Stu Ungar vs. Daniel Negreanu

Negreanu is great but don't think he could beat Ungar even if Ungar showed one of his whole cards....

yes, he did die as a result of his drug use. and no, i believe daniel was asked if he ever played stu and he laughingly said no.

if you want the real story behind stu ungar, just ask barry greenstien.

stu ungar was one of the most overated poker players to ever live. he was FAR more wreckless than gus hansen, and had no control over his gambling. daniel would crush him.

yes, slow cala is absolutly right, omg we're agreeing again! tha worlds gonna end!!! ahhhhh :P

Nah I dont think they ever played together and he didnt die so much of cocaine as a combination of all sorts of drugs (crack etc) and the toll they took on his body (didnt die of an overdose). He was genuinely the player I admired the most, the best loose aggressive player of all time to the extent that he won more wsop main event titles than anyone else considering moss won the first title by vote.

Nov 22nd, 1998 - Oasis Motel, 1731 S. Las Vegas Blvd - Stu Ungar found dead.
The Clark County Coroner's office on Monday ruled Ungar's death accidental based on the results of toxicology tests that came back from the lab Friday. A mixture of narcotics and pain killers triggered a heart condition that killed him. The drugs found in Ungar's system were cocaine, methadone and the pain-killer Percodan, Clark County Coroner Ron Flud said. No one drug by itself was enough to cause Ungar's death. "The cause is accidental death by coronary atherosclerosis". "The heart condition developed over a period of time. The attack was brought on by his life-style."

This is in regard to the commentators.........GABE! I cant stand Gabe already, and just saw a clip of Stu winning a bracelet (I think in 97) and Gabe is talking to him after and tells Stu how well he played, then asks him on camera how much weight he lost in the last year...????????? WTF

Stu Ungar was the best raw talent poker player of all time. That's not to say that he was the best player overall, just that the game came more easily to him than to anyone else. That he had no control over his gambling is certain (he would regularly win tons of money playing poker and blow it all on horses). The only thing Ungar was really missing was the ability to hustle weaker players. He wouldn't leave any doubt in your mind as to whether he might have gotten lucky, or you might have gotten unlucky. When you played against Ungar, you knew you were outclassed. Would he beat Negreanu? Probably. I don't even think that Negreanu is the best player around today. His reading ability is very good, but I don't think it's necessarily better than other top-level pros, just more vocal.

Try google.com

hi havoc99! stu died on heart failure, because of his long drug abuse. clashes from him and daniel on videos i couldnt find, but f.e. on youtube.com you can find some of them as they play against other gamblers.

yeah, thats for certain. i dont think daniels playing skills are the best. but his reading skills are. but again, stu was way overrated, just ask the pros that played with him. his style was new and outragious back then. now, you see many pros playing that way, most notably, gus hansen. thedifference is gus has more self control, believe it or not.

stu definitely DINDT OUT CLASS ANYONE!!! thats almost a joke. the guys chips were constantly on the move. what made him so scary is that he didnt care if he lost, which is a great winning attitude when playing poker. its very hard to outplay someone that doesnt take into account that they could lose. he fully expected to win every single time he played. the best poker players are the ones without fear. coincidentally, theyre also the ones that lose the most overall. ultimately, his lack of self preservation cost him his life.

read the wikipedia

"the best poker players are the ones without fear. coincidentally, theyre also the ones that lose the most overall."

Could you explain that one to me, please? How is someone who loses the most overall "the best"?

While he was alive, Stu outclassed just about everyone he played against. I agree that today's environment is very different, and he may have performed very differently were he alive today. But, then again, maybe not. He's not around to test the theory, unfortunately, and I think the game is worse off because of it.

If Stu Ungar was alive to benefit from the so-called poker boom and the explosion of large buy-in tournaments, there is no doubt in my mind that he would be the most successful tournament player alive.

Aggresive play didn't start on the Internet.

dont confuse a lack of fear of losing with a willingness to lose....he wanted to win every hand he ever played, he just wasnt scared to lose....thats why he lost so much!!! he was simply ahead of his time.

if, today, you ask those that played with him on a regular basis, they all say the same thing. as the game of poker has evolved, so have the strategies for playing it. there are a million stu ungars out there now, with that wreckless style. what made him so great was he was he only one doing it back then. throw in the VERY SMALL SIZE of the fields in which he won those main events, and you begin to get a true picture of him, not just this huge overblown myth thats floating around.

if you remove fear of losing from your game, then you can focus more on whats going on in front of you....

for example, ask yourself this: HAVE YOU EVER FOLDED WHAT YOU THOUGHT MAY HAVE BEEN THE BEST HAND BECAUSE YOU WERE AFRAID OF LOSING THE TOURNAMENT???

STU UNGAR NEVER DID. he simply took his read and went with it. that, coupled with his agressive style made him the dominant player of his era. but like i said, he lost every thing he ever one. when he died, he had NOTHING....LITERALLY, something like 800 bucks.

thats what i mean when i say playing without fear. if you can do it, its will make you a better more successful player, i promise.

*everything he ever won.

stu ungar was simply ahead of his time.

he didnt take some magical poker secret to his grave.

he wasnt a poker god.

he learned things about poker that noone else picked up on until recently.

but when i see people like the grinder mizrahi, phil ivey, joe hachem, negreanu, helmuth, lederer, and all the other dominant and extremely successful players, its hard to imagine that stu ungar could have had the same dominance in this era. especially considering there are so many people playing the same style he did.

i'm a massive stu ungar fan slowcal, he was very aggressive, and reckless, but to the point where people were so scared of him that they would fold. He was estimated to won over £30 million on the tables, he was by far the best gin player in the world, and could memorize six deck in black jack.....
Stu lost most of his money on sports betting and drugs, and millions on his generosity (he once gave 30k to a prostitute to make a point)

i dont think he was over rated in anyway, the same as i dont think Gus Hansen is over rated (he won the aussie millions for gods sake on top of every thing else.)

I would love to see negreanu have played Ungar, but as much as i admire Negreanu, i think stu would have beaten him by pure aggression

also, stu ungar almost NEVER PLAYED WITH WOMEN......it would be interesting to see how that would work out.

stu was the best. he could read people like no one else. it was said that he never lost a game of gin. i know thats not poker but for anyone that plays 10 card gin thats saying something. it is also said that after the first three cards hit the board he could tell what the other player had in his hand. and that kind of skill moves very well back in forth between the two card games. dan n. and stu would be a game i would love to see but we all know thats not possible LOL