Understanding Andy Bloch

I first met Andy Bloch on a personal level early in 2006. He and his friend Phil Gordon were meeting with me to talk about the new instructional video that they had combined to shoot and produce. Phil's tall frame and outgoing nature seemed to initially overshadow the more soft-spoken Bloch, but in just a few moments of conversation I could tell the extreme intelligence and pure kindness of this interesting man.

Bloch's path toward poker greatness is very much unique. A mathematical and intellectual prodigy, Andy graduated with 2 degrees from prestigious MIT in 1992. His mathematical mind was interested in the variety of games at the (at the time) brand new Foxwoods Casino.

Andy was playing the Foxwoods rather regularly, testing out his skills at poker and table games every couple of weekends. As casinos often do, the Foxwoods had a habit of introducing gimmicky table games in order to heighten interest and play. One such game was introduced in 1993, a game in the Caribbean-Stud type realm called "6 card poker." After studying the pay outs and play, Andy developed a computer program to fully examine this new game. The computer program revealed some serious flaws in the pay out structure of the contest, which (if played correctly) could give the player as much as a 6% advantage! With this newfound knowledge, Andy sprung into action with a team of MIT classmates and friends. Some industry insiders say that the team took close to a million dollars down from this run, but Andy discounted these reports. "They had small caps on the max bets, and the table was closed down a lot. We wish we could have done more, but there was only so much we could do," Andy told me. Bloch guesses that they actually made around 100,000 from the game until the casino detected the problem with the odds and changed the rules.

The positive run on the "6 Card Poker" tables was his official entry into the famed MIT Blackjack team. Seeing the potential massive profits in blackjack and poker, Andy quit his monotonous engineering job in order to report to the casinos as his workplace. After completing the training for the blackjack team, he began hitting the casinos and counting cards. His blackjack profits poured in, allowing him to pay his way through Harvard Law School. With playing blackjack and studying for an advanced degree at Harvard taking up his time, poker was on Andy's backburner for a couple of years as he pretty much only played at the WSOP events. He passed the bar exam and became an official lawyer, but never found a job in law which held his attention or interest as much as poker and blackjack. Thus, Andy hit the poker tournament circuit and focused his attentions there. He and his MIT blackjack teammates had been blacklisted by nearly every casino on the globe due to the aptitude for counting cards and beating the house, so poker was his best gaming outlet. He scored two different 3rd place finishes in the first season of the WPT, cementing his place in poker and heightening his interest in the game as a profession.

Today, Andy is one of the most popular figures with fellow pro players on the tour. His likeability is unmatched. He is now a member of Team Full Tilt, an impressive collection of poker pros (i.e. Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, and more) which promote and play at FullTiltPoker.com. He's co-authored The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Poker Tells. Andy is active in promoting the game to be more player-friendly. He's ruffled feathers of the poker industry's elite by advocating for the players to have more fair player releases, pay outs, and more. He has had a hand in producing two of the most highly regarded poker websites in poker, andybloch.com and wptfan.com. Perhaps his most exciting new project is the aforementioned instructional DVD with Phil Gordon. To be released by Expert Insights, it is a video which walks the casual gambler through the exact principals that the MIT Blackjack team used to beat the house in "21." Andy told me, "This can be done very effectively by anyone at any level. We had several hundred thousand dollars in play, but regular people can do the same steps with a couple thousand dollars pooled together and make a nice profit."

Andy Bloch: Play Profile & Prediction

PLAY PROFILE: There might not be anyone in poker that understands the true math behind the game as accurately as Andy Bloch. There is no chance this guy will tilt at the table. You see, he sees percentages and knows the likelihood before each turn of the cards. His emotions are not tied into the equation at all. Instead, he plays a smart game and uses the percentages to his advantage. In addition to the mathematical aspects, Andy has grown to be quite accomplished in the psychology of the game. Being a co-author on a book of tells proves that many look to him as a source of information on the humanistic side of the game, as well. With much of the big-money poker being focused on Hold 'Em right now, Andy's attentions follow suit. Still, he is just as comfortable with the entire gambit of poker variants. In total, he is a master of the entire casino, not just one game.

PREDICTIONS: Andy has used his Harvard law degree only one time in his life: a self-defense when he was arrested during an anti-war protest. His insights into law could make his a valuable asset to poker pros in the future, though. His knowledge of law, his insights into poker, his technological savvy, and his universal trust & popularity with fellow pro players combine to make Andy a candidate to be one of the poker world's future leaders. If poker players are to unify to improve their negotiating positions with the flow of prize money, advertising dollars, and TV contracts associated with big-time poker, then Andy may emerge to be one of the main leaders in these efforts. Andy is also likely to be active in other poker outlets behind the scenes. I could imagine Andy being part of future lucrative website and advertising deals.

At the table, Andy's mathematical aptitudes make him a formidable opponent at all spreads of games and limits. As a mass of new poker players hit the tour thinking that sheer aggression is the key to winning, Andy is able to take emotionality out of the equation and instead factor game theory and advanced pot algorithms to help guide his game. With that in mind, I'd imagine that he'll be able to outlast the eager and emotional competitors to get to the cash spots of more major tournaments in the future. I doubt Andy will secure an entire armful of WSOP bracelets to compete with the legends of the game, but I do see him as a solid player that will be a consistent face at final tables in the upcoming years.

More Poker Player Profiles

♣ Andy Bloch ♣ Annie Duke ♣ Antonio Esfandiari ♣ Chris Ferguson ♣ Dan Harrington ♣ Daniel Negreanu ♣ Doyle Brunson ♣ Greg Raymer ♣ Gus Hansen ♣ Howard Lederer ♣ James Woods

♣ Jennifer Harman ♣ Johnny Chan ♣ Mark Seif ♣ Mike Matusow ♣ Phil Gordon ♣ Phil Hellmuth ♣ Phil Ivey ♣ Phil Laak ♣ Poker Hotties ♣ Sam Farha ♣ TJ Cloutier

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