in September 1953 and passed away in November of 1998 at the age of 45. Ungar was the son of a bookmaker and loan shark who ran illegal gambling parlours in Manhattan, the Foxes Corner. His father tried everything to keep Stu out of the gambling world, but its allure caught Stu at a young age, and he quickly became a great Gin Rummy Player. Stu, the Kid Ungar, eventually dropped out of school in tenth grade and took up gambling full time. It was the start of a turbulent gambling career.

Stu Ungar’s Gambling Career

He gambled his way to maturity and fell into the crew of Victor Romano, a notorious criminal and a fabled card player. With Romano’s protection, Stu could play just about anyone. He was incredibly talented and won consistently; however, despite winning big, his gambling problem led him to lose all his winnings at the race tracks.

Due to accumulated debts, Stu left for Las Vegas and started gambling against many of the worlds most elite and demolished Harry Stein, a player considered to be the world’s best gin player. After that, he barely got much rummy action as players refused to play against him. In 1980 he transitioned to Poker and became the youngest player to win the WSOP main event title. He continued to win bracelets and was the only Poker player to win the famous Amarillo Slims Super Bowl of Poker on three different occasions.

The End of the Road

Despite Ungar’s massively successful career, his drug addiction kept him from reaching his full potential as he kept relapsing. His death was heart failure due to years of drug abuse, and his funeral got paid by the Poker Community as he left this world the same way he came into it, with nothing.

A fierce competitor at the poker tables, Cary Katz, has earned more than $33.1 million in tournament earnings, ranking sixth on the list of all-time money winners. Katz’s two most notable wins were the $2 million PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller and the $2 million Super High Roller Bowl in London.

Katz, known to some as “El Jefe”, has long since outlasted the title of “businessman who plays poker,” based on his achievements. He has earned $17 million in career tournament earnings and frequently makes final tables in high roller events worldwide.

How did he Begin?

College Loan Corp. was founded by Katz in 1999 and quickly became one of the largest student loan companies in the United States. As a result of his business success, he built a massive bankroll for his favourite hobby.

During the 2000s and early 2010s, Katz cashed in several mid-stakes events and piled up scores of five figures.

Katz began playing in mid-to-high stakes tournaments in Las Vegas from 2009-2012, cashing out consistently in five figures and winning his biggest prize to date at the 2011 WSOP. Kaz finished 12th in the $5k NL Hold’em event for $51,713 and followed that up in 2012 with a year of frequent crashes on the Las Vegas tournament scene, including four wins.

He won his first Poker tournament in 2010, winning a $1k No-Limit Hold’em event at the Five Star World Poker Classic for $25,500.

Katz has regularly played in events at the World Series of Poker for the past decade, winning his first Main Event cash in 2009 for $40,288. Around that time, Katz started spending more time playing poker.

Where is he now?

In 2019, Katz was ranked 28th on the all-time tournament money list, having earned $17,372,159 from high stakes tournaments.

Introduction

Walter Clyde “Puggy” Pearson is an American professional poker player who tweaked his poker skills in the Navy, which he joined at age 16. During his Navy career, he learned how to palm dice and calculate pot odds, and by the time he got discharged in the early 1950s, he had scooped up more than $20000 in winnings. Pearson was also a legend on the golf course and could putt and chip just as well as PGA Tour members and won $300 000 on a game of golf. Doyle Bronson said that if he ever had to pick anyone in the world to make a putt with his life on the line, it would be his best friend, Pearson.

Puggy Pearson’s Poker Career

After his career in the Navy, he moved to Nashville, where he spent a decade operating a small three-table pool hall called Pugs. Pearson then moved to Las Vegas in the mid-1960s, where he made the city’s card rooms his office alongside Moss and Roberts.

Pearson had an ultra-aggressive playing style and saw himself as the “boss”. Any poker player that wanted to win had to go through him; that was his attitude. He won four WSOP bracelets but none after 1973 and never missed a WSOP Main Event until his death, age 77, in April 2006.

Pearson was known for his marathon card sessions that would go on for 24 hours at a time, and there would always be a giant stogie clenched between his lips. When he passed away, dozens of newspapers published a photo of the RV with the mantra painted on the side “I’ll play any man from any land, in any game he can name, for any amount I can count, provided I like it”

Walter Pearson was a colourful character and lived life to the fullest, and he is still remembered as one of the toughest players and prop bettors ever to have lived.

Introducing the Media Tycoon and Gambler

Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, an Australian media tycoon, born was born on 17 December 1937 in Sydney. He became one of the world’s greatest gamblers, and his legacy was gambling away up to $200 million during his gambling career. He was well-known for his generosity and humbleness because, unlike many high rollers, he did not expect casino bosses to be at his beck and call. Furthermore, his requests were minimal, which were nice rooms for himself and his entourage and an empty table.

Packers Gambling career

Packer not only gambled in casinos but with his marriage. He had several extramarital affairs, including one with Carol Lopes, who reportedly committed suicide after being shunned by him.

Packer was known as a Whale as he gambled for stakes that kick-started the adrenal glands of even the most jaded casino executives. Gambling was Packer’s passion, and he wagered very high stakes. Terry Packer once lost 28.2 million in Blackjack losses to a London Casino, the most significant reported gambling loss in British History. He also had some huge wins like the $33 million he won at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas and often won as much as $7 million a year during his annual holidays in the UK.

His Generosity

Amidst his losses and wins, Terry Packer was known for his generosity and would often give his entourage $100 000 bankrolls before turning free-spending night on the casino employees doling out six-figure gratuities. On another occasion, he paid off a waitress’s mortgage highlighting his generosity amidst his sometimes volcanic temper and perennial contempt for journalists.

Terry Packer passed away on the 26 December 2005 from kidney failure nine days after his 68^th birthday. His memorial was attended by big names like Russell Crowe, Prime Minister John Howard, Richie Benaud, Tom Cruise, and the Australian Cricket Team. Terry Packer lived a short life, but he certainly made it count.

Harry Kakavas was born in Melbourne in the 1970s and moved to the Gold Coast in 2001.

He lost over $1.5 billion at the Baccarat tables at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, making him one of the biggest losers in gambling history.

During the Early Years

Having grown up in Melbourne, Australia, Kakavas worked as an estate agent for Colliers Jardine. A gambling addiction began in 1993 when he began betting at sportsbooks. He mortgaged his parents’ house and borrowed money from his friends to fuel his gambling addiction. He served four months in jail for committing a $286,000 fraud for gambling funds in 1998.

In 2001, he moved to the Gold Coast, where he became a top estate agent.

Gambling addiction

The more properties he sold and the more money he made, the more he gambled. In Melbourne’s Crown Casino, he spent a great deal of time, and this is where he lost his $1.5billion betting $300 000 a hand on Baccarat. Although he occasionally won, he always had to put it back and finally began borrowing from friends, families, lawyers, and banks to fund his habit.

As a smooth talker, he convinced his friends that they were investing in his property deals. They had no idea that they were feeding his gambling habit.

Crown Casino

Despite being banned previously by Crown Casino, he threatened to sue them if they failed to lift the ban. They permitted him to play again a year later and made him feel like a billionaire by flying him to the Philippines in a private jet and presenting him with $50,000 as “lucky money.”

After losing all his money, Kakavas tried to sue Crown Casino for $35million, claiming they misled him and exploited his addiction.

He lost his case at the Victoria Supreme Court, which ruled that Australian courts would not give gamblers their money back.

The Kakvas team is back on the Gold Coast, selling houses on Hedges Avenue once more.