Stu Ungar vs Phil Ivey

A Cross-Generational Comparison Of Poker’s Greatest Prodigies
BY KATIE LINDSAY

WHAT’S YOUR GOAL WHEN YOU ENTER a poker tournament? For some people, it’s just to have fun, no matter how long they last. For others, it’s to make it into the money. For others, it’s to reach the final table. But for the world’s best, it’s nothing short of winning it all. And for some, it goes beyond that. For a special few, the goal each tournament is to take another step toward being remembered as a legend.

It’s a lofty goal, and in the nearly 40 years that tournament poker has been a significant part of the game’s fabric, only a handful have achieved living-legend status. And fewer still have achieved it while in their youth.

In the early-’80s, Stu Ungar became a living legend, and the defining poker prodigy of his era, by winning back-to-back World Series of Poker Main Events while still in his twenties. Today, Phil Ivey, who won five World Series bracelets before turning 30 and now, at 31, ranks in the top 10 on the all-time tournament money list, is well on his way to becoming a living legend and the defining poker prodigy of his era.

Both Ungar and Ivey were blessed with extraordinary poker minds. There are many, many differences between them, but there are also quite a few similarities that may not be obvious on first glance. To further examine how the great prodigies of their times compare and contrast, ALL IN spoke with three of the poker players most qualified to assess them, veterans Mike Sexton, Erik Seidel, and Chip Reese (this is believed to have been the final interview with Reese, as he passed away just a week after speaking with us).

All three played against both Ungar and Ivey, and all three agree: It’s a shame Stuey died before Ivey hit the scene (Ungar died on November 22, 1998; Ivey’s first recorded tournament cash came in December ’98), because it would have been fascinating to watch them battle each other at the table.

Addicted To Action

The rush you get from winning a huge pot, the feeling of knowing you made a million dollars in a single day, understanding the true meaning of the word “action”—this is something both Ungar and Ivey have proven able to relate to throughout their lives and careers

“I think you can say that about many of the top players, they are action junkies,” Seidel explained. “Ultimately, it can be destructive if you can’t put the brakes on it. I think that Ivey is more successful at putting the brakes on when he needs to. Ivey loves action, but I think Stuey loved it more. I think Stuey was more addicted to the action.”

Sexton agreed with Seidel that Ungar had more passion for the action. “I would say ‘addicted to action’ is a very good description of both of them. I’m not sure Phil Ivey is as addicted as Stu Ungar was, but I don’t think anyone was. Certainly, Phil is an action guy; doing anything, he’s action-oriented. Whether he’s betting on a prize fight, whether he’s playing golf, whether he’s playing in the pit, whether he’s playing poker, it doesn’t matter, he definitely likes action, and big-time action.

“Both were very high stakes gamblers,” Sexton continued. “It doesn’t matter what it is, they have that natural desire to play high stakes at anything. They aren’t afraid to put it all on the line anytime they are doing anything. They are betting the limit at it, whatever the limit might be.”

Reese, considered by some the world’s top cash-game player prior to his untimely passing, agreed that both Ungar and Ivey have shown themselves to be action addicts. “If anything,” Reese said, “that is probably Phil’s biggest challenge going forward. He is very talented, he has a great work ethic, but he is an action addict as well.”

Card Sense & Sensibility
It takes countless different qualities to make a great poker player, including confidence, patience, and instinct, just to name a few. There is something more that both Ungar and Ivey developed, though. There is something more that really pushed them to the next level. And that something could be called “card sense.”
“I don’t think anybody has a better card sense in terms of picking up a new game faster than Stu Ungar,” said Sexton, a good friend of Ungar’s.

“If you had a game, regardless of whether it was a card game or not, that you had been playing a long time, and you talked to him about it for five to 10 minutes, he would understand the game better than you. Phil Ivey has a mentality more for cards than other games, but there is no doubt that he catches on very quickly. Phil focuses at poker as well as anybody in the game. I think he has the best eyes in poker and he doesn’t miss a trick whether it’s on his left or his right.

