Howard Lederer Profile

Howard Lederer, "The Professor" was born in Concord, New Hampshire,and is a professional poker player and brother of poker pro Annie Duke. Lederer is known as "The Professor" because of his demeanor, analytical style and long history of wins.

Lederer came from an academic background. His father, Richard Lederer, was a writer and linguist who taught at St. Paul's School (United States) in New Hampshire. Lederer was a young chess talent and after high school he moved to New York City, where he attended Columbia University. New York City is known for its chess clubs and at one of these clubs he discovered poker and eventually began playing at the Mayfair Club with other soon-to-be-famous players such as Erik Seidel and Dan Harrington.

Growing up in New Hampshire in a family of five, Howard spent much of his childhood on the family room floor engrossed in card games. The Lederer family played all sorts of card games together, including poker. Howard credits his father for preparing for the competitive world of high stakes poker. The heady feeling of beating Dad stoked his competitive streak at a young age. To this day, Howard believes his father never intentionally lost a game to him.

At eighteen, 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 two years, Howard played poker relentlessly - seventy to eighty hours a week - and went home broke nine out of ten nights. He would earn his nightly stake by running errands for the players. The frenetic pace caught up with him and he realized that playing all nighters wasn't helping his game. He took a couple of steps back, got more sleep and saw his results improve.

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 to the greatest games players in the world. Howard became part of a circle of players who were the first to experiment with no limit hold 'em in New York when it was first introduced in the mid eighties. The daily game at the Mayfair 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. The camaraderie among the players created an invaluable learning environment. Everyone was new to the game, but the ideas flowed freely and elevated their playing efforts. This group of early players included Dan Harrington, Steve Zolotow, Jay Heimowitz, and Erik Seidel.

In the late eighties Howard started to work with his sister Annie Duke on her game. She would play during the day and discuss her difficult game decisions with Howard in the evening. Her questions soon became more challenging to answer. Howard encouraged Annie to come to Las Vegas and play in the WSOP tournaments. She has now 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.

In order to take his game to the next level, Howard moved to Las Vegas in 1993. He concentrated on cash games until 2002, when WPT tournaments became a monthly event. While he enjoys all forms of poker, Howard's favorite for sheer excitement is big buy in no limit hold 'em tournaments. He looks forward to playing against the best in the world for years to come.

Player stats

2003: Winner Party Poker Million Limit Hold’em
Winner: Bellagio’s World Poker Classic No Limit Hold’em
3rd place Bellagio Omaha Hi/Lo
2001: Winner WSOP $5000 Deuce to Seven Draw
2000: Winner WSOP $5000 Omaha 8 Hi/Lo

Lederer has made an instructional poker video called Secrets of No Limit Hold'em and he runs the Howard Lederer Poker Fantasy Camp. He also cohosts a tournament poker show for Fox. His sister, Katy Lederer, wrote a book about the Lederer family, titled Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers.

Lederer is known for his focused, calm demeanor at the poker table, but he is no stranger to controversy. In 2002, Lederer publicly criticized Daniel Negreanu for making inappropriate comments about Lederer's sister Annie Duke. More recently, few were surprised at the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris 2003 when Lederer refused to shake hands with notorious needler Tony Guoga when eliminated from the tournament. Lederer is part of the design team for Full Tilt Poker, an online poker website that opened in July 2004.

A long-time vegetarian, Lederer once won a $10,000 proposition bet that he could eat a cheeseburger.

Life in Las Vegas has been good to Howard - the best being his seven year-old son Matthias and his wife Suzie. When he's off the circuit, Howard enjoys going to movies and concerts, hitting the links and working out at the gym.
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