How to find a Higgs boson with a mass between 155 and 180 GeV at the CERN LHC

We reconsider the signature of events with two charged leptons and missing energy as a signal for the detection of the standard model Higgs boson in the mass region M(Higgs) = 155-180 GeV. It is shown that a few simple experimental criteria allow us to distinguish events originating from the Higgs boson decaying to H-->W+W- from the nonresonant production of W(+)W(-)X at the CERN LHC. With this set of cuts, signal to background ratios of about one to one are obtained, allowing a 5-10 sigma detection with about 5 fb(-1) of luminosity. This corresponds to less than one year of running at the initial lower luminosity L=10(33) cm(-2)s(-1). This is significantly better than for the hitherto considered Higgs boson detection mode H-->Z(0)Z(0)*-->2l(+)2l(-), where in this mass range about 100 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity are required for a 5 sigma signal.