In the end, there was redemption for Stu “The Kid” Ungar.

One of the greatest card players who ever lived, Ungar earned a fortune and spent it all on drugs and other life-shortening pursuits. But he saved his best for last.

Ungar was born in 1953 with a photographic memory. At the age of 10, he won his first gin rummy tournament, and four years later was already considered one of the best in New York.

Ungar always thought he was better at gin rummy than poker, but it would be the latter game that carried Ungar to the top when he moved to Las Vegas in 1976.

Ungar earned his moniker “The Kid” by winning the World Series of Poker main event in 1980 and 1981. He could count all the way into a six-deck shoe.

The sky was the limit for Ungar. But it wasn’t enough.

Ungar gambled at several sports and spent money faster than he earned it. Cocaine use followed, an addiction so gripping that Ungar was left a physical shell of his former self.

By 1997, Ungar was deep in debt and on his last legs. But his friend and fellow player Billy Baxter spotted him the $10,000 buy-in for the World Series of Poker.

Sure enough, Ungar won the tournament and split the $1-million prize money with Baxter.

He dedicated the victory to his daughter Stefanie, having kept her photo in his wallet. Ungar would later say that he was clinging to life in order to see Stefanie grow up.

Ungar tried to enter the 1998 WSOP event, but said he felt tired and decided not to compete.

Seven months later, he was found dead in a Las Vegas hotel room.

Ungar was 45. He was enshrined in the Poker Hall of Fame in 2001.