Howard Lederer: If The Poker Professor Is Presiding, Think About Skipping Class

Though poker tables are frequently found in huge casinos, successful player will tell you that the game has very little in common with other casino games.  The other games are all based around the casino having a statistical edge which the player must overcome with luck.  An element of skill enters into some of the games, but luck dominates. If it can really be compared to any other game, then poker is much more like chess.  Those similarities help explain the fact that Howard Lederer is extremely talented at both.

While many players are loud and flamboyant, Howard plays with a quiet, analytical style that separates him from the other noise.  This style has earned him his nickname, “The Professor,” and makes him seem more like a chess player than a poker professional.  Two bracelets from the World Series of Poker, and a number of other large tournament wins, clearly denounce that misperception.

Both his demeanor and his high-caliber play have their roots in his New Hampshire upbringing.  After all, having award-winning author and college professor like Dr. Richard Lederer as a father is bound to instill an academic view of the world and style of thinking. 

Young Howard began developing his poker skills while playing cards with his siblings and parents.  A lot of parents play cards with their kids without raising a professional card player.  The Lederer family, however, produced two highly-talented players; Annie Duke, a skillful and respected professional, is Howard’s sister.

If Howard wanted to beat his dad, and what young boy doesn’t, then he had to get good at the game and actually beat him.  His folks never “let” the kids win which was probably a pivotal fact in the development of professional chops.  Most kids get to win a game here or there (or all of them), so they don’t really learn the game and never feel like they actually accomplish anything while playing.  Howard loved the feeling of beating his dad, because had to work and earn it, so he continually improved so he could win more often.

Despite the family affinity for academics and playing cards, Howard decided to put off college when he was 18 and play chess.  Considered by many to be the most intellectually challenging and strategically difficult game ever invented, chess appealed to Howard’s analytical mind.  He found a favorite chess club in New York but soon discovered that the backroom of the club was a poker room.  Chess slowly began to take a backseat to the backroom and Howard played cards like he was possessed.  For a year or two he could be found sitting around a table for 70 or 80 hours a week.

Playing a lot doesn’t equal winning a lot, however, and Howard ran errands for other players every day to earn his stake in the game.  Most of the time he went home with absolutely nothing and was back the next day running more errands.  After spending a lot of time in his childhood honing his skills, his inability to win for real could be both frustrating and confusing.

Any confusion cleared up when Howard considered the effect his lifestyle was having on the game.   Playing poker each week for the equivalent of two full-time regular jobs was sabotaging his play.  He discovered this by cutting back on his playing time and watching his success improve almost instantly. 

Apparently, Howard actually needed to sleep every now and then.

New York City provided and interesting backdrop for a budding poker professional and Howard found the Mayfair Club.  The Mayfair was famous as a bridge and backgammon club, but in the mid 1980s they decided to bring the game of No-Limit Hold‘Em to town.  Howard hooked up with a small group of players and, because the game wasn’t well-known in New York before the Mayfair brought in, they were all new to the game.

The whole group was learning which made everyone helpful and friendly.  There is no doubt that the comfortably competitive atmosphere of the group helps explain the future success of its members: Dan Harrington, Erik Seidel and other current pros were honing their Hold‘Em chops with Howard at the Mayfair.  Those games at the Mayfair, generally lasting from about 4 p.m. until about 2 a.m., allowed the players to serve as both teachers and students of the game simultaneously.

As the 1980s moved towards a close, Howard used that teaching experience as he began mentoring his sister Annie, who was honing her skills in daytime games.  After the table dispersed, she and Howard would discuss how the game had gone, what sorts of plays were made, how they could have been improved and countless other details.  While Howard was obviously helpful, there is no denying the natural skill Annie Duke displays at the table.  Howard encouraged her to join him at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and they have each done quite well at WSOP events. 

Howard and Annie will forever be in poker history books as the first brother and sister to sit opposite each other at a final table in the WSOP.  Annie knocked her brother out, as she’s also done at two other WSOP tables…you can’t help but wonder if Howard thought, even for a fraction of a second, that maybe his mentoring had been too good.

The historic sibling poker moment took place in 1994, one year after Howard had officially moved to Las Vegas.  He had this crazy idea that living in Las Vegas would expose him to a greater variety of games, limits and players so he moved all the way across the country into the middle of the Nevada desert so he cold focus on improving his poker skills.

Luckily, a number of decades earlier, some folks built a bunch of casinos in the middle of the Nevada desert.  Clearly, they knew Howard would be wanting to make the move and decided to create a city that would feature dozens upon dozens of games going on all day long, great food and world-class entertainment.  Howard took full advantage of Vegas and, in addition to the annual WSOP, spent most of the next decade picking the chips off opponents in cash games around town.