Andrew Elliot Bloch
(born June 1, 1969) is a professional
poker
Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
player. He holds two
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
degrees from
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
and a
JD from
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
.
Blackjack
While studying at MIT, Bloch became part of the
MIT blackjack team
The MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and other leading colleges; they used card counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at bla ...
, featured in the book ''
Bringing Down the House''. Bloch said he has made up to $100,000 in one session while playing
blackjack
Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...
. He was one of the members of the team to play in
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...
as detailed in
Ben Mezrich
Ben Mezrich ( ; born February 7, 1969) is an American author.
He has written well-known non-fiction books, including '' The Accidental Billionaires'' and '' The Antisocial Network'', which have been turned into the films ''The Social Network'' ...
's ''
Busting Vegas''.
Bloch was featured in the blackjack documentary ''
The Hot Shoe'', as well as starring in his own instructional blackjack DVD, ''Beating Blackjack'', which explains
card counting
Card counting is a blackjack betting strategy, strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low valued c ...
.
Poker career
Bloch started playing poker seriously in 1992, entering some small $35 weekly tournaments once a month. By the end of the year, he had won one of the World Poker Finals tournaments in Mashantucket, a $100 entry fee no-limit
Texas hold'em
Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is the most popular variant of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt face up in ...
tournament.
In
1997
Events January
* January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States.
* January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis.
* January 1 ...
, Bloch skipped the last week of law school classes to play in the
World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada, and since 2004, sponsored by Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best ...
(WSOP) Main Event. He was the guinea pig in a low-tech hole card cam trial. Tom Sims was looking for a volunteer to "sweat" and record all his hole cards, and Bloch agreed. His records turned into a two-part
CardPlayer Magazine article. After passing the
bar exam
A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction.
Australia
Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associat ...
in 1999, Bloch decided to delay his law career and went back to playing poker.
His law career got delayed even further after making two WSOP final tables in
2001
The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...
, a first-place finish back at
Foxwoods
Foxwoods Resort Casino is an integrated resort owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their Indian reservation, reservation located in Ledyard, Connecticut. Including six casinos, the resort covers an area of . The casino ...
in 2002 (playing
seven-card stud
Seven-card stud, also known as Seven-Toed Pete or Down-The-River, is a variant of stud poker. Before the 2000s surge of popularity of Texas hold 'em, seven-card stud was one of the most widely played poker variants in home games across the Unite ...
), and two
World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the ...
(WPT) final tables during its
first season, finishing third both times. In 2005, Bloch chose to
boycott
A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...
the WPT in protest of its player release process. Bloch returned to the WPT after a lawsuit initiated by seven high-profile poker players, including
Chris Ferguson
Christopher Philip Ferguson (born April 11, 1963) is an American professional poker player. He has won six World Series of Poker events, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event, and the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Ferguson is ...
and
Phil Gordon, was settled in 2008.
Bloch was the
second season winner of the
Ultimate Poker Challenge.
He was a member of "Team Full Tilt" at
Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group (then known as Amaya ...
prior to the site closing down.
At the
2006 World Series of Poker
The 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) began on June 25, 2006, with satellite events, with regular play commencing on June 26 with the annual Casino Employee event and the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, Tournament of Champions held ...
, Bloch finished second in the $50,000
H.O.R.S.E. event against
David "Chip" Reese. The heads-up battle lasted 286 hands and was the longest recorded in WSOP history.
In 2006, he defeated
Phil Laak
Philip Courtney Laak (born September 8, 1972) is an Irish-American professional poker player and a poker commentator, now residing in Los Angeles, California. Laak holds a World Poker Tour (WPT) title, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, and ...
heads up to win the
Pro-Am Poker Equalizer, taking the grand prize of $500,000. The tournament was broadcast in early 2007 on
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
.
In March 2008, Bloch finished runner-up to
Chris Ferguson
Christopher Philip Ferguson (born April 11, 1963) is an American professional poker player. He has won six World Series of Poker events, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event, and the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Ferguson is ...
in the NBC
National Heads-Up Poker Championship
The National Heads-Up Poker Championship was an annual poker tournament held in the United States and produced by the NBC television network. It is a $25,000 "buy-in" invitation-only tournament organized as a series of heads up poker, one-on-one ...
. He would defeat Ferguson later that year in Season 5 of ''
Poker After Dark''.
Bloch finished runner-up to
Nenad Medić in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em World Championship at the
2008 World Series of Poker
The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Held in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series began on May 30, 2008, and featured 55 poker championships in List of poker variants, s ...
, earning $488,048. He finished in 3rd in the 2012 WSOP
Poker Players Championship for $561,738.
As of 2023, his total live tournament winnings exceed $5,300,000. His 24 cashes at the WSOP account for $2,149,821 of those winnings.
Bloch won his first
WSOP bracelet
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet is considered the most coveted non-monetary prize a poker player can win. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP. Even if the victory occurred before 1976 ...
on June 2, 2012, in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud event. The event started with 367 players and ended with a final table that included
David Williams and
Barry Greenstein. He defeated Greenstein in heads-up play to win the bracelet and $126,363.
World Series of Poker bracelet
Charities
Bloch donated 100% of his winnings on Full Tilt Poker to various charities around the world. After qualifying for the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event via a tournament on the website, Bloch decided that any money he won in the event would go directly to charity. He is also contributing $100,000 of his winnings from the Pro-Am Equalizer to charities working in
Darfur
Darfur ( ; ) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju () while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë , and it was renamed Dartunjur () when the Tunjur ruled the area. ...
.
References
External links
Official siteHoboTrashcan.com interviewCard Player profileHendon Mob profileWPT profileWSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloch, Andy
1969 births
American poker players
World Series of Poker bracelet winners
American blackjack players
Living people
MIT School of Engineering alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
Poker After Dark tournament winners