Howard Lederer was born into in a family of 5 in which he loved betting on various card games when he was young. He discovered himself becoming very competitive in these particular card games as he was competing against his father. After graduating from Sr. High school, Howard made a decision to put higher education on hold for a little while and relocated to New York to compete in some serious chess. While competing in chess, he was brought in to a poker game going on in the back of the room. Howard’s first 2 years were rough as he would play many hours and lost a majority of the time. He earned some extra money by becoming an runner for the poker players. He theorized he could boost his game by adjusting his life outside of poker. He made an effort to acquire more rest and focus more on the game.
The real advancement in his game began when he started playing at the Mayfair Club in New York. The Mayfair was a bridge and backgammon association where the the most favorable players would often compete against one another. Howard had access into several of the best minds in chess. With their help, Howard would tweak his strategic thinking abilities. Howard applied these strategy ideas to the game of No-Limit hold’em.
He also helped his sibling Annie Duke learn the game of poker. Annie was a great student of poker as she would always be asking questions about how to make the correct decision. Howard told Annie Duke to move out to Vegas and play in the WSOP tournaments. Annie Duke is one of the greatest women players the poker world ever. Howard relocated to Vegas in 1993 and participated in money games for the next 10 years. When the WPT grew in popularity, Howard made the decision to play more tournaments.
