WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.720 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We've got a really 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:06.960 fascinating stack of research today. It circles 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:08.880 around a figure in the world of high -stakes 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:12.720 strategy who is, quite frankly, a walking contradiction. 00:00:13.419 --> 00:00:15.839 To kick things off, if I told you someone's nickname 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:18.679 was Action Dan, what kind of person pops into 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:21.620 your head? Action, Dan. I mean, immediately I'm 00:00:21.620 --> 00:00:24.219 picturing a daredevil, someone, you know, jumping 00:00:24.219 --> 00:00:27.500 a motorcycle over a shark tank. Right. Or in 00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:29.699 a poker context, you picture a total maniac, 00:00:29.879 --> 00:00:31.980 someone swinging from the chandeliers, betting 00:00:31.980 --> 00:00:34.799 the farm on a gut feeling, playing loose, fast 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:38.179 and reckless. Exactly. You picture chaos. But 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:40.520 the subject of today's deep dive, Dan Harrington, 00:00:40.579 --> 00:00:43.420 is. Well, he's pretty much the exact opposite 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:45.939 of Chaos. Right. He is famous for being one of 00:00:45.939 --> 00:00:47.899 the tightest, most conservative, disciplined 00:00:47.899 --> 00:00:50.359 players in the history of the game. And here's 00:00:50.359 --> 00:00:52.479 where it gets really interesting. He gave himself 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:55.640 that nickname. As a joke. It really is the perfect 00:00:55.640 --> 00:00:57.880 glimpse into his psychology right off the bat. 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:00.840 It's ironic, sure. But it also shows he understands 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:03.179 that gap between, you know, image and reality. 00:01:03.479 --> 00:01:06.579 He knows how people perceive him. As this boring, 00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:09.599 solid rock. And he's willing to play with that 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:12.299 perception. Even... mocking it a little bit. 00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:15.299 And visually, he is just as iconic. If you watch 00:01:15.299 --> 00:01:18.340 poker on TV during the boom years, say the mid 00:01:18.340 --> 00:01:20.340 -2000s, you know exactly who we're talking about. 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:22.680 Oh, yeah. The guy in the green Boston Red Sox 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:25.620 cap. He didn't look like a high -rolling gambler 00:01:25.620 --> 00:01:28.219 in a tuxedo. And he didn't look like the internet 00:01:28.219 --> 00:01:31.079 kids in hoodies and sunglasses. No. He looked 00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:32.739 like your uncle who just got back from a bowl 00:01:32.739 --> 00:01:35.180 game. Or a tourist who wandered into the Horseshoe 00:01:35.180 --> 00:01:36.700 Casino looking for the buffet and accidentally 00:01:36.700 --> 00:01:40.019 sat down at the final table. Right. But underneath 00:01:40.019 --> 00:01:43.239 that cap is a resume that is honestly staggering 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:45.599 in its diversity. We aren't just looking at a 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:47.579 card player here. No, not at all. We are looking 00:01:47.579 --> 00:01:50.500 at a former bankruptcy lawyer, a champion backgammon 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:53.900 player, and a U .S. chess master. It's a wild 00:01:53.900 --> 00:01:56.579 combination of skills. And that is our mission 00:01:56.579 --> 00:01:59.540 for this deep dive. We want to explore how a 00:01:59.540 --> 00:02:02.879 man who views himself essentially as a part -time 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:05.219 player. Or a businessman with a hobby, really. 