Howard Lederer grew up in a family of five where he liked gambling on numerous card games when he was young. He found himself becoming very aggressive in these card games while playing his dad. After finishing high school, Howard made a decision to place college on hold for a bit and headed to New York City to compete in some big-time chess. While competing in chess, he was introduced to a poker game going on in the rear of the room. Howard’s first 2 years were difficult as he would play many hours and don’t win a majority of the time. He made some extra cash by being an runner for the poker players. He theorized he possibly could improve his game by analyzing his life away from poker. He made an effort to acquire more sleep and focus attention even more on poker.
The actual advancement in his abilities began when he started playing at the Mayfair Club in New York. The Mayfair was a bridge and backgammon club where the greatest players would regularly wager against each other. Howard was able to access some of the best minds in chess. With their help, Howard would tweak his strategic thinking techniques. Howard used these strategy ideas in the game of NL holdem.
Howard also helped his sister Annie Duke master the game of poker. Annie Duke was an excellent student of poker as she would always be asking questions about how to make the proper decision. Howard told Annie Duke to move out to Las Vegas and play in the World Series of Poker tournaments. Annie is one of the strongest female players the poker arena today. Howard moved to Sin City in Nineteen Ninety Three and competed in money games for the following 10 years. When the WPT grew in popularity, Howard made the decision to play more tournaments.