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According to Hoyle
Meaning
In accord with the highest authority; in accord with a strict set of rules.
Origin
The Hoyle in question here is Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769), the English barrister and writer, who was the author of several works on card-games. He was, and still is, cited as the final authority when disputes on the rules of card games arose.
Hoyle's Short Treatise on the Game of Whist included not only the rules but gave many insights into how the win at the game. In view of that it was sought after but, due to the high price of one guinea, many illegal copies circulated. Genuine copies bore the qualifying statement 'No copies of this book are genuine but what are signed by Edmond Hoyle and Thomas Osborne'. The esteem that genuine 'Hoyles' were given no doubt added to the book's reputation as being the only true source of definitive facts concerning the game. Hoyle wrote several other books on cards and other pastimes.
The earliest known use of the phrase is O. Henry's story Four Million, 1906:
"The financial loss of a dollar sixty-five, all so far fulfilled according to Hoyle."
Other authorities who have been given the 'according to' recognition are:
According to Cocker - after the 17th century London engraver Edward Cocker, who was thought (wrongly it appears) to have been the author of a popular series of basic arithmetic textbooks.
According to Fowler - after Henry Fowler, the renowned lexicographer and author of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 1926.
According to Guinness - after Norris and Ross McWhirter's The Guinness Book of World Records.
According to Gunter - after the English mathematician and inventor Edmund Gunter.