FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#862 – Howard Lederer, Redux

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Howard Lederer finished runner-up on Friday night in London to Jani Vilmunen in WSOP-E’s £5,000 PLO. I know how Howard has been burning to win another World Series bracelet. He’s beyond needing the money or even the recognition. Because I’ve watched him at close quarters for five years, I’ve concluded that there is only one person to whom he feels a need to prove something: himself. And he has set the bar high for self-satisfaction.

Just before I met Howard, he went on an astounding tournament poker run, just as poker’s popularity was exploding. And his image and performance had something to do with it. In those early days in 2003 and 2004 when millions of people first discovered televised tournament poker, Howard Lederer was the face most closely associated with intellect, professionalism – and success.

Howard finished nineteenth in the 2003 Main Event, spending a lot of time on camera before Chris Moneymaker hijacked the event. Along with Gus Hansen, Howard became one of the first superstars of the World Poker Tour. He won at Foxwoods and in the PartyPoker Million that first season. (These triumphs actually occurred before the 2003 Main Event but were not televised until much later.)

He continued to tear it up in early 2004, leading up to the World Series. At the Bellagio Five Star, he won two events and was in third place in another with eleven players to go when the lights went out, closing the casino for several days.

He was wearing the logo of the web site he had just helped launch, Full Tilt Poker, at the 2004 World Series, and relentlessly stalked his third bracelet. (He had won bracelets in 2000 in No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven and in 2001 for Omaha Eight-or-Better, both $5,000 buy-ins.) Howard cashed seven times and made four final tables: sixth in PLO, fifth in Limit Hold ‘Em, fourth in Deuce-to-Seven, and third in Razz. Between Series appearances, he also turned in some dazzling performances against Texas billionaire Andrew Beal in $50,000-$100,000 hold ‘em cash games.

Even though Howard and I had never spoken, I decided at this time to use my contacts in magazine publishing to write a profile of Lederer for a major men’s magazine. It seemed like a slam dunk: cerebral professional, gambler, TV star, budding multimedia entrepreneur, dominant tournament performer. (I was also working on a book project then called “The Big Game,” but it was the magazine profile that became the reason for our initial contact.)

That’s when I met Howard Lederer, in June 2004, when poker was exploding and he was at Ground Zero. (By the way, I never succeeded in convincing a magazine to buy the profile. According to one major mag during Summer 2004, “We try to stay ahead of the curve and we think the poker fad is just about played out.”)

And then he was gone.

Not really gone, of course. Howard became involved in Full Tilt Poker’s marketing and software and dedicated himself – the way he dedicated himself to tournament poker after the 2002 World Series because he recognized that televised NLHE tournaments were going to become the next big thing in poker – to the success of the site. Because of those responsibilities, he stopped playing regularly in big cash games at the Bellagio. Although he played on Full Tilt to promote the site, this was before top players competed online in cash games for high stakes and his schedule soon became too hectic even for playing much online. By his own admission, with just periodic appearances at big tournaments, his game became rusty.

In the 2005 WSOP, he cashed three times but never came close to a final table. He cashed just once in 2006 and once in 2007. During this period, he wasn’t playing in WPT events and his non-playing responsibilities encompassed not just Full Tilt but becoming the leading advocate for legal online poker.

During that time, we worked together on several projects and he always insisted that he wanted to get back to poker. In late 2007, he finished fifth in the Poker Million and in January 2008, he won the $100,000 buy-in event at the Aussie Millions. At the World Series that summer, he made his first WSOP final table in four years. When we were seated a table together late one night during that Series, he explained that he was still juggling a lot of obligations but would soon have a more time to work on his poker game. He was playing a full schedule at the Series and I asked him how it felt, going from hardly playing poker to playing every day (usually until late at night). “I like this better,” he said.

When I asked why, he shrugged and replied, “Because it’s going to say ‘Poker Player’ on my tombstone.”

When I watched Howard at the final table of the HORSE event at WSOP-E in September 2008, I thought he was “there.” By “there,” I mean both that he was at the top of his game and he was going to be able to prove to himself that he still had the ability to play and the desire to close.

He played great, and at one time was an overwhelming favorite with a single card to come to be heads-up with a 3-to-1 chip lead. But he finished third and left Leicester Square late that night quickly and with little emotion. But watching him for nearly five hours made a big impact on me. I returned to my hotel on Jermyn Street and wrote until daylight, a multi-part entry to the blog titled “Night of the Living.”

I have written a lot about Howard Lederer but I think this was my best writing. I encourage you to look at Howard through the prism of those entries:

#560 – I’ve Got Howard’s Back

#565 – Howard Lederer is Still Alive

One of the biggest reasons for my disappointment at Full Tilt turning down my offer to return to London this year was that I wanted to be present when Howard Lederer made it to the Promised Land. He made the final table of the second event, Mixed Pot-Limit, and immediately followed up with another final table appearance in Event #3, PLO.

He wrangled the chip lead when they were three-handed and began heads-up play against Jani Vilmunen with the lead. Then he got coolered, flopping a straight against Vilmunen’s higher straight, and it was over.

In the moments after the tournament, I e-mailed Howard, knowing it was late at night in London and he was exhausted but that he continuously checks his phone for e-mails. This is what I said, which is unimportant except as how it pertains to his response:

I’m heartbroken for you. I know – and you know even better – that in the hierarchy of life’s disappointments finishing second in PLO is a pretty nice one. But I wanted it badly for you. You deserved it. One of the reasons I wanted to be in London is because I thought this was going to be your time. It would have been more fun being part of the celebration, but I’m sorry I’m not there to share an awkward, “oh well …. next time.”

Howard Lederer continues to amaze me. He sent me back a response that motivated me to reply, “I want you to handle all my disappointments for the rest of my life.” This is what he said:

Don’t be. I played as well as I can play and executed my heads-up strategy perfectly. [Vilmunen] lives, eats, and breathes PLO in the biggest games in the world. There was no way I was going to outplay him in a long match. So I shot it up, forcing him to gamble. We got 720k in the middle with me as a small favorite and he hit the perfect flop. It happens, but I’m sure he didn’t like what I made him do.

I expected Lederer would write me back with something cool and analytical (and he did) but I was still shocked. Because Howard is not an outwardly emotional person or publicly demonstrative with his feelings, some people get the impression that he lacks passion. But to me, his e-mail displays not just smart analysis, but great satisfaction at how he played. This is one aspect of the poker ideal: focusing on the quality of your decisions, not the outcome.

There are many aspects of my poker game in which I emulate Howard Lederer. I still have a lot to learn from him but the lessons are clearly there if I simply watch and listen. I encourage you to do the same.

As much as we can learn from examining Howard’s philosophy and deportment, there are some things I know we will never fully understand. For whatever reason he pursues poker glory – and I fully expect him to achieve it – it won’t be because he has to prove anything to himself. Howard Lederer knows exactly who he is.

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