- Dan Harrington
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This article is about the poker player. For the politician, see Dan Harrington (politician).
Dan Harrington
Dan Harrington in the World Series of PokerNickname(s) Action Dan Hometown Santa Monica, California Born December 6, 1945 World Series of Poker Bracelet(s) 2 Final table(s) 5 Money finish(es) 11 Highest ITM
Main Event finishWinner, 1995 World Poker Tour Title(s) 1 Final table(s) 2 Money finish(es) 8 Information accurate as of 2010-09-12. Dan Harrington (born December 6, 1945 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) is a professional poker player, best known for winning the main event world championship at the 1995 World Series of Poker. He has earned one World Poker Tour title, two WSOP bracelets, and over six million dollars in tournament cashes in his poker career. He is also a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.[1]
Harrington chose his own nickname "Action Dan" even though he is known for being a tight conservative player.[2] He is a distant cousin to both professional golfer Pádraig Harrington and former NFL quarterback Joey Harrington.[3]
Contents
Early life and business career
Harrington was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Currently residing in Santa Monica, California, Harrington is a former champion backgammon player and U.S. chess master (he won the 1971 Massachusetts State Chess Championship). Before becoming a poker professional and businessman, Harrington worked for many years as a bankruptcy lawyer. He also played poker against Bill Gates while Gates was at Harvard. Some of his earlier poker experience came from the Mayfair Club in the mid-1980s, where he played with Howard Lederer, Steve Zolotow, and Erik Seidel.
In addition to being a successful professional poker player, Harrington also works in real estate and the stock market. Currently, Harrington also owns and operates his own company, Anchor Loans, which makes various types of loans and has suffered no loss since its creation, according to an interview given by Harrington. He has also stated during interviews about his poker career, that he is there for the money, not the fame or glory. Also unlike many professional poker players, Dan considers himself only a part-time player, since he spends a large amount of his time on his business interests. He usually only plays a few events at the World Series of Poker each year and plays in occasional World Poker Tour events and a few other tournaments.
Poker career
Harrington first cashed in the World Series of Poker in 1986. The next year, in only his second WSOP cash, Harrington made the final table of the Main Event. He finished in 6th place in the event which was won by Johnny Chan. Harrington's friend and fellow Mayfair Club member, Howard Lederer was also at this final table, finishing in fifth place.
Sporting his iconic green Boston Red Sox cap, Dan Harrington is known as a crafty, tight-aggressive player, employing starting hand standards that are stricter than most professionals. When he reached the final table at the 1995 main event, he set the runner-up, Howard Goldfarb, to bluff for all his chips in the final hand. At the time of his victory in the main event, Harrington lived in Downey, California.
The same year as his main event win, he also won a bracelet in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for $249,000 and the Seven-card stud event at European Poker Open in London. He made his first final table at the World Poker Tour (WPT) in 2005, winning $620,730 for his second place finish to Minh Ly in the Doyle Brunson North American Championship. In 2007, he won the Legends of Poker for a prize of $1,634,865.
In 2008, Harrington made his first appearance on the NBC show Poker After Dark in the episode titled "Mayfair Club." This tournament brought together poker players who had played at the legendary Mayfair Club in New York City. The other players in the tournament with Harrington included professional poker players Howard Lederer, Mickey Appleman, Steve Zolotow, Jay Heimowitz, and Mike Shictman, the owner of the Mayfair Club for many years. Harrington busted out first, finishing in 6th place. The tournament was won by Jay Heimowitz who defeated Howard Lederer in heads-up play.
His solid play allows him to make it to many final tables at large events. He won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event in 1995 for $1,000,000. He has made three other main event final tables: placing 6th in 1987 for $43,750, 3rd (out of 839 players) in 2003 for $650,000, and 4th (out of 2,576 players) in 2004 for $1,500,000. Because of the increased number of participants, his run of back-to-back main event final tables in 2003-04 has been called the greatest accomplishment in World Series history, particularly by ESPN poker announcer Norman Chad. As defending champion in 1996, Harrington made another deep run in the main event, finishing in 17th place and earning $23,400. He also cashed in the 2009 main event, finishing in 252nd place for a $32,963 payout.