Certainly, focus is a key to learning in poker, and Phil does it by not talking at the table. He focuses on the game, and certainly that is a big plus for him. I think he focuses a little more than Stuey, but I think Stuey catches on quicker than Phil. Phil has to think more about his plays at the table, but invariably 99 percent of the time he is making the right play.”

“I think Stuey had an amazing ability to sense weakness,” Reese explained. “He played a lot of hands and he intimidated a lot of players and he had a table presence about him where he got good players to play bad hands against him. He got good players to play out of their game and out of their element. He had an amazing ability to sense weakness in his opponent when he could take the pot away from them. I think Phil and Stuey have some similar styles.

They’re both aggressive players, they both play a lot of hands; they play more than the average amount of hands. Both of them aren’t afraid to bluff. I think Stuey had displayed talents in No-Limit Hold ’Em that I really haven’t seen anyone display before. What Stuey had was a lot of pure talent, maybe more than anybody. Stuey was very good at doing creative, bizarre things in bizarre situations.”

“Stuey was very good at reading people and he had incredible card sense, obviously, because he was the best gin player ever,” Seidel contributed. “I think Ivey is very similar. I think he is very good at analyzing the psychology, he thinks extremely well at the table, but I think he has a very different presence than Stuey did at the table. I think that Ivey’s presence is a very stable and focused presence, where Stuey had the focus but

I don’t think had the same table stability that Ivey has. I think that with Stuey, when he’s on, he is going to put you to the test repeatedly. Ivey will do the same, but I think Stuey is going to be playing more hands. I think that Ivey is very capable of slowing down when the conditions are right for that—he can play very fast and he can play very slow.

“I think Stuey was really an active player,” Seidel continued, “but I don’t know if he had as many gears as Ivey. I think that Stuey had a very restless personality. I think Stuey needed the stimulation more than Ivey does. He needed the constant stimulation of being in hands and making decisions, where I think that Ivey has more patience.”

Name Your Game
As Seidel noted in the previous section, Ungar was as good at gin as he was at poker, if not better. For Ivey, his non-poker game of choice is golf, a skill competition in which he’s improved dramatically in a short period of time. One thing is for sure: Whatever the game, Ungar and Ivey have both shown themselves to be competitive to the end.

“Stuey was an idiot savant,” said Reese. “When it comes to picking up a game and getting quick insights into games, Stuey was really good at that. With Phil, it’s about his work ethic, he’s a winner. Phil likes to be good at things and he likes to win, and that has to do with his character. If he is going to do something, he wants to do it well. It’s one thing to want to do something well, it’s another thing to have the ability to do something well, and it’s a third thing to be able to commit and put the work ethic in to doing something well. Phil does all three things.”

“I think their success in different games says a lot about the focus that the two of them have when they want to do something,” Seidel concurred. “I think they get very devoted to it. Stuey had a great, great mind and came naturally to gin, but also worked really hard on it. He had done it from an early age. He had a very, very special gift. I don’t know if we are going to see another one like him again. I think a lot of it has to do with their focus and their will. They are both very, very competitive people and they will both sit there and play and play and play until they learn. Ivey is so dedicated to golf and he has really gotten so much better than many people thought he could. He started off really bad, but he’s out there playing every day.”

Competitiveness is key in Sexton’s opinion.

“They are both very, very competitive. Both of them becoming great at their games, it says a lot about their desire, fortitude, and competitiveness more than anything. When Phil Ivey couldn’t shoot 100 on the golf course, which wasn’t that long ago, he bet $100,000 that he was going to shoot even par from the back tees at TPC Summerlin, where they play the pro golf tour in Las Vegas. He said he was going to do it in 10 years’ time, and that’s incredible for a guy that can’t shoot 100 on a golf course to make a bet like that. Honestly, I want to bet with Phil because I think he is going to do it. He has a talent for the game because he works at it so hard and he’s going to become very, very good at golf. He caught on quickly on what it took to win money at golf.”

