Andy Bloch Poker
Andy Bloch was part of the longest heads-up match in the history of the World Series of Poker. His battle against the eventual champion of the inaugural $50,000 buy-in. Professional poker player with over $4 million in career earnings.
Andy “The Rock” Bloch must really enjoy going to alumni reunions: with two Electrical Engineering Degrees from MIT and a JD from Harvard Law School, he has managed to make a fortune of over $3,700,000 playing poker for a living. He must be quite the hero among his white-collar former classmates.
Bloch grew up “with a deck of cards in his crib”, but he did not take poker seriously until he graduated from MIT. During his MIT years he was a member of the MIT Blackjack Club “The Amphibians,” where he has said he made as much as $100,000 in one blackjack session. As his skills grew, he increasingly used poker and blackjack to earn money between jobs and even to finance his Harvard Law Studies. Poker started to take priority over his law studies, and he missed part of the last week of classes in 1997 and 1998 to play the WSOP. After passing the bar he decided to delay his legal career to go into poker full-time, and he remains to this day a dedicated and successful player.
Andy Bloch Poker
A true Renaissance man, Bloch has succeeded in the world of poker with several WSOP money finishes, including 2nd place finishes in both the legendary $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament in 2006 and the 2008 Pot Limit Hold’em World Championship. Besides poker, he remains an outstanding blackjack player and he also won the 2003 Roshambo (Rock-Paper-Scissors) World Championship. Bloch is a member of Team Full Tilt, and he has also authored a book and a DVD – an inspiring and little known fact is that Bloch donates 100% of his Full Tilt winnings to charities around the world. Ever the lawyer, he filed a successful complaint against the WPT regarding their unfair release forms.
Lawyer, engineer, poker player and even occasional poet – there is a section of original poetry in his website – Andy Bloch has probably still got a few more aces up his sleeve, and although he is rumored to be on the lookout for a law-related job, it does not seem very likely that he will make that career change soon.
Andy Bloch specializes in game analysis, and is mostly interested in the mathematical and psychological aspect of poker. A perennial student, forever learning, he is known as a formidable player at the tables. He is also recognized as an active participant in online poker communities.
In 1992, Andy Bloch won one of the World Poker Finals events, a $100 No-Limit Texas Hold'Em tournament. It was his first time playing no-limit Texas Hold'em. Later, he made two final tables at the WSOP in 2001, won first place at the Seven-Card Stud Event at Foxwoods in 2002, and made two World Poker Tour (WPT) final tables the first season, finishing 3rd both times. He is also the second season winner of the Ultimate Poker Challenge's $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em tournament.
Bloch grew up in Orange, a small suburb of New Haven, Connecticut. He started playing poker seriously in 1992, the same year he got his two electrical engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1993 he had an argument with an employer and was fired. He told his parents jokingly that if he couldn't make it as an engineer, he could always go into poker. As a matter of fact, poker stayed high on his list of interests.
He proceeded to get his JD from Harvard Law School. He skipped the last week of law school classes so he could play in the 1997 WSOP Main Event. Tom Sims was looking for a volunteer to 'sweat' and record all his hole cards in a low-tech hole card cam trial, and Bloch presented himself. His records were made into a 2-part article in the prestigious Card Player Magazine.
Andy Bloch Poker
He passed the bar exam in 1999. But he decided to delay his law career and pursued poker professionally instead. This career was further delayed when he realized his poker career was picking up. He stayed an activist at heart. In 2003, he was arrested at an anti-war protest in front of the White House. He defended himself as a licensed lawyer.
In the journal portion of his official website, Andy Bloch has announced that he has chosen to boycott the World Poker Tour (WPT) until the tournament body has decided to change the way the players' names and identities are being used. When he has the time, he also runs a vastly popular unofficial World Poker Tour Fan Site. He also plays in Fulltiltpoker.com as part of Team Full Tilt.