Famous Poker Players: Howard Lederer
Howard "The Professor" Lederer

Howard Lederer grew up in New Hampshire as part of a family of five.  He spent much of his free time playing various board and card games.  His father never gave any of his children a chance to win any game against him and this fuelled a fearcely competative streak in Howard and his younger sister Annie Duke. Lederer's game of choice initially was not poker but chess.  He enjoyed the game so much he decided to defer college for a year and at the age of eighteen headed to New York to persue the game more seriously.  In the back room of his favorite chess club he discovered poker and was instantly hooked.  He began to play relentlessly putting in 70-80 hours a week at the tables but went home broke most of the time.  Howard was not one to give up and would run errands for the players to raise a stake to play again.  Eventually he begain to realize that his crazy schedule and lack of sleep was not helping his game, so he took a few steps back and saw his game improve considerably.

Howard Lederer

Howard Lederer started to play poker at the world famous Mayfair Club in New York, perhaps more famous for Bridge and Backgammon.  He started to see a lot of improvement in his game and began to play No Limit Texas Holdem when it was introduced in in mid-80's.  The daily poker game would take place from 4pm and finish around 2am.  The regular players would then retire to their favorite bars and have a lively discussion about the poker game that day.  The game was new and exciting to these players which included famous poker players such as Dan Harrington and Erik Seidel.  These poker pioneers learned a lot from each other.

In the late eighties he persuaded his sister Annie Duke to play competative poker and eventually after a lot of valuable tutorlage he helped her enter the World Series Of Poker.  She proved to be a very quick study and has now won more money at the World Series Of Poker than any other woman in history.  Annie Duke and Howard Lederer are also the only brother and sister to ever make the same final table at a WSOP event.

In 1994 Howard Lederer moved to Las Vegas to further his poker career.  He played mainly in high stakes cash games until 2002 when World Poker Tour events became more frequent.  He now enjoys a variety of poker at a professional level from high stakes ring games to high dollar tournament games.

Howard Lederer has, like many professional poker players launched his own website HowardLederer.com.

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