Bob Hoey

Full Name: Bob Hoey

Date of birth: December 8, 1946

Birth Place: Auburn, New York

Current City of Residence: Rochester, New York

Marital Status: Not married but been with Carol for 42 years

Children: None

Occupation: Have done lots of things. Currently I work in a

Community center, teaching computers to kids

How I started playing Backgammon: Learned in Brazil, in

1977, a former winner of the Miss Universe Contest taught me. She is Swedish.

Current Skill level: I will play with anyone if I have the

bankroll. Probably Expert is bragging enough.

Number of years playing Backgammon live: 30

Favorite Tournament Venue: Right now, Pittsburgh

Titles won: My biggest win carried the title: “Great Lakes

Champion” back in the early 80’s

Other important finishes: Who knows, there has been

a lot of backgammon water under the bridge in all that time.

Favorite Backgammon book(s): Backgammon by Paul Magriel. The best title is “Backgammon for Blood” although the author did not have a clue.

Favorite Music: I am all over the place. Love Blues, Rock,

Motown, 50’s, 60’s oldies, folk etc. As a kid, my favorite was

Gene Pitney, Ray Charles and then along came Janis Joplin. Oh, yeah, Sam Cooke.

Favorite Film(s): Dr. Zhivago, Harold & Maude, Casablanca, Cool Hand Luke, The Great Escape

Favorite Food: I like spicy food. Mexican,whatever. I put

cayenne pepper on everything.

Other Interests & Hobbies: Macintosh Computers, Poker,

Backgammon, Politics (I am a proud liberal and a embarrassed

and disgusted by the present status quo), Soccer (Go USA),

Baseball (Go Yankees), Basketball (Waiting for the Boston

Celtics to rise up out of their ashes)

Person I’d like most to meet: There is any number of people that I would like to shake hands with, but if the meeting were one where we could spend some time and actually talk, person to person, then: Bob Dylan, Bill Clinton, Barak Obama (I would love to see Hilary & Barak run as a team for president), Steve Jobs…

If I could change anything in the world, I would… Global

Warming is probably our most dire threat, so fix that would have to be top priority, but a decent universal health care system would be nice and how about a simpler and more just taxation system.

If I could change anything in the Backgammon world, I

would… love to see more venues where you could just find a game whenever you had the urge.

Additional comments: I have to admit that Backgammon was my game of choice for about 25 years, but Poker has come on strong and I now play more poker than backgammon. I would like to organize / participate in a Poker Backgammon tournament. You play Backgammon the better you do in the backgammon side, the more chips you get to play poker with.

I would like to mention the Stalwarts of Rochester Backgammon: Renee Rosenbloom, Gary Jay and Russ Prizzi.. I miss the good old days, playing in Ottawa, Toronto, New Hampshire and our regular twice-a-week tournaments here in Rochester.

Some great players that were here in this area that have moved away, include: Don Faix, Don Sloan, Marty Storer. I have fond memories of Jerry Nathan from Buffalo and Rich Reasin, here in Rochester. Jerry died quite a while back, but he was the spirit of Upstate NY backgammon for many years and Rich was a strong player, who suffered from bad health for too long before he passed away