Dan Harrington is a LIFE member of the USCF with a rating of 2355
Checkmate!
BY: JUSTIN MARCHAND justin@cardplayer.com
PUBLISHED: Wednesday Dec 05, 2007 12:00 AM
Dan Harringon Uses Poker as a Pawn to Capture King-like Financial Success
Inside Dan Harrington’s penthouse condo, an ornate desk stacked with presentation binders occupies the focal point of a large living room. An antique chess table abuts the glass and chrome window wall, offering panoramic views of Santa Monica’s posh Third Street promenade. The large plasma-screen TV tuned into CNBC hustles stock tickers across the screen and bookshelves full of backgammon, chess, business, and real estate titles hint at the raw materials that Harrington has used to build his unique life. The 63-year-old retired lawyer, chess master, and backgammon savant has spent a lifetime transforming his competitive game skills into extraordinary financial success.
The 1995 World Series of Poker champion has amassed more than $6 million in tournament winnings over his 20-year poker career. However, this title meant, and still means, very little to him. Instead, it validated his thesis that games, whether they be poker, chess, backgammon, investing, or real estate, are beatable with a studious and disciplined approach.
Harrington “retired” from poker soon after his World Series championship victory. From 1996 until 2003, he tallied only nine tournament cashes and, instead, focused on building his business, Anchor Loans, into the largest private real estate lending institution in the United States. The business loans money to developers and investors who are unable to secure enough financing via traditional sources for refurbishing residential homes and apartments in dilapidated areas.
Here is the full story.
Special thanks to M. Jeffreys for sending me this story.
Why are so many chess players flocking to poker? Is it the money? It can’t be as interesting, can it?
Do the skills from chess really travel that well that strong chess players make natural poker players?
Post moved to proper location.
Thank you for the post. I went and read the article and he actually has a lot of interesting comments about games in general and the whole prospect of playing for money as a way of earning a living.
With many players of chess dabbling also in poker, it should be of interest to them.
In poker, you need skills to keep you in the tournament, not making mistakes or else you lose all you chips. To win, you also need lady luck on your side many times. You could make the correct play (with calulated risk) and still lose the hand; you could make the incorrect play and win the hand too. Only the bad players lose in the long run when they make mistakes. What does it mean if you can win a poker tournament? Even the pros can not repeat their performance. May be as a group, they have a bit of edge. It may take one to win more than 30 coin flips to win the main event!
Dan Harrington wrote three poker books recently. They are major works in poker as those written by Watson for chess. I have much respect for him.