High Roller - The Stu Unger Story

Micheal Imperioli

Click Here to find out how to get this DVD for Free

Reviewer:  Morder1

High Roller - The Stu Unger Story begins in the mid 1960's and is about a very smart kid who can outsmart bullies, and even the grown ups. "Stu the Kid" starts playing cards as a young kid with an amazing talent. Through his dads business dealings, he meets a gangster "Vincent" who takes Stu under his wing after noticing Stu's knack for reading people and fronts him in some big games which leaves both of their pockets padded. Because none of the fish ever saw him coming he would have thousands of dollars in his pockets while other kids his age would be lucky to have 2 dollars. When he had his bar mitzvah, he was given 3 grand by all the family and friends and he ended up blowing it all at the horse track. His dad became abusive with him and forbid him from playing cards. When his dad died, Vincent steps in and helps out Stu and his mother, but Stu is forced to quit school.

Besides playing cards he develops an addiction to horse racing and sports gambling which leaves him in debt for 100 grand and he keeps letting the debt go. During the time, he makes a huge sidebet with a guy "Leo" playing a game of gin saying he can call out every single card that Leo is holding. Stu names every card/suit with one more card to go, and Leo offers to pay half the bet right there, but Stu's ambition and huge ego won’t let him take the offer. Unger puts the guy on a 7 but not sure if it is spades or diamonds, so he guesses the right card, but the wrong suit and looses the entire bet. After other bad dealings and failed attempts at making money, he is finally forced to pay his debt by entering a gin tournament with a 100 grand first prize in which he must win to stay alive. While he goes to the tournament in Las Vegas, his girlfriend burns all of his stuff.

After he won the tourney and paid his debt, he stayed in Vegas and played the Texas Hold’em tables. He quickly learned how to take down all the fish and he even hustles a guy for 60 grand in golf. He eventually gets back with his girlfriend, but continued to bet sports and cheat on her. She finally leaves him and takes their daughter with her.

At the age of 25 he won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in back to back years, winning in both 1980 and 1981 (which is tied for the record), and also once more in 1997! So he won 3 Main event bracelets which is a record that still has not been beat in these times. He died in 1998 from years of cocaine and alcohol abuse.

All in all this movie is a must see for all poker players, you can watch it again and again and pick up new stuff every time. Highly recommended.

Reviewer:  sfairgieve  -  The Tragedy of Brilliance Wasted

The movie covers the life of poker great Stu “The Kid” Ungar. The movie begins when Stu is just shy of 13 years old. Even at this young age Stu is already a very good knock gin player. His genius at cards is showcased early in the film when he easily beats a much older man in a gin game in the dining room of the resort where he and his family are staying.

As quickly as the movie is to show his genius, it is also very quick to show his many weaknesses. Stu is not content to stick with what he is good at, his need for action leads him to lose all his bar mitzvah money betting on horse racing.

Not long after this incident his father passes away and he is left with a Mafia boss named Vincent as a father figure. It is clear that Vincent does truly care for Stuey, but he is not hesitant to take advantage of Stuey’s gift at cards.

At this point the movie flashes forward several years to a 19 year-old Gin playing Stu Ungar. Stu is a brilliant gin player bringing in thousands of dollars a sit to the crime family that was staking him. But as much as he was winning at Gin, he was losing even much more betting on horses. Because of his other gambling debts, Vincent was forced to send Stuey away to Vegas to play in a high stakes Gin tournament. After winning the Gin tournament Stuey decides to stay in Vegas.

The story now fast forwards to 1980, where Stu is now playing NL Texas Holdem. The movie briefly covers his WSOP Main Event wins in 1980 and 1981, as well as the death of his father figure Vincent. At this point in the story leads into the marriage of Stu and his former girlfriend from his New York days.

Fast forward a few years and we see that Stu’s excesses (sports betting, horse races, drugs and prostitutes) are starting to catch up with him when his wife leaves him. Not much of the intervening years from the mid 80’s to his 1997 WSOP Main Event win is covered in the movie but it is alluded to in short clips. His life during this time is one of true excess. Whatever he wins at poker, he loses right back to drugs and other forms of gambling. At times he is no more than a bum on the street.

In 1997, with the help of his friend, Stu starts to get things back together and cleans up his act in time to play in the WSOP Main Event. And when A4 beats A8 Stu Ungar wins the 1997 WSOP Main Event displaying the picture of his daughter to the onlookers.

The story is presented as a dialogue between Stu Ungar and an unknown man in a Las Vegas Hotel room who questions Stu about his life.

Though the movie does take various liberties with certain parts of the timeline of Stu’s life (he actually went to Florida when fleeing New York and didn’t arrive in Vegas till several years later, he was divorced in 1986, where as the film has him signing the divorce papers in 1997) it does deliver the tragic story of a genius tormented that could likely have been the life Stu lead.

Reviewer:  jelty 

The truth comes out in this gripping story that takes place the last few hours of Stu Unger’s life (through a series of flashbacks while Stu talks to a mystery man in his hotel room). This story chronicles the rise of Stu through the various games that he played (including his famous Gin Rummy matchup which he lost a huge potential profit by gambling and attempting to guess his opponents exact hole cards – which he was off by one suit on the last card). The story goes on to explain how Stu makes it to Vegas (in order to try to strike it rich and pay off gambling debts he has accumulated in his hometown) and gets recognized by some huge names while there. Stu doesn’t let the lights and glamour of the big city get to him initially as he goes on to win many events and have the ability to pay off his former bookie and finally become debt free. Stu goes on to marry the love of his life and have a wonderful child and we think he’s finally going to be living a good life. This is until the stress starts to get to him, Stu starts do drink and take drugs and it’s downhill from there. The drugs make him lazy and he doesn’t pay his bills on time, which leads to fights with the wife, which turns around and leads to him having various affairs that revolve around pure sexual passion, drugs and money. Stu’s life goes completely downhill and then the day that he dreaded the most comes true, he comes home to an empty house, his family had left him, and Stu finally realized what he had feared the most; all the time he was high or drunk or gambling he always had that family to go home to, until now. We see from there Stu does what he’s always gone to when there’s trouble, throwing money, and lots of it, onto a sporting event, gambling away his troubles. It is there that Stu realizes he needs to get his life turned around if he ever wants anything more than stress and pain out of his life. This involves him moving in with a mentor, someone who will keep him dry, drug free and sober. This former drug-addict himself, takes Stu in and loves him like a brother, setting rules and curfews and changing Stu’s life for the best. In one of the more gut-wrenching scenes of the whole movie, Stu is in the bathroom and has a ‘tit’ of cocaine. Stu struggles but finally he comes to his senses and puts it away and stays drug free. Stu’s life struggles back and forth for the rest of the movie gambling and finally re-uniting with his family for what is a sad scene of signing the divorce papers. Finally we flash back to the hotel room for one last time as Stu walks towards the light. The story ends and we see a little info on Stu’s life.

Discuss this DVD in the VPP Poker Forum.