Dan Harrington

Dan Harrington was born on December 6, 1945, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to parents who had both emigrated from Ireland. He grew up as a competitive chess player, winning the 1971 Massachusetts State Chess Championship and earning a U.S. chess master title. He also excelled at backgammon, winning a World Cup of Backgammon title around 1980. Harrington attended Suffolk University, where he first learned poker, and later graduated with a degree in government and history. He worked as a bankruptcy lawyer for approximately a decade before turning to poker full-time. During his time at Harvard, he played poker against two then-unknown students named Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Harrington became a regular at the legendary Mayfair Club in New York City in the 1980s, playing alongside future poker stars such as Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, and Steve Zolotow.

Harrington’s breakout moment came at the 1995 World Series of Poker. He first won a WSOP bracelet in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for $249,000. In the Main Event, he outlasted a field of 273 players, including 1992 champion Hamid Dastmalchi and Barbara Enright, who became the first woman to make a WSOP Main Event final table. Harrington defeated Howard Goldfarb heads-up to capture the championship and the $1,000,000 first-place prize. At the time of his victory, he lived in Downey, California. Later that year, he also won a Seven-card stud event at the European Poker Open in London, making 1995 a banner year.

Harrington’s WSOP Main Event success continued well into the 2000s. He finished sixth in 1987, third in 2003 (the year Chris Moneymaker sparked the poker boom), and fourth in 2004—a field that had ballooned to 2,576 players. His back-to-back final tables in 2003 and 2004 are considered one of the sport’s greatest accomplishments. In total, he has 15 WSOP cashes, 5 final tables, and 2 bracelets. On the World Poker Tour, Harrington won the 2007 Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino for $1,634,865—his largest live cash. He also finished second in the 2005 Doyle Brunson North American Championship for $620,730. As of 2021, only five other players have won both the WSOP Main Event and a WPT title: Doyle Brunson, Carlos Mortensen, Scotty Nguyen, Joe Hachem, and Ryan Riess.

Harrington is universally described as a tight-aggressive player who relies on mathematics and probability. He famously coined his own nickname “Action Dan” as an ironic joke about his patient, conservative approach. He avoids marginal situations and focuses on long-term profitability. His most significant conceptual contribution to tournament poker is the “M” system—a measure of how many rounds of blinds and antes a player’s stack can survive. Codified in his books, this framework helps players adjust aggression based on stack depth. Harrington’s disciplined style, iconic green Boston Red Sox cap, and deep analytical thinking have made him a role model for aspiring players. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2010.

Harrington co-authored the hugely influential “Harrington on Hold’em” series with Bill Robertie, published between 2004 and 2006. The three volumes cover strategic play, endgame, and workbook exercises. He later wrote “Harrington on Cash Games” (two volumes), “Harrington on Online Cash Games” (2010), and “Harrington on Modern Tournament Poker” (2014). These books are celebrated for their clear, logical explanations and have become essential reading for serious poker students. Harrington’s teaching extends beyond books; he has contributed strategy articles and videos, sharing his wealth of experience.

Outside of poker, Harrington has built a successful business career. In 1998, he co-founded Anchor Loans in Calabasas, California, with two poker buddies, Jeff Lipton and Stephen Pollack. The company provided quick bridge funding to real estate rehabbers, starting with poker winnings. Anchor Loans grew to fund over $5.3 billion in loans and has been profitable every year since inception. Harrington served as its first CEO and retired from the company in 2010, though he remains a shareholder. He also works in real estate and the stock market. Unlike many professionals, Harrington considers himself a part-time poker player due to his business commitments, usually playing only a few WSOP and WPT events each year. He resides in Santa Monica, California.