Harrington, Doyle Brunson, Carlos Mortensen, Scotty Nguyen and Joe Hachem are the only five people to have won the World Series of Poker Main Event and a World Poker Tour title.
As of 2011, his live tournament winnings exceed $6,600,000.[4] More than half of his live tournament winnings ($3,524,476) have come at the WSOP.[5]
Books
He has written (co-authored with Bill Robertie) three popular books on tournament poker, two books on cash no-limit games and one book on online cash no-limit games, all published by Two Plus Two Publishing:
- Harrington on Hold'em: Volume I: Strategic Play ISBN 1-880685-33-7 (2004)
- Harrington on Hold'em: Volume II: The Endgame ISBN 1-880685-35-3 (2005)
- Harrington on Hold'em: Volume III: The Workbook ISBN 1-880685-36-1 (2006)
- Harrington on Cash Games, Volume I: How to Play No-Limit Hold 'em Cash Games ISBN 1-880685-42-6 (2008)
- Harrington on Cash Games, Volume II: How to Play No-Limit Hold 'em Cash Games ISBN 1-880685-43-4 (2008)
- Harrington on Online Cash Games; 6-Max No-Limit Hold 'em ISBN 1-880685-49-3 (2010)
World Series of Poker bracelets
Year Tournament Prize (US$) 1995 $2,500 No Limit Hold'em $249,000 1995 $10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship $1,000,000 Notes
- ^ Rodriguez, Julio (Oct 19, 2010). "Dan Harrington and Erik Seidel Inducted Into 2010 Poker Hall of Fame". Cardplayer Magazine. http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/10000-dan-harrington-and-erik-seidel-inducted-into-2010-poker-hall-of-fame. Retrieved Oct19, 2010.
- ^ Cardplayer article on Harrington
- ^ Spousta, Tom (2005-03-03). "Padraig Harrington goes clubbin' in USA". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/2005-03-03-harrington-cover_x.htm.
- ^ Hendon Mob tournament results
- ^ World Series of Poker Earnings, www.worldseriesofpoker.com
External links
World Series of Poker - Main Event champions 1970: Moss | 1971: Moss | 1972: Slim | 1973: Pearson | 1974: Moss | 1975: Roberts | 1976: Brunson | 1977: Brunson | 1978: Baldwin | 1979: Fowler | 1980: Ungar | 1981: Ungar | 1982: Straus | 1983: McEvoy | 1984: Keller | 1985: Smith | 1986: Johnston | 1987: Chan | 1988: Chan | 1989: Hellmuth | 1990: Matloubi | 1991: Daugherty | 1992: Dastmalchi | 1993: Bechtel | 1994: Hamilton | 1995: Harrington | 1996: Seed | 1997: Ungar | 1998: Nguyen | 1999: Furlong | 2000: Ferguson | 2001: Mortensen | 2002: Varkonyi | 2003: Moneymaker | 2004: Raymer | 2005: Hachem | 2006: Gold | 2007: Yang | 2008: Eastgate | 2009: Cada | 2010: Duhamel | 2011: Heinz1990s WSOP Bracelet Winners 1990 Allen Baker · John Bonetti · Norm Boulus · Marie Gabert · Mike Hart · Berry Johnston · Monte Kouz · Vasilis Lazarou · Mansour Matloubi · Phil Reher · Ray Rumler · Amarillo Slim · Shawqui Shunnarah · Tony Stormzand · Hugh Todd
1991 Joe Becker · Doyle Brunson · Brent Carter · Thomas Chung · Artie Cobb · Brad Daugherty · Pat Flanagan · Mike Hart · Jay Heimowitz · Paul Heinrich · Max Linder · Rodney H. Pardey · John Spadavecchia · Ron Stanley · An Tran · Donna Ward · Byron Wolford · Charles Wight
