An authority on the rules of games, especially card games; often used in the phrase 'according to Hoyle' meaning following the official or proper rules.
Named after Edmond Hoyle, an 18th-century English writer who published influential books on the rules of card games and other games. His name became so associated with rule-books that it became a common noun.
Edmond Hoyle was basically the person who decided how poker, whist, and other card games should be played, and his rule books were so popular that his name became slang for 'the official rules'—kind of like how some people call all tissues 'Kleenex.'
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