Howard Lederer is a professional poker player and founding member of Full Tilt Poker.
Born into a family that consisted of himself, parents and two sisters, Lederer quickly developed a competitive streak, playing cards with his family at any given opportunity.
After spending years of learning poker and chess, Lederer decided that he would travel down the path of playing chess rather than engaging in card action and his hard work began to pay off, reaching a high level of chess play before opting to leave the rooks and pawns behind in favour for chips and cards.
Starting his poker playing antics at the Mayfair Club, Lederer has since developed his game with strong analytical skills and observations, so strong that he is known within the poker circuit as the “Poker Professor”.
His level of play and strategy meant that he was approached to become one of the founders of “Tiltware”, software that is found in use at Full Tilt Poker. With the player joining a number of other high profile poker players who had offered their endorsement to the site, the birth of Full Tilt Poker was set to be a highly public one and as expected it was.
On September 20, 2011, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion to amend a civil complaint, alleging that Lederer and three other directors of the poker website Full Tilt Poker were running a Ponzi scheme that paid out $444 million of customer money to themselves and the firm’s owners. Lederer eventually settled with the Department of Justice by agreeing to pay $1.25 million and forfeit various properties in the US and abroad.
Lederer has more to offer than just simply heading to the tables, proving that he has the ability to teach other players about the ins and outs of the game, as see when we reference back to when he taught his sister Annie Duke to become a professional poker player, funding her action while she lived in Montana.
Lederer has never been a player who has looked for an easy game to play, proven by the fact that in 1994 the player opted to move to Las Vegas, Nevada in order to seek high stake poker action.
With a thirst for success Lederer has proven to be a pinnacle player, winning a number of titles and tournaments throughout his career, including 2 World Series of Poker (WSOP) winners bracelets, 41 World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournament cashes and 2 World Poker Tour (WPT) titles.
Lederer’s tournament earnings are estimated to be worth a total of $5.5 million, proving that the player has the required ability to be able to hold his own with some of the biggest names in the poker scene today.
Howard Lederer has proven that he isn’t simply about winning money for himself either, with both him and his wife Suzie creating a number of tournaments that aid charity funding across the United States of America.
One of the biggest annual events that the couple host is the World Series of Barbeque, seen as a must attend event for a host of big name celebrities who reside in Las Vegas.
Lederer is a family man who lives in Las Vegas with his wife Suzie, son Mattias and 3 dogs, showing that even poker players have a sensitive side.
Born out of Mayfair Club in a poker sense, Lederer comes from a club of a number of well known poker professionals to strengthen their game at the Mayfair, including Erik Seidel and Dan Harrington.