Edmond Hoyle (167229 August 1769) was an English writer best known for his works on the rules and play of

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...

s. The phrase "according to Hoyle" (meaning "strictly according to the rules") 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.

Early life undocumented

Little is known about Hoyle's life; he is primarily known through his books. Much of what is written about him is untrue or exaggerated. The suggestion that he trained at the bar seems unfounded.

Treatise on whist

By 1741, Hoyle began to tutor members of

high society High society, sometimes simply society, is the behavior and lifestyle of people with the highest levels of wealth and social status. It includes their related affiliations, social events and practices. Upscale social clubs were open to men based ...

at the game of

whist Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play. History Whist is a descendant of the 16th-century game of ''trump'' ...

, selling his students a copy of his manuscript notes. Hoyle expanded the manuscript and published ''A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist'' in 1742, selling it for the high price of one

guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

. When the book quickly sold out, rather than publish a new edition, Hoyle sold the rights to ''Whist'' to bookseller Francis Cogan for 100

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from t ...

, an enormous sum for a small pamphlet. Before Cogan was able to publish a second edition, two printers pirated the work, giving the author as "A Gentleman" rather than Hoyle. The printers disguised their identities by publishing under false names, one as Webster, the other as Webb. Cogan published second and third editions of ''Whist'' and two months later, obtained an injunction against the pirates which he announced in a fourth edition (all 1743). To distinguish the genuine editions from the piracies, Cogan paid Hoyle

twopence The British twopence (2''d'') ( or ) coin was a denomination of sterling coinage worth two pennies or of a pound. It was a short-lived denomination in copper, being minted in only 1797 by Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint. These coins were made ...

per copy to autograph the genuine works. The piracies were profitable to Hoyle, though a disaster for Cogan who was forced to lower the price of the book to match the pirates and to pay for Hoyle's signature.

Superseded by new rules

The rules of whist published in ''A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist'' were regarded as authoritative until 1864, after which time they were superseded by the new rules written by John Loraine Baldwin and adopted by the Arlington and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

clubs.

Other published works

Cogan published other works by Hoyle: ''A Short Treatise on the Game of

Backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

'' (1743), ''An Artificial Memory for Whist'' (1744), and more short treatises on the games of

piquet Piquet (; ) is an early 16th-century plain-trick card game for two players that became France's national game. David Parlett calls it a "classic game of relatively great antiquity... still one of the most skill-rewarding card games for two" but ...

and

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

(1744) and

quadrille The quadrille is a dance that was fashionable in late 18th- and 19th-century Europe and its colonies. The quadrille consists of a chain of four to six '' contredanses''. Latterly the quadrille was frequently danced to a medley of opera melodie ...

(1744). Cogan became bankrupt in 1745 and sold the Hoyle copyrights to Thomas Osborne, who published Hoyle's treatises with much more success. Hoyle wrote a treatise on the game of brag (1751), a book on

probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set o ...

(1754), and one on

(1761). Over time, Hoyle's work pushed off the market

Charles Cotton Charles Cotton (28 April 1630 – 16 February 1687) was an English poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French, for his contributions to ''The Compleat Angler'', and for the influential ''The Comp ...

's ageing ''

The Compleat Gamester ''The Compleat Gamester'', first published in 1674, is one of the earliest known English-language games compendia. It was published anonymously, but later attributed to Charles Cotton (1630–1687). Further editions appeared in the period up to 1 ...

'', which had been considered the "standard" English-language reference work on the playing of games – especially gambling games – since its publication in 1674.

Collected edition

In 1748, Osborne stopped publishing the individual treatises and instead sold a collected edition under the title ''Mr. Hoyle's Treatises of Whist, Quadrille, Piquet, Chess and Back-Gammon''. The whist treatise was described as the eighth edition. The fourteenth edition (1765) was the last published during Hoyle's lifetime. Fifteenth and sixteenth editions appeared after his death, with the autograph reproduced by woodblock print.

Reprints

The books were frequently reprinted in Ireland, something that was permitted as the English copyright statute, the

Statute of Anne The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1710 (cited either as 8 Ann. c. 21 or as 8 Ann. c. 19), was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1710, which was the first statute to provide for copyright regulated by the g ...

, did not extend to Ireland. One edition was printed in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. Hoyle's writing was translated into many continental languages; first Portuguese (1753), then German (1754), French (1761), Italian (1768), Russian (1769), and Dutch (1790). Various facsimile and revised editions have appeared over the decades and centuries, often titled ''Hoyle's Rules'' or ''Hoyle's Games'' in English.Example:

Legacy and modern usage

Because of his contributions to gaming, Hoyle was a charter inductee into the

Poker Hall of Fame The Poker Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional poker in the United States. Founded in Las Vegas, it was created in 1979 by Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe Casino, to preserve the names and legacies of the world's greatest ...

in 1979, even though he died 60 years before

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

was invented. The phrase ''according to Hoyle'' still has some currency in contemporary English, meaning 'correctly or properly; according to an authority or rule'.. In

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

, ''a Hoyle'' can refer to any authoritative card-game rule book, similar to the American usage of ''a

Baedeker Verlag Karl Baedeker, founded by Karl Baedeker on July 1, 1827, is a German publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred to simply as " Baedekers" (a term sometimes used to refer to similar works fro ...

'' to refer to any travel guide. Many modern books of collected rule sets for card games (and sometimes other games, such as board games, billiards, etc.) contain the name "Hoyle" in their titles, but the moniker does not mean that the works are directly derivative of Edmond Hoyle's (in much the same way that many modern dictionaries contain "Webster" in their titles without necessarily relating to the work of

Noah Webster Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...

References

Bibliography

* By a Gentleman (1743
''A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist''
W. Webster, Bath and London *Edmond Hoyle (1743
''A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist''
3rd Ed., F. Cogan, London *Edmond Hoyle (1744
''A Short Treatise on the Game of Piquet''
George and Alexander Ewing, Dublin *Edmond Hoyle (1745
''A Short Treatise on the Game of Quadrille''
George and Alexander Ewing, Dublin *Edmond Hoyle (1761
''An Essay Towards Making the Game of Chess Easily Learned,''
Thomas Osborne, London *Edmond Hoyle (1764
''An Essay Towards Making the Doctrine of Chances Easy to Those Who Understand Vulgar Arithmetick Only''
Thomas Osborne, London *Edmond Hoyle (1775
''Mr. Hoyle's Games of Whist, Quadrill, Piquet, Chess and Back-Gammon''
Thomas Osborne, London {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoyle, Edmond English non-fiction writers Card game book writers 1672 births 1769 deaths English male non-fiction writers 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers Poker Hall of Fame inductees