At the age of 18, he pursued his passion for chess, and moved to New York to play professionally. He discovered a new passion in poker and began playing, and went broke most of the time until he began gaining experience at the famous Mayfair Club. This was home to professionals such as Dan Harrington and Erik Seidel. Lederer improved his game and moved to Las Vegas in 1993.

In 2002, he shifted his focus from cash games to tournaments. “The Professor” has two World Series of Poker bracelets in the 2000 $5,000 Omaha eight-or-better and the 2001 $5,000 deuce-to-seven draw events. He also won the 2002 World Poker Tour Championship at Foxwoods, is the 2003 WPT PartyPoker Million champion, and won three Five-Star World Poker Classic events.