Dan "Action Dan" Harrington is an America professional poker player born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has a number of other business interests besides poker and is also an author. "Harrington on Holdem" was ranked number 1 in "888poker top 86 poker books list".
Harrington was a skilled backgammon player as a young man and was also an accomplished chess player. He won the 1971 Chess Championship in Massachusetts and a chess championship in New Jersey. He continued to play backgammon until an organizer refused to play him $27k in prize money. He then quit backgammon.
While attending school at Suffolk University, he discovered poker. Harrington regularly played in home games and even played against Bill Gates, the now billionaire founder of Microsoft. At the time, Gates was a student at Harvard University. Also, while in college, Harrington joined a group that calculated Roulette odds. The group was so successful that they were kicked out of the Sands Casinos in Atlantic City. Shortly after, he did the same thing with Blackjack.
Harrington lived in New York City during the 1980s and played poker in the famous Mayfair Club. He honed his skills against some of the best players at the Club, including Howard Lederer, Steve Zolotov and Mickey Appleman.
Harrington entered his first World Series of Poker Main Event in 1987 and finished 6th. He left New York two years later to play poker in the Golden State and also in Las Vegas. He continued playing poker along with managing other business interests and finally won the WSOP Main Event in 1995. He then won another bracelet in a $2,500 event that same year.
However, most of his poker boom fame came in 2003 and 2004. Harrington made back to back final tables in the WSOP Main Event in both years. He is the first player to ever accomplish that feat. He placed third in 2003 and fourth in 2004. This was an especially impressive accomplishment because of the record number of players playing in the WSOP each year. Wearing his Boston Red Sox green cap, he is a modest and quiet player. He even nicknamed himself "Action Dan" in an attempt to mislead opponents. He plays a tight aggressive style of poker.
His overall tournament winnings are around $6.6 million. He won a 2007 WPT Legends of Poker tournament, making him one of the few players to win both a WSOP Main Event Title and a WPT Title.
Harrington is also a noted author, having several books published by 2+2 Publishing. His Harrington on Hold'em books were record sellers and have been called by some the definitive book on cash games and tournaments.
Harrington has many other business interests outside of poker. He has a company called Anchor Loans and works in real estate and the stock market.
