Poker Community Mourns Sad Loss Of Bobby Hoff

On Sunday, the poker community heard the sad news that one of its most respected and skilled poker players, Bobby “The Wizard” Hoff, had passed away at the age of 73. The poker legend’s death comes three years after he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized in Houston, Texas, before recovering and returning to play in California.
Bobby Hoff was born in Texas and back in the 1960s, after a promising start to his poker career, he went broke and turned to employment as blackjack croupier to earn a living. Describing those early days, Bobby Hoff, stated:
“I was a winning player from the start in that game, because my opponents were so poor..I won 40 times in a row and thought I was surely the best poker player in the world. I won $8,000 in those 40 sessions. In 1959, that was just amazing. So, I thought I was not only the best poker player in the world, but one of the richest ones. I soon discovered I was not.”
Before long, however, Hoff had moved over to the other side of the blackjack table once more and made a small fortune card counting before being barred from all the casinos in Las Vegas and later moving onto playing high-stakes poker cash games, whilst teaming up with other celebrated Texas “road gamblers” such as Doyle Brunson and Bryan “Sailor” Roberts.
As well as being a prolific cash game pro, Bobby Hoff also enjoyed success as a tournament player and throughout his career amassed $534,639 in winnings, including famously finishing runner-up at the 1979 WSOP Main Event for $108,000.
Following the sad news of Bobby Hoff’s death, condolences have been pouring in from the poker community, and here are a selection of some of the tributes paid by his peers:
Doyle Brunson
“RIP Bobby “The Wizard” Hoff. He was called the Wizard because he could make giant stacks of black chips dissapear.#atruefriend”
Erik Seidel 
“So sad to hear about Bobby Hoff. He was a true NL artist + always such a pleasure to see at + away from the tables. #RIPwizard”
Phil Hellmuth
“Well said: RIP Bobby RT @Erik_Seidel Sad to hear about Bobby Hoff. He was a true NL artist + a pleasure to C at + away from table #RIPwizard”
Mike Sexton
“RIP Bobby Hoff = poker legend. He took several bad beats playing heads-up in 1979 WSOP main losing to 1st amateur to win it – Hal Fowler.”