Howard Lederer

Howard Lederer is mostly known as a professor of poker and a winner of two WSOP Bracelets. Growing up in New Hampshire, he spent much of his childhood on the family room floor focused on card games. His family played all sorts of card games together, and one of them was poker. Howard left college to become a chess player, but ended up finding his way to the poker tables. He worked by day and played by night. After many losses, he found a way to make a living at the poker table and became a player, that we see today.

Howard made big strides in his game when he started to play at the Mayfair Club in New York. The Mayfair was a legendary bridge and backgammon club - home for the greatest players in the world. Howard became a part of this circle. They were players who first experimented no limit hold'em in New York when it was first introduced in the mid eighties. The camaraderie among the players created an invaluable learning environment.It was a new game, but the ideas flowed freely and elevated players efforts. This group of early players included Dan Harrington, Steve Zolotow, Jay Heimowitz, and Erik Seidel.

Howard Lederer loves high limit cash games, but he can also be found at major tournaments with larger buy-ins or full tilt poker online poker room. During the 2003 World Series of Poker, he kept a diary-style report that can be found on the Gutshot Poker site. It was a very interesting to read. He wrote, "I have started to focus solely on how I am playing, what my chip position is, and who at my table can be outplayed. Worrying about how other players at other tables are doing is counter productive and I have basically eliminated it from my game." These types of small insights are the product of playing poker for many years, and many tournament players can benefit from reading it.

Some of Howard's poker titles include, first in the 2003 Party Poker Million Limit Hold'em, first at the Bellagio's World Poker Classic No Limit Holdem and third at the Bellagio for Omaha HiLo. Some of his previous wins include World Series titles in $5000 Omaha 8 HiLo in 2000 and $5000 deuce to seven draw in 2001. But the full list of his accomplishments is much bigger:

• 2004 WSOP Seven in the money finishes
• 2004 PLO Bellagio 5 Star 1st $139000
• 2004NLHE Bellagio 5 Star 1st $339000
• 2003 Party Poker Caribbean 1st$289000
• 2003NLHE Bellagio 5 Star 1st $220000
• 2002NLHE WPT Conn 1st $320000
• 2001WSOP Lowball 1st $165000
• 2000WSOP Omaha8 1st $198000
  

In the late eighties Howard started to work with his sister Annie Duke on her game. Howard encouraged Annie to come to Las Vegas and play in the WSOP tournaments. Being known as one of the best female poker players, she has impressively won more cash than any other woman in the history of the WSOP. She has also knocked Howard out of three WSOP events, including the $10,000 final table. In 1994, Howard and Annie made poker history as the first brother and sister duo to make the same final table at the WSOP.