Howard Lederer, nicknamed ‘The Professor,’ is surely one of the most widely recognised and respected players on the professional tournament circuit today. With two World Series bracelets and getting on for thirty WSOP cashes, not to mention having won two WPT events in the last three years, he has undoubtedly risen to the top of his game.
One of those kids who grew up with competitive family card games as the norm, Howard and his sister Annie Duke learned the hard way (judging from the way they play against each other, there was never any family soft-playing!), and as is often the case, an early interest became a lifelong passion.
Raised in New Hampshire, Howard Lederer moved to New York, interested at the time more in chess, at which he was proficient. Poker then had yet to experience the unprecedented surge in popularity it is undergoing today, and games were created out of collectives of gamblers interested in playing to improve. No limit hold’em was gaining popularity, and there was no better time or place to be involved in the cash action – he cut his teeth with the likes of Erik Seidel and Dan Harrington.
He freely admits the work that goes in to becoming comfortable playing at the top – learning poker can be tiring and expensive, but ultimately rewarding. He is a self-professed student of the game, having read extensively and, more importantly, gathered experience playing all poker variants. A lot. He is now a true tournament all-rounder, having gained results in the games of Limit hold’em, No-limit hold’em, Pot limit Omaha, Limit Omaha, Omaha hi-lo, Deuce to Seven, Seven Card Stud and Razz. In consecutive years he took home the coveted WSOP bracelets in Omaha Hi-Lo and Deuce to Seven.
Characteristically thoughtful at the table, Howard Lederer has made an effort to become the focused, calm player he is today. As some of his hand analyses show, he is interested in poker for its own sake, thinking through good and bad plays (made by himself and other players) in order to further his understanding. He credits the teachings of Zen with direct influence on his mental attitude to the game, and there is something to be said for this measured approach. To be clear headed and healthily distanced from whatever has happened in previous hands (good or bad) when the stakes you are playing for are the very biggest around is quite a feat.
This doesn’t mean he is unapproachable – on a recent trip to London he dropped in with fellow Full Tilt-ers Chris Ferguson and Andy Bloch to play a £30 ($50) rebuy no-limit tournament at the Gutshot card club, and was a pleasure to meet, chatting with the bemused regulars at the table. Find him travelling the world, playing in the highest stakes tournaments, or practising poker meditation.
