Bobby ''"The Wizard"'' Hoff (December 14, 1939 – August 25, 2013) was an American 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, based in

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. According to Hoff, his nickname "The Wizard" refers to his ability to make mountains of chips disappear.

Early years

Hoff was born in 1939 in Victoria,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. In 1958, Hoff studied at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

on an

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

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, where he frequently played

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from a scratch handicap. Hoff learned poker in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

three years after graduating. He worked as a

poker dealer A poker dealer distributes cards to players and manages the action at a poker table. Professional dealers Any casino with a poker room must hire a staff of dealers. Casinos generally pay dealers minimum wage. However, a dealer's primary source ...

and played regularly during his off time. He took up

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 ...

after reading the book ''Beat the Dealer'' by

Edward O. Thorp Edward Oakley Thorp (born August 14, 1932) is an American mathematics professor, author, hedge fund manager, and blackjack researcher. He pioneered the modern applications of probability theory, including the harnessing of very small correlatio ...

and became a skilled player; however, he often got drunk and lost his winnings.CardPlayer.com interview
February 27, 2008 He joined a blackjack team and played regularly for five years. Eventually he was banned from the majority of blackjack tables in Las Vegas, forcing him to return to poker. Hoff became friends with Sailor Roberts, who staked much of his poker action.

World Series of Poker

In the 1979 World Series of Poker (WSOP) $10,000 no limit

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 card poker, community cards ...

main event, Hoff came back from a chip count of $1,730 early on the first day to $225,700 early in the final table's action. He eliminated Johnny Moss in 5th place when his outdrew when the came on the

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

. Hoff reached the heads-up stage of the tournament, facing amateur Hal Fowler, whom he had eliminated from the same event in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

. In the final hand, Hoff's were outdrawn by Fowler's on a board of . The heads-up match lasted over 10 hours, and was considered the original

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match of the WSOP, as Hoff was the favorite to win. This led to increased attendance in future WSOP main events, as people realized that anyone could win. Hoff went on to have

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s about the heads-up match for several weeks afterwards. During this time, Hoff accused Fowler of consuming either

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throughout the heads-up match. Hoff's cocaine habit grew, as he began to inject it rather than snort it. The 2006 WSOP main event winner Jamie Gold described Hoff as "maybe the best player in the world."

Later poker career

Hoff finished in the money of the $10,000 WSOP main event three times in his career,

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

(13th of 194),

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

(25th of 231), and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

(12th of 350). He also appeared in Poker Superstars II, finishing second in two heats (both times to

Ted Forrest Ted Forrest (born September 24, 1964) is an American professional poker player, currently residing in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tournament wins In 1992, Forrest won two tournaments at the LA Poker Classic and one at the World Poker Finals in Mashant ...

). He had numerous other final table finishes and cashes at live tournaments, where his total winnings exceeded $530,000. His alias on UltimateBet was "DaWiz". Hoff described

Bobby Baldwin Bobby Baldwin (born c. 1950)MGM Mirage's 2006 proxy statement, filed on April 30, 2006, recorded Baldwin's age as 55 is a professional poker player and casino executive. As a poker player, Baldwin is best known as the winner of the 1978 World S ...

as the best poker player he ever saw.

Health problems

In December 2010, Hoff suffered a stroke which led to his hospitalization in Houston, Texas, in a stable condition. He recovered and returned to play in California. Hoff died on August 25, 2013, at the age of 73.

References

External links

Legends of Poker: Bobby "The Wizard" Hoff
PokerNews.com article, July 12, 2005
Card Player profile

Hendon Mob profileWPT profileWSOP profile

Deuce Plays Episode 72: Bart Hanson interviews Bobby Hoff
DeucesCracked.com (MP3 format), May 25, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoff, Bobby 1939 births 2013 deaths American blackjack players American poker players University of Texas at Austin alumni People from Victoria, Texas People from Long Beach, California