Andy Bloch

Born in New Haven, Conneticut, Andy Bloch started playing poker seriously in 1992. Before that he studied at MIT (earning two Electrical Engineering degrees) and was part of their Blackjack team where he would enter small $35 tournaments every month or so. The first time he ever played a game of No Limit Texas Hold 'em was in a 1992 tournament with a $100 buy-in; he went on to win the tournament despite being new to the poker game type.

As well as studying Electrical Engineering at MIT, Andy Bloch studied Law at Harvard. He skipped his last week of Law School in order to play in the World Series of Poker Main Event in 1997. After successfully completing his bar exam in 1999, Bloch opted to put his law career on the back burner while he further pursued poker at a professional level.

Famed for his generosity and philanthropy, Andy Bloch has donated all of his winnings from playing poker on the Full Tilt site to assorted charities across the globe. After Bloch qualified for the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event through a tourney on the Full Tilt Poker site, he decided he would give any money he made from the event to charity. He also pledged to give $100k of his winnings from the Pro-Am Equalizer to charities working in Darfur.