Howard Lederer - Poker Legend

One of the top poker professionals in the world and a force to reckoned with, Lederer has made history by becoming the brother in the only brother-sister pairing to make it to the final table of a WSOP event with his sister Annie Duke.

Raised in New Hampshire in a family of five, much of his poker success is due to having spent so much of his childhood on the family room floor engrossed in card games and the heady feeling of beating Dad. Howard credits his father for the level of preparation needed to compete in the world of high stakes poker and to this day, believes his father never intentionally lost a game to him.

Unlike his sister who went on to pursue a college education, Howard deferred college for a year and moved to New York to pursue his passion for chess. He soon discovered a poker game in the back room of his favorite chess club - and was immediately hooked. For the next two years, Howard played poker relentlessly, an expensive career choice when you consider that nine out of ten times he went home broke.

When no limit Hold’em was introduced into the poker arena in the mid-eighties Lederer was in the right place at the right time – the Mayfair, the legendary bridge and backgammon club in New York. He was part of the first circle of players to experiment with no limit hold 'em in daily Mayfair games that would begin at 4 pm and wind down by 2 AM, when all the players would retire to their favorite bar for a lively discussion of the day's game.

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. She has now knocked Howard out of three WSOP events, including the $10,000 final table. Ouch!

Howard moved to Las Vegas in 1993 to pursue a professional career in poker and concentrated on cash games until 2002, when WPT tournaments became a monthly event. So what’s the game of choice for Lederer - for sheer excitement he just can’t resist the big buy in no limit hold 'em tournaments and he looks forward to playing against the best in the world for years to come.

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