Howard Lederer
Written January 30, 2008 by Jack Jones
It was at the age of 18 that Howard Lederer decided to skip college, but it wasn’t to play poker. It was to pursue his passion for chess. However, when he reached the city he found a poker game in the back room of the chess club he went to and he was instantly hooked on the game. He started to play poker 70 to 80 hours each week and most of the time lost all of the money he had in his bankroll.
He got in early on the No-Limit hold ‘em craze when he started playing at the Mayfair Club. He was frequently sitting at the tables from 4 PM to 2 AM, then him and his crew would hit up a local bar to go over their play for the day. Everyone was new to No-Limit hold ‘em so they had open discussions on how to best play the game and everyone started improving their skills quickly. Ledered figured out in 1993 that if he really wanted to pursue his new passion full-time, he was going to have to move to Las Vegas and he did so.
If there was a large cash game going on then he was probably in on it up until 2002, when the World Poker Tour started holding monthly events. His resume now includes a pair of World Series of Poker bracelets, two World Poker titles, two Hall of Fame titles, and three Bellagio titles.
If you don’t see Lederer at the tables then you can also catch him doing commentary and analysis for different television shows. He is also involved with a Poker Fantasy Camp where people join up to learn from the best in the world.
If you want to know more about “the Professor” Howard Lederer then check out his site.
