FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#589 – World Series Final Table #2 – The Professor’s Lesson from the Final Table

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While the players unbag their chips, let me pass along something I heard from Howard Lederer last night. In my “Tournament Star” contest, I asked entrants to tell me who they would hire to coach them for the final table, and a lot of people chose Lederer. Because of Howard’s studious approach to the game and unflappability, he is an obvious and desirable choice.

But back in the olden days, Howard Lederer made the final table of the Main Event.

It was 1987. Howard was still living in New York, playing in the underground poker/backgammon/chess clubs. It was his first time at the World Series and, at just 24, he was the youngest player ever to make the final table. There were 152 entries that year, many of them legendary names even today. For instance, to make the final table, Howard outlasted the following players who made the final two tables: Jay Heimowitz (who has gone on to win 6 bracelets), Hamid Dastmalchi (future – 1994 – World Champion), Humberto Brenes (who went on to win a pair of bracelets, numerous other tournaments, and is still one of the biggest names in poker), and Puggy Pearson (who won three bracelets including the 1973 Championship).

And what a final table. Jack Keller, the 1984 Champ, finished ninth. Mickey Appleman, who has four bracelets and a chance to add some more, finished eighth, and was probably wearing the same Binions jacket I still see him wearing at the World Series, though it was probably new then. Dan Harrington finished sixth. Poker author and columnist Bob Ciaffone finished third. Frank Henderson finished second, and I’m sure he was wearing the same NBC Sports jacket I still see him wearing at poker tournaments today. And Johnny Chan won the first of his back-to-back championships here.

Howard finished fifth, which was worth $56,250. I asked him what he remembered from that experience. “I just remember how it gave me confidence that I could compete with anyone. I also remember leaving that final table sure that I would win it someday. Seems quaint now with the huge fields.”

Howard went back to New York with even greater confidence. When the high stakes backgammon players at the Mayfair Club began using the backgammon pieces as chips and playing no-limit hold ‘em, he felt right at home with other players at the table like Dan Harrington, Jay Heimowitz, and, occasionally, Mickey Appleman. He also befriended a recently-unemployed stock trader named Erik Seidel.

Seidel told me he was a winner in these early Mayfair Club games and that game him the confidence to join Howard at the Main Event in 1988. Erick brought just $10,000 and decided to play a single-table satellite for $1,000. He didn’t win, so he tried another. With his experience and success, he figured he should be able to save some money and get in within a couple attempts.

He played eight single-table satellites and was still without an entry to the Main Event. He rounded up among the large New York contigent $8,000 worth of investors, selling them 80% of his action – no premium. Seidel finished runner-up to Chan in an historic final table showdown. But because of the deal he made with his backers, he actually took home less money than his buddy Howard did in 1987 for fifth place. In fact, it’s reasonable to assume that Howard was one of Seidel’s investors and might have equalled or exceeded Erik’s 1988 take, too.

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