Howard Lederer Playing $400/$800 At The Bellagio

In September news broke that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had filed a $137 million civil complaint amendment against the four owners of Full Tilt Poker, $42.5 million of which was accounted for by Howard Lederer.
Soon after, the 47 year old Las Vegas resident released what has been dubbed the “Lederer Files” in which he charts the events which led to the downfall of Full Tilt Poker. During the publicity stunt, Lederer also implied some of his bank accounts had been frozen by the DoJ and that he was now cash poor.
A month on, however, and while thousands of US players are still awaiting the return of millions of dollars stuck on Full Tilt, Howard Lederer now feels confident enough to resume his high-stakes poker career and on Monday night was seen playing the $400/$800 mixed games at Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio. Bobby’s Room is where the “Big Game” takes place and has a minimum buy-in of $20k, although games can run as high as $4k/$8k with million dollar pots. As CardPlayer reporter Brian Pempus noted on his twitter account:
“Howard Lederer playing black-chip game in Bobby’s Room w/ Brunson, Elezra, Schulman (no Ivey). Friendly game – lots of laughing and chatter.”
The following day, Lederer is then believed to have taken part in a high stakes cash game at the Aria along with such players as Nick Schulman, David Oppenheim, Huck Seed and Chau Giang, who were all Full Tilt representatives at one stage. Not surprisingly, Lederer’s return to high stakes poker drew immediate ire from many in the poker community and across the forums. One of those not happy to see Lederer at the Aria Tuesday night was poker pro and $5/$10 NL grinder Siva Dhamotharan, who was waiting for a cash game to start at the time.
“It makes you a little angry that he’s showing his face while knowing that people still haven’t been paid..It affects me a lot of the time. That’s where I had most of my money.”
The 26 year old also added he believed Lederer was taking part in the game with “wrongfully earned money.”