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:09.060 Right, how he managed to pull off what many experts 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:11.939 consider the single greatest accomplishment in 00:02:11.939 --> 00:02:14.110 the history of the World Series of Poker. It's 00:02:14.110 --> 00:02:16.949 a story about discipline, risk assessment, and 00:02:16.949 --> 00:02:20.150 transferring skills from one high -stakes environment 00:02:20.150 --> 00:02:22.490 to another. It's about how being a generalist 00:02:22.490 --> 00:02:24.650 can actually make you the deadliest specialist 00:02:24.650 --> 00:02:27.590 in the room. So let's unpack this. We have to 00:02:27.590 --> 00:02:29.129 start at the beginning to understand the foundation. 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:32.530 Dan Harrington was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts 00:02:32.530 --> 00:02:36.830 on December 6, 1945. And before he was taking 00:02:36.830 --> 00:02:39.449 chips from poker pros, he was taking pieces on 00:02:39.449 --> 00:02:41.650 a chessboard. Right. And this isn't just a casual, 00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:44.159 you know, I play on Sundays. He was a U .S. chess 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:47.259 master. He actually won the 1971 Massachusetts 00:02:47.259 --> 00:02:49.819 State Chess Championship. So for the listener 00:02:49.819 --> 00:02:51.620 who maybe doesn't play either game seriously, 00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:54.360 how does chess skill actually translate to poker? 00:02:54.439 --> 00:02:56.620 They seem totally different. They do, yeah. Chess 00:02:56.620 --> 00:02:58.479 is perfect information. You see everything on 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:00.800 the board. Poker is hidden information. That's 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:03.080 a great distinction, but the crossover isn't 00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:05.319 about the mechanics. It's about the mental discipline. 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:09.219 In chess, if you lose focus for one single move, 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:11.979 you lose the game. A blunder, they call it. A 00:03:11.979 --> 00:03:14.340 blunder. A lot of poker players lose because 00:03:14.340 --> 00:03:16.599 they get bored or they get emotional or they 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:19.870 get tired and they make a massive error. Harrington's 00:03:19.870 --> 00:03:22.550 chest background meant he had the stamina to 00:03:22.550 --> 00:03:25.789 sit there for 12 hours, fold terrible hands for 00:03:25.789 --> 00:03:29.090 11 of them, and just never lose his mental sharpness. 00:03:29.270 --> 00:03:31.669 He wasn't looking for action. No, he was analyzing 00:03:31.669 --> 00:03:33.930 patterns. He was waiting for the other guy to 00:03:33.930 --> 00:03:37.069 blink. He viewed the poker table as a logic puzzle, 00:03:37.210 --> 00:03:39.849 not a gambling hall. Exactly. And speaking of 00:03:39.849 --> 00:03:42.229 high -level logic, there is this incredible... 00:03:42.509 --> 00:03:44.990 Anecdote from his time in Cambridge. Apparently 00:03:44.990 --> 00:03:46.990 he used to play poker against Bill Gates while 00:03:46.990 --> 00:03:49.810 Gates was still at Harvard. That is wild. Imagine 00:03:49.810 --> 00:03:52.610 bluffing the guy who would go on to found Microsoft. 00:03:53.009 --> 00:03:55.310 It paints such a vivid picture of the environment 00:03:55.310 --> 00:03:57.069 he was in, though. I mean, he was honing his 00:03:57.069 --> 00:03:59.689 skills in this crucible of high level intellect. 00:03:59.990 --> 00:04:02.250 It wasn't about gambling in a back alley with 00:04:02.250 --> 00:04:04.509 mobsters. It was about out thinking some of the 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:07.289 smartest math brains in the room. And that trend 00:04:07.289 --> 00:04:09.550 of surrounding himself with brilliance continued 00:04:09.550 --> 00:04:12.500 when he moved to New York City. We have to talk 00:04:12.500 --> 00:04:14.719 about the Mayfair Club. This place sounds legendary. 