The Man Behind the Shades: The Rise and Fall of Poker's Greatest Player - Softcover

Nolan Dalla; Peter Alson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0297849034 ISBN 13: 9780297849032

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005

Synopsis

When Stuey "The Kid" Ungar took his first World Series of Poker title, one journalist asked him what he would do with the money. His answer: "Gamble it". Stuey grew up among the hoodlums and wiseguys of New York's Lower East Side. A pint-sized high-school drop out who never worked a day in his life, never had a bank account or paid a dime in taxes, he lived to gamble and became the world's most feared card player. Before he was 10, he was playing cards and shooting dice with local waiters and busboys - and taking home their wages. By the age of 13, he was backed by the mob and beating the best players in the city. But it was only when he hit Las Vegas that Stuey discovered the game that made his name. In 1980, he became the youngest player to lift the World Series Title. In 1981, he did it again, becoming the youngest player to win the tournament back to back. In 1997, when everyone thought his talent had been destroyed by years of hard living and drug abuse, he won the World Series for an unprecedented third time. The following year he was found dead in the Oasis Motel with USD800 in his pocket. Drawing on 100s of hours of taped conversations with Ungar, as well as exclusive interviews with everyone who knew him, this is the definitive story of his brutal, prodigious talents - of the multi-million dollar fortune won and lost; his legendary sports wagers (he blew USD80,000 the first time he picked up a golf club - without leaving the putting green); the addictions that consumed him; and one of the greatest phoenix-from-the-ashes comebacks of all time.

About this title

About the Authors

Nolan Dalla is a professional poker player, gambler and the lead sports handicapper for Casino Player, Western Player, and www.madjacksports.com. He has written for numerous publications including Gambling Times, Card Player, Poker Digest, Poker Pages, and The Intelligent Gambler. He lives in Las Vegas.

Peter Alson is the author of the highly acclaimed memoir Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie. A writer and journalist, Alson's work has appeared in a wide range of national magazines and newspapers form The New York Times to Esquire and Playboy. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

From the Back Cover

Here, in vivid and compelling detail, is the Stuey I knew and feared at the poker table ... a rare poker genius, but a tragically flawed human being. - ANTHONY HOLDEN, author of the poker classic BIG DEAL

What makes me special? Is it because I m smarter than everyone else? No. Look at me I dropped out of high school. Is it because I work harder? No. I ve never worked a day in my life. Why have I been successful at card games when all the so-called experts say you can t win at gambling?

I ll let you decide.

Imagine risking every single dollar in your pocket on the turn of one card. I ve done that so many times, I don t even blink. Think about winning more than a million dollars on a horse race. I did that a few years ago. Imagine gambling for $100,000 on a round of golf. I ve done that dozens of times. Imagine betting $20,000 a game, and betting the whole board until all your money runs out. I did that every single day even when I didn t have a place to live.

Now that s living.

STUEY THE KID UNGAR, Las Vegas legend, icon, addict and three-time World Series of Poker champion

From the Inside Flap

A well-written and well-researched study of the most naturally gifted and emotionally stunted card genius in the history of poker.
A. ALVAREZ, author of The Biggest Game in Town

I knew Stuey Ungar well and played with him many, many times. He was one of the most remarkable characters to ever sit down at a poker table. Reading The Man Behind the Shades not only brought him back to life for me, it vividly recreated a time and place that we ll likely never see again. For anyone interested in understanding and unraveling the legend of poker s most creative thinker and tortured soul, this is the real deal!
DOYLE BRUNSON, two-time world poker champion and author of the legendary bestseller Doyle Brunson s SuperSystem: A Course in Power Poker

Even though Stuey Ungar was perhaps the greatest poker player ever to live, his talent at card playing wasn t close to being his most compelling characteristic. Stuey was a little bit of a gangster, genius, madman, tragic hero and cardsharp. Add it all up, as Dalla and Alson have done in captivating style, and you get one of the most unusual characters to ever appear on the Vegas scene.
ANDY BELLIN, author of Poker Nation

Reader beware the seductive blue flame. To illuminate the triumphant yet scorchingly hideous forty-five years Stuey Ungar spent among us, Dalla and Alson have produced an acetylene torch of a book. There was no other way to write a story like this. The Man Behind the Shades is a lesson in no-limit hold em as well as a terrifying pleasure.
JAMES MCMANUS, author of Positively Fifth Street

If you want an "education" in the old time gambling underworld, you can t do better than The Man Behind the Shades. Although you d never want to live it, Ungar s life, as drawn by Dalla and Alson, is riveting, haunting and compelling. Ungar s legacy of genius, destroyed by indulgence, would seem absurd as fiction; as truth it is a gripping epic tragedy.
BRIAN KOPPELMAN and DAVID LEVIEN, screenwriters of Rounders and Runaway Jury

Edition details

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297849034
• ISBN 13: 9780297849032
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320