Stu (The Kid) Unger

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.

Cary Katz

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.

Walter Pearson

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.

5 most popular casino lucky charms

No matter how many techniques you learn and the experience you gain, gambling also is about luck. Sometimes even a pro doesn’t win the game, and sometimes a noob takes all the credits. This proves that luck is also the prominent factor that can make you a king in just one second or can take your everything.

To keep luck on their side, some players bring their lucky charms. According to them, keeping these lucky charms by their side helps them crack more cards at the table and help them win.

Here are the 5 most popular lucky charms that players often carry to casinos.

Four-leaf Clover

This is one of the well-known lucky charms that are also the most used. This leaf clover is related to Irish tradition and is used worldwide.

The leaf represents God’s grace; several casinos also offer games that are themed on the cloverleaf. Finding the four-leaf clover is considered extremely lucky if a person comes across it.

Horseshoe

Horseshoe is considered significantly lucky as per the folktales. This sign is related to luck and fortune in the common world as well, other than the casino world. That is why carrying a horseshoe charm is what many players do while trying their luck in gambling.

No evil power interferes in a place where the horseshoe is nailed. People believe that keeping it upside in a U position tends to collect all the luck inside it and provide the person with positive results.

Laughing Buddha

This is not a new thing to know; Laughing Buddha is related to Fengshui, and it is a significant charm in China. It represents a Chinese monk who brings wealth and prosperity if it is placed rightly in a home or any space. People also carry this Laughing Buddha that carries a pot of gold or gold nuggets in his hands.

Hamsa Hand

Hamsa Hand is another charm that is popular in Middle Eastern and Western culture. It is an open palm with an eye in the middle. The eye is believed to give such effects that neutralize the evil power and protect the keeper.

In Islam, the five fingers in Hamsa represent belief, worship, fasting, almsgiving, pilgrimage.

Nazar Boncuğu Amulet

The charm is typically made of dark blue, light blue, white, and black-colored glass. It is made in a circle shape which gives the illusion of a teardrop. This tear-like charm works to ward off any evil eye, people’s jealousy, ill-intentions, and such negativities. Carrying it during casino games keeps any bad luck and negative energy away from the person.

Common Casino Myths

Like there are myths and misconceptions in every aspect of the world, any casino is not an exception. There are various myths that players still blindly believe. There are many rumors going around casinos and their functioning. Being a player, you should not pay attention to these rumors and play with the facts instead.

However, knowing these myths is always interesting. The same we are here to uncover here-

Casinos Pump in Oxygen to Keep You Awake

Air conditioning is a must in places like casinos to give the customers fresh air. However, there is a myth that says about pumping oxygen in the casinos. This is performed to keep the customers alert so they would keep gambling and spend their money.

However, the fact is, casinos don’t pump oxygen! Oxygen is expensive, and no casino would add up to their expenses by pumping loads of oxygen; otherwise, these casinos would also have to manage an oxygen factory.

Online Casinos Will Not Pay Out

This is another misconception that has been around for years now. Actually, scamming lies in every field of life, but we all take care not to be scammed. Similarly, there are scamsters in the online world that create fake casino sites, and if you play at these sites, surely you won’t get anything.

However, there are genuine sites as well that pay their customers just like traditional casinos do.

The Casinos Won’t Let You Win Too Much

Many people believe that if you are wining in a game continuously, the game automatically frees, so it can stop you from winning. This is again wrong! It only happens if a machine starts malfunctioning, and it would be a loss for the casino eventually. So this is another myth going around.

Online Casinos are Illegal

Who said that? Well, it is certainly not true unless the site is part of any scam, as we have already mentioned above. If a site is genuine, it can’t be illegal because a site can only run casinos online when it has needed certifications and permissions.

This is the player’s responsibility to always look for genuine casino websites. For this, you should check their gaming certifications and if they comply with legal regulations. You should go through their reviews and know what the other players are saying about that website.

There Are Hot and Cold Slots

This is another term that many players use! These players say that while choosing a slot machine, one should stay away from cold or hot machines. These machines have run enough and given enough payout that they won’t generate any more money.

This is hence another myth that you should ignore! There are no such machines, and every machine tends to operate as any regular slot machine.