What would you do? If you earned an engineering degree from a respected university like MIT and a law degree from Harvard University, the most likely answer to this question is to land a high-profile job as a top boss at a multinational company. But, if you are Andy Bloch, you would certainly become a professional poker player.
Andy Bloch is one of the most notable players in the poker industry, he has survived in this game of poker for quite some time. This poker player’s accomplishment includes several tournaments, where he reached the final tables, and a victory at last year’s WSOP Circuit event. This incredible personality is an enigma in the poker world, here is an insight into the life of this incredible man. Andy Bloch grew up playing cards with friends and family, it can easily be said that he was inclined to win poker from a very young age. When he was completing his education at MIT he used to play poker with his friends, but it wasn’t until 1992 that he seriously considered taking up poker as a profession.
1992 was the year he graduated from MIT with two electrical engineering degrees, at first he used to gamble regularly at the newly opened Foxwood Casino. At first he used to play the weekly $35 tournaments at FoxWoods, he even restricted his poker habit to once a month. In 1993, he was introduced to the MIT Blackjack team, which developed some software and a strategy that gave the player a substantial advantage of around six percent over the casino. The MIT Blackjack team trained some students from this engineering school who began to beat the casino frequently.
Shortly after enrolling in the prestigious Harvard Law School, he kept paying his tuition playing Blackjack and kept investing lots of money in the MIT Blackjack team at the same time. In 1997, Andy skipped LAW school classes to participate in the WSOP and was a guinea pig in the low-tech hidden camera test. He soon passed the bar exam (1999) and decided to return to the poker arena to try his luck.
He got two second places in 2005; he also won the WSOP Circuit Limit Hold’em tournament in the year at the Rio in Las Vegas, he won the Ultimate Poker Challenge $10,000 final event in the same year. This incredible poker player is also nicknamed Rock by his opponents, due to his nerves of steel.
The great Andy Bloch also donates a substantial amount of his profits to charities around the world. In fact, he has decided to donate $100,000 of his Pro Am Equalizer winnings to charities working in Darfur. Andy Bloch is considered one of the most charismatic and skilled poker players in poker circles, and the man definitely lives up to his name with countless winnings to his name.