Who’s Driving?
Everyone has their own motivations for being successful. Some people are driven to win poker tournaments because of the glory, others because of the money. What was it though that really drove Stu Ungar and Phil Ivey to win? What pushed them past everyone else and made them dominating forces?

“I think Stuey was a very competitive person. I think it was what he loved to do and he loved the action. He took to it like a fish to water,” Seidel said. “He was just a great gin player and saw that people were making money playing poker, so he started playing poker. Right out of the box, he won the world championship not very long after he just learned the game. It wasn’t like he had a bunch of experience before that. Then he came back and won it the second year. He was special in a way that I would really be surprised if we see someone else like him.

The gift that he had really was incredible. As far as Ivey, I think he is a super-competitive person as well. I think he likes to compete and I think that he likes the personal challenge. Plus, he is really, really brilliant. I don’t know that people recognize how smart he is. He’s great at every poker game, and he just can’t be as good at all those different games without having a really amazing mind, which he does.”

“I think Phil is about as competitive of a guy that you are going to see,” Sexton agreed. “On the golf course, on the poker table, he is all business, he is dedicated to his craft. Certainly, when it comes to playing all games, like Seven-Card Stud for example, you have to put Phil Ivey at the top of the list in the world as being one of the greatest players in that game. In No-Limit Hold ’Em, certainly he’s one of the greatest players.

The great thing about him is that he is extremely successful at both tournament play and cash play, and there are very few players in the world that you can say that about—and that includes Stu Ungar. Stu succeeded far more in the tournaments because he knew that if he lost that bankroll and lost that money that was in front of him, he was out of action. Stuey was an action guy. Just being in action was all he cared about, really.”

Reese echoed Sexton’s sentiments. “Stuey just loved the action. No-Limit Hold ’Em, it was just a game that he had a knack for that when things went right for him and he got a lot of chips, he was just a real tough player. I think Phil likes the action, but Phil has a desire to succeed. Stuey didn’t really have that ambition to succeed or to be the best. He was very talented and he wanted to be the best, but he wasn’t willing to work to be the best. Phil is willing to work hard for something that he wants.”

Different … But The Same?

It takes a lot to be considered a legend. In Sexton’s opinion, it takes standing the test of time and being successful at the highest levels for over a decade. Reese said, “You have to be in there doing battle for a long period of time.” By those standards, Ivey may not qualify yet.

But it’s interesting to ask anyway, is Phil Ivey this generation’s Stu Ungar?

“I would say Phil Ivey is about as close to Stuey that you are going to find in terms of playing cards,” said Sexton. “Certainly, he has the gambling instincts that Stuey had, he likes to gamble high. Hopefully, a guy like Phil will be smart enough not to make the same mistakes that Stu Ungar made and follow the path of so many of the other guys that had money and ended up broke. Phil has a good head on his shoulders and I am sure he is going to be fine.”

“I think that people will talk about Phil as one of the greatest,” Seidel said. “This is a time where the fields in poker are wide open, anyone in the world can play, there are millions and millions of people all over the world, and of all those millions of people, it is thought that Phil could very well be the best, and I personally believe he is. I think that if you ask all of the top players, he would be the consensus choice at this point. He will be recognized that way forever. There are a lot of people that try to create the image of being a great player or one of the great players and many of them successfully do that, but he is so much better than all of them. I think that when you look at the players in the Big Game, he is the guy that consistently has made money over a long period of time. I don’t think you will find too many people disputing how well he plays.”

Seidel paused for a moment. He thought about how to put the talent of Ungar and Ivey in perspective and concluded, “If you are around either one of them or playing with either one of them, you can’t help but be struck by their specialness and their uniqueness. These are two very special minds, but also two unique and different people.

UNGAR vs. IVEY: BY THE NUMBERS —— Stu Ungar/Phil Ivey
Length (in years) of tournament career —- 17/9
World Series of Poker bracelets ———–5/5
Main Event bracelets ——————-3/0
Total tournament earnings ————-$3,318,796 / $7,889,408
Total tournament wins —————–11/15
Total WSOP cashes ——————- 13/26