"I never want to be called a good loser; if you're a good loser, you're still a loser."

Yesterday in the Times, there was a story about a legendary Poker player named Stu "The Kid" Ungar, the youngest player ever to win back-to-back World Series of Poker tournaments. I'd never heard of him, but his story is amazing, and really sad at the same time.

Stu Ungar started out playing gin, and quickly became so good he couldn't find anyone to play, so he switched over to poker. He won his first WSOP tournament at the age of 27, and in his lifetime, went on to win, and eventually lose 30 million dollars. His greatest accomplishment seems to have been when he came back to the game in 1997 to win the million dollar top prize at that year's world series. Apparently, the money was gone within four months. And later that year, he was found dead in a motel room from an apparent drug overdose. Seems Stuey was a serious coke addict, so much so that at his '97 comeback, he wore blue shades to hide the fact that his nostrils had collapsed (holy s---).

Stu's life was the subject of a 2003 movie starring Michael Imperioli, and another one may be on the way. Check out the trailer. There's a scene of Stu playing gin, and guessing all seven cards his opponent (Mr. Miyagi) is holding. They say he was a genius...genius has it's good points and bad.