Howard Lederer Breaks His Silence

It's been 5 long years since Black Friday rocked the poker world and turned it upside down. It's been almost as long since we have seen, or heard from Howard Lederer – the man in charge of the company, and who most blame for the fiasco that was Full Tilt. Aside from a 7-hour interview with Lederer by Poker News, most of the mainstream has not heard a peep from Howard. Each year the WSOP rolls around, we all wonder if this will be the year he shows his face. Earlier this week, he finally broke his silence by posting a long story on Daniel Negranue blog – Full Contact Poker. In short, he apologized, made a few excuses, and once again passed some blame aside. Which is what he has been doing this entire time. To his benefit, the post did mention he had an ego and didn't think he was responsible, but now realizes he was somewhat at fault. But, he also mentions, that he was not overseeing the day to day operations while these problems happened. Essentially saying it wasn't his fault, and he had no part of it, but since he was CEO, it was his fault he let it happen. Feel free to read the entire post at Full Contact Poker.com and judge for yourself. Daniel Negranue spoke for many in the poker community by saying he wished this apology came 5 years ago. He also stated that he feels this apology to be genuine. There are two important factors that we need to take in to account while judging this post in my opinion. First, this apology comes right when Full Tilt was closed for good and merged with Poker Stars. Is this coincidence? Maybe, but unlikely since it was during the same week and immediately after the day they shut down. Second, the WSOP is just a couple weeks away. We all know that the WSOP is the pinnacle for many poker players. And with Howard being a Las Vegas resident, it has to be killing him not to play in it. Could this post be a ploy to show his face at the WSOP? Some seem to think so. If he does show up at the WSOP, will players still hold a grudge? I think most of the “In” crowd will not think twice and have probably already moved on from this. But what about the thousands of players who lost their livelihood? We will never know for certain whose fault it really was, but in my opinion, Howards apology is 5 years too late and does not fly in my book. I hate to hold a grudge, but in this case its justified. Let us know how you would feel if you saw Howard Lederer sitting at a table next to you.