One of a Kind

The Story of Stuey 'The Kid' Ungar, the World's Greatest Poker Player

By: Nolan Dalla, Peter Alson

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

He was a legend before he was of legal age. Stuey Ungar dropped out of high school to become an underground card-table sensation, eventually taking out every top gin-rummy player on the east coast. Bankrolled by the Genovese crime family, Ungar went on to win the World Series of Poker a record three times. Then his luck began to run out.

Nolan Dalla was commissioned by Ungar in 1998 to pen his story, resulting in hundreds of hours of taped interviews and conversations. The result is the startling tale of a man who won at his game and lost control of his life.

Notorious for gambling every single dollar in his pocket, Ungar won an estimated $30 million in his lifetime, but when he was found dead in a Las Vegas motel at the age of 45, he had only $800 in cash on his person, with no bank account or home address.

©2005 Nolan Dalla (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[A] heartfelt, respectful and accepting biography." ( Publishers Weekly)
"A fascinating, cautionary tale." ( Chicago Tribune)
"A standout among this year's bumper crop of poker books." ( New York magazine)

Crazy Story

Any gambler should listen to this story! Great story to read and learn from in life.

Stu Unger story

Incredibly acted audio book, in fact, one of the best performances of any audio book , I’ve ever downloaded.

The person kept me extremely engaged over what was a very entertaining story.

I wish we could’ve seen Stu live longer and find peace and love.

Cheers

Engrossing

An exceptional recount of the fatally flawed yet brilliant Stu Ungar. A tragic tale of history's greatest poker and gin player.

one in a million

i love it very Interesting. in a way it is very motivational. I wish I had the opportunity to meet him.

Truly, One of a Kind

One more genius with a rare talent. Sadly, it cost him his life. Pity,

Fascinating story, but narration is annoying

well written and comprehensive account of Ungar. The narrator, however, has some terrible accents and voices for many of the quotes on Ungar. Some are so bad they made me cringe. But, the story is solid.

Fascinating look behind the curtain

Any additional comments?

This was a peek behind the curtain of professional poker. I don't play but I liked watching the TV coverage of the big tournaments, till the punks took over with their posturing and antics. So I knew some of the big names and even had some favorites. I liked learning a little bit about the personalities and characters of some of the players I had followed, particularly Doyle Brunson. However, I had not heard of Stuey Unger, and this book prompted me to go to You Tube to watch some of his tournament play. My watching coincided with some of the scenes in the book, which really brought them to life. I think anyone interested in the game would like this book.

The narrator did a good job, but the production values of the recording were pretty bad, particularly closer to the end, when lines were repeated. One time an entire paragraph was followed by a pause, then the narrator's voice saying "Alternate" and then the same paragraph read again. It was sloppy editing.

Very enjoyable.

Good true story .Amazing character.
Excellent narration. Good storytelling about Las Vegas.
Recommended. Mark Paul

What could have been...

A very sad story of a man who reached such high and so many lows. A man who battled his addictions his entire life and never learned to slow down. An absolute amazing card player who could have been set for life a hundred times over had it not been for his desire to always live in the fast lane. Truly sad story that shows hopefully will show the readers what kind of things to avoid and the damaging results of what happens when you don't avoid them.

Great!

Great history and storytelling, the narrator is also top-notch. Would recommend to anyone that's into poker, gambling and history of las vegas.