00:04:15.219 --> 00:04:17.920 The Mayfair is mythical in poker history. It 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:20.300 was an underground bridge and backgammon club 00:04:20.300 --> 00:04:22.579 in New York that started spreading poker. And 00:04:22.579 --> 00:04:25.339 in the mid -80s, Harrington was playing there 00:04:25.339 --> 00:04:27.660 with a group that would basically go on to run 00:04:27.660 --> 00:04:30.040 the poker world for the next two decades. Who 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:32.079 are we talking about? We're talking about Howard 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:35.759 Lederer, Steve Zolotow, and Eric Seidel. That 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:38.750 is a murderer's row of talent. It is. And the 00:04:38.750 --> 00:04:41.029 reason that specific group became so good is 00:04:41.029 --> 00:04:43.689 that they collaborated in the old days. You know, 00:04:43.709 --> 00:04:45.709 road gamblers kept their secrets. They didn't 00:04:45.709 --> 00:04:48.290 share strategies. Right. But the Mayfair group 00:04:48.290 --> 00:04:50.350 would play all night. then go out to dinner and 00:04:50.350 --> 00:04:52.769 deconstruct every hand. Why did you bet there? 00:04:53.009 --> 00:04:55.769 What range were you putting him on? So they were 00:04:55.769 --> 00:04:58.610 crowdsourcing strategy. Exactly. They were essentially 00:04:58.610 --> 00:05:01.009 running simulations in their heads before computers 00:05:01.009 --> 00:05:03.129 could do it for them. They were the first modern 00:05:03.129 --> 00:05:06.250 poker theorists. Wow. There was actually a reunion 00:05:06.250 --> 00:05:09.709 tournament on the show Poker After Dork in 2008 00:05:09.709 --> 00:05:12.490 called Mayfair Club, where they brought Harrington 00:05:12.490 --> 00:05:15.829 back together with leader Mickey Abelman and 00:05:15.829 --> 00:05:18.660 the owner, Mike Schichtman. It just shows you 00:05:18.660 --> 00:05:21.620 how deep those roots go. So he has the chess 00:05:21.620 --> 00:05:25.100 mind, the legal training as a bankruptcy lawyer, 00:05:25.220 --> 00:05:28.040 which is all about evaluating assets and liabilities. 00:05:28.339 --> 00:05:30.480 And he's sharpened his teeth at the Mayfair Club. 00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:34.800 Yep. Let's jump to 1995. This is the year Action 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.500 Dan really announces himself to the world. This 00:05:37.500 --> 00:05:39.500 is the breakout. And to understand it, you have 00:05:39.500 --> 00:05:41.240 to understand the style. We mentioned he's tight 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:43.019 aggressive. Let's break that down. When you hear 00:05:43.019 --> 00:05:44.959 tight, it usually sounds like you're playing 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:47.870 scared. It does, but in poker terms, tight just 00:05:47.870 --> 00:05:50.189 refers to your starting hand standards. It means 00:05:50.189 --> 00:05:52.449 you fold most of the time. You are only playing, 00:05:52.490 --> 00:05:55.990 say, the top 10 % or 15 % of hands, aces, kings, 00:05:56.189 --> 00:05:59.170 big pairs. But the aggressive part is the key. 00:05:59.610 --> 00:06:02.529 When Harrington did enter a pot, he wasn't limping 00:06:02.529 --> 00:06:05.230 in. He was betting hard. So if he's putting chips 00:06:05.230 --> 00:06:07.050 in the middle, you better run unless you have 00:06:07.050 --> 00:06:11.250 a monster. Exactly. And in 1995, that style just 00:06:11.250 --> 00:06:13.389 demolished the World Series of Poker. He didn't 00:06:13.389 --> 00:06:15.709 just win one bracelet. He won two. Two in one 00:06:15.709 --> 00:06:19.410 year. Yep. He won the $2 ,500 No Limit Hold 'em 00:06:19.410 --> 00:06:24.189 event for about $249 ,000. And then he took down 00:06:24.189 --> 00:06:27.149 the big one, the main event, for a cool million 00:06:27.149 --> 00:06:29.370 dollars. Winning the main event is the dream. 