Online Poker News » June 2005 » June 15, 2005.

The Bad Movie and One Great Book About Stu Ungar.

Lou Krieger, the host of Royal Vegas Poker Room and College Poker Championship, and the author of seven popular poker books and 400+ poker articles, posted his comments about the movie and the book on his blog site.

"Last night High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story, a movie that was never released to theaters, was shown on TV. Much as I love poker, and as compelling a character as Stu Ungar was, I found the film unwatchable. The story line was choppy and casting both Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa in the same movie made it tough to realize I was watching this particular film and not a rerun of "The Sopranos".

But a much, much better take on Ungar's life is One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey 'The Kid' Ungar, the World's Greatest Poker Player, by Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson. I was able to read an advanced uncorrected proof, courtesy of Nolan Dalla and I did so with much trepidation.

Nolan is as close a friend as I have in the poker community, and he's been working on this book since 1998. Over the years, I used to ask Nolan when the hell he was going to finish the book. And I wasn't the only one, either. Everyone who knew Nolan would begin conversations with that very question. He was always adding to it. Finally, it was nearly done, but far too long and the publisher suggested that he take on Peter Alson as a co-author. Alson, you might recall, wrote the wonderful Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie a few years ago. Together Alson and Dalla were able to edit it down to 300 pages.

Before I opened the book, I was afraid that Nolan, who labored so long on it, would have missed the mark completely and seven years of effort would have been down the drain. Now admittedly this was a completely irrational fear on my part because Nolan shared chapters and snippets of the book with me over the years, and I enjoyed everything I read. Still, he is a very close friend, and I wanted to see him succeed.

And succeed he did. This book is masterful, and ranks right up there among the best of the books that have been written about poker. It's right up there with A. Alvarez's The Biggest Game In Town, which is the standard against which all books about the poker lifestyle must be judged.

But Stuey Ungar wasn't just about poker. If he was arguably the best no-limit tournament hold'em player anyone ever knew, there's no argument at all regarding his prowess at gin rummy. He is considered the best gin player who ever lived, and I haven't heard anyone - even other gin mavens - argue that point.

One of a Kind is also a story of choices, lifestyles, love, compulsions, family, and drugs. Ungar was about all of this and more. He was always protected by mobbed up guys. He could be kind and loving and incredibly considerate one moment and a wise-ass street punk who was unbelievably self-centered the next. He had all the characteristics of an idiot savant: a tormented genius who made all the right choices at the card table but couldn't get out of his own self-destructive way when it came to making decisions about other aspects of his life.

It's a compelling story, a great read, and Ungar comes across as simultaneously much sadder and much more sympathetic a person that I expected. If you take my advice, you'll skip the move and buy the great book.

One of a Kind is published by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Shuster, and should be out this summer. Nolan, who is, after all, a close personal friend and someone I watched go through the highs and lows of what turned out to be a seven-year project, kudos on getting it done well and done right."

Source: Lou Krieger's Blog (http://loukrieger.blogspot.com)

Tags: Stu Ungar, Poker Book, Poker Player.