Who was Hoyle?
Edmond Hoyle, who died in London in 1769, wrote a highly successful Short Treatise on the Game of Whist, containing the laws of the game; and also some Rules whereby a Beginner may, with due attention to them, attain to the Playing it well… He followed this with similar treatises on other games: Backgammon, Piquet, Quadrille and Chess. These books were widely pirated and plagiarised, and after his death the name of Hoyle came to be attached to compendiums of games from a wide variety of publishers and authors. This continues to this day, though the books no longer have any connection with Hoyle’s original works and contain mostly games which Hoyle could never have heard of. Hoyle’s name is used, especially in the USA, to suggest (often quite spuriously) that the book bearing it gives authoritative rules for games. To play “according to Hoyle” means to play correctly—by the book.
