Edmond Hoyle (1672 - August 29, 1769), also known as Edmund Hoyle, is a writer best known for his works on the rules and play of card games. The phrase "according to Hoyle" came into the language as a reflection of his generally-perceived authority on the subject; since that time, use of the phrase has expanded into general use in situations in which a speaker wishes to indicate an appeal to a putative authority.
Little is known about most of Hoyle's life, though he is widely believed to have been trained to become a barrister. In 1741, Hoyle began working as a whist tutor to members of high society. Along with personal instruction, he sold a short booklet on the game to his clients, describing his basic approaches to the game. The booklet became quite popular, and unauthorized copies of it were circulated about London. To prevent t |
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| his, Hoyle published A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist in 1742, copyrighting his work.
Because of his success, Hoyle followed with similar treatises on backgammon, chess, quadrille, piquet, and brag. In 1750, a compendium of these was published, as Mr. Hoyle's Games Complete, and over time it pushed off the market Charles Cotton's aging The Compleat Gamester, which had been considered the "standard" English-language reference work on the playing of games – especially gambling games – since its publication in 1674.
The first fifteen editions of Hoyle's works are now extremely rare and mostly owned by collectors. A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist was regarded as authoritative until 1864, after which time it was superseded by the new rules written by John Loraine Baldwin and adopted by the Arlington and Portland clubs.
Many modern card game rule books contain the word "Hoyle" in the title, but the moniker does not mean that the works are derivative of Hoyle's. Because of his contributions to gaming, he was a charter inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979.
In its heyday a large amount of literature about how to play Whist was written. Edmond Hoyle, of "according to Hoyle" fame, wrote an early popular and definitive textbook. By the late 19th century an elaborate and rigid set of rules detailing the laws of the game, its etiquette and the techniques of play had been developed that took a large amount of study to master. In the early 20th century, Bridge, which shares many traits with Whist, displaced it as the most popular card game amongst many card players. Nevertheless, Whist continues to be played in Britain, often in local tournaments called "whist drives".
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