1992 Bob Abell · Mickey Appleman · Eli Balas · Lyle Berman · Buddy Bonnecaze · Paul Clark · Hoyt Corkins · Hamid Dastmalchi · Dal Derovin · Kenny Duggan · Shari Flanzer · Lamar Hampton · Phil Hellmuth · Tom McEvoy · Men Nguyen · Ray Rumler · Erik Seidel · Rick Steiner · Lance Straughn · Billy Thomas
1993 Billy Baxter · Jim Bechtel · John Bonetti · Buddy Bonnecaze · Humberto Brenes (2) · Hamid Dastmalchi · Gene Fisher · Ted Forrest (3) · Chau Giang · Phil Hellmuth (3) · Jack Keller · Phyllis Kessler · Hugo Mieth · Erik Seidel · Marty Sigel · Robert Turner
1994 Lyle Berman · Vince Burgio · Brent Carter · Johnny Chan · J. J. Chun · T. J. Cloutier (2) · Barbara Enright · Russ Hamilton · Mike Hart · John Heaney · Jay Heimowitz · Mike Laing · O'Neil Longson · Roger Moore · Rodney H. Pardey · J. C. Pearson · George Rodis · Huck Seed · Erik Seidel · Steven Sim · Bill Sykes
1995 Mickey Appleman · John Bonetti · Starla Brodie · Anthony DeAngelo · Marlon De Los Santos · Phil Earle · Valter Farina · Dan Harrington (2) · Berry Johnston · Richard Klamian · Men Nguyen (2) · Rod Peate · Dan Robinson · Clifford Roof · Hilbert Shirey (2) · Mickey Sisskind · Max Stern · John Tsagaris · Christian Van Hees · Peter Vilandos · Steve Zolotow
1996 Gary Benson · John Cernuto · David Chiu · Freddy Deeb · Barbara Enright · Sam Farha · Jim Feldhouse · Gregory Grivas · Adeeb Harb · Randy Holland · Jim Huntley · Susie Isaacs · Donny Kerr · Al Krux · Hans Lund · Tony Ma · John Morgan · Men Nguyen · Henry Orenstein · Dody Roach · Huck Seed · Marty Sigel · Frank Thompson · Mel Weiner
1997 Louis Asmo · Chris Björin · John Cernuto · Johnny Chan · Claude Cohen · Phil Hellmuth · Susie Isaacs · Linda Johnson · Mel Judah · Vasilis Lazarou · Scotty Nguyen · Matthias Rohnacher · Doug Saab · Maria Stern · Max Stern (2) · Kevin Song · Dean Stonier · Dave Ulliott · Bob Veltri
1998 Farzad Bonyadi · Patrick Bruel · Doyle Brunson) · Ken Buntjer · Jan Chen · David Chiu · T. J. Cloutier · Artie Cobb · Mendy Commanda · Bill Gempel · Chau Giang · Tommy Hufnagle · Kirk Morrison · Daniel Negreanu · Scotty Nguyen · Donnacha O'Dea · Jeff Ross · Paul Rowe · Steve Rydel · Erik Seidel · Michael Shadkin
1999 Josh Arieh · Steve Badger · Eli Balas · Charles Brahmi · Paul Clark · John Esposito · Layne Flack · Tom Franklin · Noel Furlong · David Grey · Eric Holum · Hassan Kamoei · Ron Long · Mike Matusow · Christina Pie · Mike Wattel
note: number in brackets represents the number of bracelets earned in that year1970s · 1980s · 1990s · 2000s · 2010s Categories:- 1945 births
- American lawyers
- American chess players
- American poker players
- American backgammon players
- People from Cambridge, Massachusetts
- People from Boston, Massachusetts
- People from Downey, California
- People from Santa Monica, California
- Suffolk University alumni
- American people of Irish descent
- Living people
- World Series of Poker bracelet winners
- World Series of Poker Main Event winners
- World Poker Tour winners
- American gambling writers
- American financial businesspeople
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