One of a Kind

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

De: Nolan Dalla, Peter Alson

Narrado por: Joe Barrett

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.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"[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.

Great story of a legend - Depressing - Facinating

Would you consider the audio edition of One of a Kind to be better than the print version?

I haven't read the print version so I can not compare the 2.

What other book might you compare One of a Kind to and why?

I can't think of any right off hand,. Maybe the store of Howard Hughes

What aspect of Joe Barrett’s performance would you have changed?

Nothing

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The best card player who ever lived and how little we know about who he was.

Any additional comments?

Would have liked to see some specific details into some big hands played so that they could be dissected and discussed.

Really enjoyed this listen

Stu Unger was someone I was aware of growing up. Mostly due to the online poker boom. With the rapidly expanding legalization of sports gambling, I've been interested in content around Vegas and gaming.

Whether or not you want to learn more about Unger, this is a really well researched and thoughtfully explained light read on gambling. I learned a lot about blackjack edge history and other stuff.

Finally, Joe Barrett (narrator) seems to have made a niche with gambling narratives/ bios. The only reason I found this title is due to my listening to Titanic Thompson, also narrated by Barrett. Barrett's masterful narration of Babylon Babies by Dantec made me a fan of his performances for life.

Nice one

Great book, better than I expected. Interesting story, makes you wanna listen more and more. RIP Stu.

Worth your time

Just a mind boggling case study in addiction. During the second half it almost gets old since you know the minute he hits a big win, he is going to lose it all at sports and horses. The voices are almost comical. Especially whenever the narrator quotes a woman. I literally laughed out loud when he got to Stephanie’s teenage voice. Billy Baxter’s accent is laughable but in a good way. Overall I highly recommend