Howard Lederer Biography

Howard Lederer was born on October 30, 1964 in Concord New Hampshire. Born in to a family of scholars, as his father was a writer and a teacher, Howard himself was a very smart individual and grew up excelling in chess. As a young man, he went to college in New York. The area is well known for its chess clubs and Howard further pursued chess while attending Columbia University. It was while he was here that he started playing at the Mayfair Club where he met Dan Harrington, author and winning poker player, and Erik Seidel, another winning poker player. While he was there, he picked up the game of poker and after playing in the afternoon, they would all go hang out afterwards and discuss their game. They would discuss specific hands; discussing how each player would go about playing it.

Shortly thereafter, Howard soon made his way to Vegas where he focused more on cash games. In the process of playing in Vegas, he was also mentoring his sister Annie Duke. She become a very good player and together they made a poker record as they shared a final table together in 1994. She has gone on to become one of the most successful women in poker and is now one of the spokes persons for Ultimate Bet along side Phil Hellmuth. He taught her well as she has knocked him out of several tournaments.

This is not to say that Howard has not done well himself, it just proves that he is a good teacher. This, in combination with the several instructional poker videos that he has made, has earned him the nickname “The Professor.” He lives by this name every time he plays as he makes very calculated plays and has seen great results because of it.

As of 2008, Howard has made over $4.8 million dollars in tournament poker. He has earned himself 2 bracelets, one in the $5k Omaha Hi/Lo event in 2001, and his second in 2001 when he won the 2-7 Lowball event. Between the years of 2002-2004 Lederer has won 2 WPT titles and 3 Bellagio events. He has seen well over 35 cashes in the WSOP and over 5 in the WPT and has also won the Aussie Millions $100k buy in, which is regarded as the largest buy in-in the world.

Aside from playing poker, he helps create a community of poker players, as he is one of the founders of Full Tilt. Originally dubbed “Tiltware,” it later was changed to Poker Kings when the UIGEA passed in the States in 1996. Full Tilt has grown immensely since it launched in 2004, offering players from all over the world the opportunity to play up to thousands of dollars online. He did not do it all himself however, as he has some of the biggest pros in the game today helping him out such as Jennifer Harman, Chris Ferguson, and Phil Ivey. They have grown to such a large size in a short time. Full Tilt is second in size to PokerStars, another large online poker room.

Whether he is playing poker or behind the scenes, Howard Lederer has been quite a success in poker. In his spare time, you can see him exercising either by running or playing basketball. He is also a fan of golf. Howard Lederer calls Las Vegas his home with his wife, child, and several pets.