Dan Harrington is one of the fathers of modern poker strategy since many players have read at least one Texas holdem book written by Harrington. Of course, Harrington didn't become an authority on how to play poker without a successful playing career to back it up.
Harrington learned how to play hold em himself in the early and mid-80's at the famous Mayfair Club in New York City. Little did the Cambridge, Massachusetts native know that he and several of the other Mayfair Club members including Erik Seidel, Howard Lederer, and Steve Zolotow would go on to become world-famous players.
Not long after he learned how to play hold em at the Mayfair Club, Harrington would go on to start playing in live tournaments. Harrington's first WSOP cash occurred in 1986 when he finished 24th in a $1,500 event ($1,500 cash). The following year, Harrington put himself on the map by placing sixth in the 1987 WSOP Main Event ($43,750). Whatever Harrington picked up when he learned how to play hold em at the Mayfair Club, it was working because he went on to win a 1995 WSOP $2,500 NLHE event ($249k), and more importantly, the 1995 Main Event ($1 million).
The win certainly furthered Harrington's career and cemented his legacy, but he wasn't satisfied quite yet. Harrington would go on to play hold em in numerous other tournaments over the years. Some of his other tournament highlights include placing third in the 2003 WSOP Main Event ($650k), placing fourth in the 2004 WSOP Main Event ($1.5 million), and winning the WPT Legends of the Fall tournament ($1,635,365). In all, Harrington has over $6.6 million in live tournament cashes.
Getting back to Harrington the author, after making it apparent that he knew how to play poker, Harrington decided to write his first Texas holdem book in 2004. The title of the book was rather simple as it read Harrington on Holdem: Volume 1: Strategic Play; however, this book was anything but a basic set of Texas hold em hand rankings. Sure there were Texas hold em hand rankings in this book, but it was so much more than just simple strategy.
Millions of poker players learned how to play poker from this single book. Those who benefited from the first book were thrilled when he released subsequent books on how to play hold em tournaments called Harrington on Holdem: Volume 2: The Endgame, and Harrington on Holdem: Volume 3: The Workbook. Once again, this wasn't just some rehash of the classic Texas hold em hand rankings as Harrington covered nearly every aspect on how to play hold em effectively. Coupled with the poker boom from 2003-2006, even more people were using these books as a guide to play hold em. If a successful tournament player didn't have a Texas holdem book by Harrington back then, it was a rarity.
"Action Dan" continued to push more books on how to play poker as he wrote both Harrington on Cash Games Volume 1 and Volume II in 2008. Now, even ring game players were learning how to play hold em through Harrington's cash game books, which included everything from the aforementioned Texas hold em hand rankings to the more advanced strategies that players use to play hold em.
With all of his books and a successful playing career, Harrington is quite possibly the most noted authority on how to play poker of all-time!
