Bob "The Coach" Ciaffone Profile

Bob "The Coach" Ciaffone is one of America's best-known poker personalities. Born in Brooklyn, New York on December 10, 1940, the son of Alfred and Marjorie Ciaffone, their only child. They moved to Baldwin, Long Island in 1943 and to Saginaw, Michigan in 1951. His game playing started at an early age, having learned chess at age four, poker at age nine, and bridge at age fifteen. Bob grew up in Saginaw, graduating from St. Andrew High School in 1957. He has achieved success as a player, writer, and teacher of poker. His students have won well over a million dollars in tournament competition. Bob never married, saying “frankly, this wasn’t a deliberate decision, just the way things turned out.”

Bob has written several books including:

“Robert’s Rules of Poker” – an essential guide for anyone wanting to play well
“Improve your poker”
“Middle Limit Hold’ Em poker”
“Omaha Hold’ Em poker”
“Pot Limit & No-Limit Poker”

Ciaffone acquired my nickname "The Coach" during the early seventies when he was coaching a bridge team. It is appropriate because his main focus is on playing games well and teaching others how to do so. Games are his life. He supported himself in the 60's from shooting pool (and teaching school), in the 70's from playing backgammon, and ever since the 80's from playing, teaching, and writing about poker.

He moved to the Detroit area in 1968 and lived there for 12 years. Some other places he has lived are Dallas from 1980 to 1983, Las Vegas from 1983 to 1994, and Downey (in the Los Angeles area) from 1994 to 1996. He moved back to Saginaw in May of 1996 so he could live with his father after his mother died.

Bob says, “I think the game that influenced the course of my life the most was pool. I first learned how to play when I was a sixteen-year-old freshman at the University of Notre Dame. The result was I spent a lot of time in the university poolroom, and despite being the highest-rated person in my class according to the entrance exams; I eventually flunked out of school. When you are handy with a cue stick, the money comes easy, and you have ample opportunity to get involved with other forms of gambling.”

Bob considers his greatest accomplishments are in the following areas:

Poker – Bob says his biggest honor was a third place prize in the 1987 poker World Championship. When it came down to the final three players, Bob was the chip-leader, with the eventual winner Johnny Chan a close second. He then acquired the dubious distinction of becoming the first person in the history of tournament poker to lose a pot with over a million dollars in it. A few minutes later he lost another pot of about half a million dollars and finished third. This was worth $125,000 in actual prize money. First place paid $625,000 that year, so the big pot likely cost him a half a million dollars in real cash. Bob plays just about every kind of poker known to man, and has traveled all over the world doing it. The countries where he have played poker include Canada, England, Sweden, Malta, and Nepal. Bob’s favorite poker form is pot-limit Omaha. He has written a book on Omaha called "Omaha Holdem Poker." A poker publication once did a reader's poll of who the world's outstanding players were at each poker form. Being voted the #3 position for Omaha honored was an honor to him. He also likes no-limit holdem. He is the leading authority on poker rules, and has worked as a consultant in this area to a number of card rooms.

Chess – Bob’s favorite game is chess, at which he holds the title of Life Master. He has won many prizes in chess tournaments. In 1969 Bob became the chess State Champion of Michigan. In 1995 he tied for fourth place in the U.S. Senior Chess Championship. In both the 1998 and 1999 tournament for the State Championship Bob took second place. He presently has an international rating of 2205. In simultaneous exhibitions Bob has faced some of the world's greatest players. He lost to Bobby Fischer, Mikhail Tal, and David Bronstein, drew with Bent Larsen, and beat Victor Korchnoi and Paul Keres. He am especially interested in chess opening theory. Bob has written a couple of chess opening books. His first book is "The Catalan Gambit," published in 1983, and his second book is "Smith-Morra Gambit Finegold Defense," published in 2000.

Bridge - Bob has been a Life Master at bridge since 1969. He even owned a bridge club, "Cavendish North Bridge and Backgammon Club" in Southfield, Michigan, from 1975 to 1980. Bob also taught bridge for the Saginaw Township Community Education program.

Backgammon - Bob played in a lot of backgammon tournaments in the seventies, with good success. In an informal poll of regular backgammon players taken at that time, he was voted the best player in Michigan.

Billiards and Pool - Bob won a number of college championships at both pool and billiards as a student back in the sixties. His biggest honor in tournament play was taking second place (behind Jimmy Mataya) in the 1965 Lansing City Championship. In 1964 he was selected to represent the Saginaw area to play an exhibition match against all-time great Willie Mosconi. Bob ran the first rack, but Mosconi came back to run 113 in his inning. Naturally, Mosconi won the match. Bob was also selected to play a three-cushion billiards match in 1965 against the then World Champion Harold Worst (he won). His high run at straight pool is four racks. He once ran out off the break playing "Snooker Golf" on a 6x12 snooker table.

Weightlifting - Bob started pumping iron at age fifteen, and had to quit three years later because of a back injury. At his peak, weighing 172 pounds, he could press 207 and bench press three reps with 280. As a student at Notre Dame University, he won the school's first place medal in my weight class.

Bob currently resides in Saginaw, Michigan, a town he describes as “sleepy” and “just what I need to continue writing more books”.

Visit Bob's poker website