Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1945, Dan Harrington is the very definition of the tight aggressive style. Even though he calls himself Action Dan, (which is BTW the nick the live poker community knows him by) his style doesn’t exactly reflect any sort of thirst for action. Quite the opposite actually: his strict starting hand standards and endless patience enabled him to make countless final tables, and finish deep in the money in several tournaments.
Poker was by no means Dan Harrington’s first encounter with the world of professional gaming. He was a backgammon champion, and he won the Massachusetts State Chess Championship in 1971. He is distantly related to NFL player Joey Harrington.
With a sharp mind for business, Harrington’s poker winnings are not the only revenue stream that he enjoys. He used to work as a bankruptcy lawyer, and he is nowadays involved in the real estate business and the stock market.
In 1995, as the final table was reached in the WSOP Main Event, Harrington tried to convince the other 8 players involved that they should settle for a deal. He even detailed how they could invest the money each of them would take home, and make it work for them. His opponents weren’t interested though, and even though Dan tried to convince them to settle for a deal after each elimination, they remained adamant that they should each pursue the goal of taking down the $1 million first prize. Needless to say, when the line was drawn at the end of the day, it was Dan Harrington who remained standing and walked away with the first prize.
He began playing poker in the Mayfair Club in New York, with the likes of Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel and Steve Zolotow.
His first major poker result was the 6th place he attained in the 1987 Big Dance when he took down a prize of $43,000. In 1995, in addition to his Big Dance victory, he also won a bracelet in the $2,500 NL Holdem event. He finished 3rd in the 2003 Main Event and 4th in 2004. All-in-all he’s had 9 cash finishes in different WSOP events.
In the WPT, he has a title (2007: The Legends of Poker, in which he won around $1.6 million), 3 final tables and 8 money finishes. Having earned more than $6.5 million in his live tournament career, Dan Harrington also found time to co-author several books on tournament poker and cash game strategy.