00:06:29.509 --> 00:06:31.529 But doing it the same year you win another bracelet? 00:06:32.029 --> 00:06:34.589 That is a heater. It's unbelievable. And there's 00:06:34.589 --> 00:06:37.209 a specific hand from that main event final table 00:06:37.209 --> 00:06:40.730 that really illustrates his genius. It was against 00:06:40.730 --> 00:06:43.569 Howard Goldfarb. This is the master class. So 00:06:43.569 --> 00:06:45.410 Harrington is heads up for the title. He looks 00:06:45.410 --> 00:06:47.629 down and picks up a monster hand. Now, a normal 00:06:47.629 --> 00:06:49.769 tight player might bet out trying to protect 00:06:49.769 --> 00:06:52.069 the hand. Right, get value. But Harrington knew 00:06:52.069 --> 00:06:55.350 his image. He knew Goldfarb saw him as this conservative 00:06:55.350 --> 00:06:58.250 guy who doesn't bluff. So Harrington checked. 00:06:58.509 --> 00:07:01.870 He showed weakness. He feigned weakness, he induced 00:07:01.870 --> 00:07:04.629 Goldfarb to think, Harrington missed, he's giving 00:07:04.629 --> 00:07:07.750 up. Goldfarb shoved all his chips in on a bluff 00:07:07.750 --> 00:07:10.269 and Harrington just snapped him off. Wow. He 00:07:10.269 --> 00:07:12.970 used his reputation as a boring player to trap 00:07:12.970 --> 00:07:15.329 his opponent for the title. He recognized his 00:07:15.329 --> 00:07:17.870 own boredom. That is brilliant. It's psychological 00:07:17.870 --> 00:07:20.209 warfare, and that win put him in the history 00:07:20.209 --> 00:07:22.750 books. We should mention, he's part of a very, 00:07:22.829 --> 00:07:26.589 very exclusive club. He is one of only six people 00:07:26.589 --> 00:07:30.230 to win the WSOP main event and a World Poker 00:07:30.230 --> 00:07:32.529 Tour title. Right, along with legends like Doyle 00:07:32.529 --> 00:07:35.129 Brunson and Scott Anguane. Harrington won the 00:07:35.129 --> 00:07:38.910 WPT Legends of Poker in 2007 for over $1 .6 million. 00:07:39.149 --> 00:07:42.649 So 1995 was the breakout, but his longevity is 00:07:42.649 --> 00:07:44.899 what makes him a Hall of Famer. And this leads 00:07:44.899 --> 00:07:47.420 us to the core of this deep dive, the feat that 00:07:47.420 --> 00:07:50.439 ESPN announcer Norman Chad called the greatest 00:07:50.439 --> 00:07:52.879 accomplishment in World Series history. This 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:55.279 is fascinating because it happens almost a decade 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:58.720 after his 1995 win. We are fast forwarding to 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:01.759 2003 and 2004. The poker boom era. Exactly. The 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:03.779 game had fundamentally changed. I mean, in 1995, 00:08:03.939 --> 00:08:06.839 when he won, there were 273 entrants. It's hard 00:08:06.839 --> 00:08:09.579 to beat 273 people, but it's manageable. It's 00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:12.759 doable. By 2003, thanks to online poker and the 00:08:12.759 --> 00:08:14.920 whole moneymaker effect, the fields were just 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:17.579 exploding. So what did Harrington do? In 2003, 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:21.959 in a field of 839 players, so nearly triple the 00:08:21.959 --> 00:08:24.560 size of his win, he made the final table and 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:28.959 finished third for $650 ,000. Which is incredible 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:32.019 on its own. Beating 800 people is a marathon. 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:35.200 But then the very next year in 2004, the field 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:39.019 size tripled again. There were 2 ,576 players. 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:40.980 Oh my God. Now we have to talk about the math 00:08:40.980 --> 00:08:43.620 here. In a field that size, the variance is out 00:08:43.620 --> 00:08:46.029 of control. Even the best player in the world 00:08:46.029 --> 00:08:48.009 will usually get unlucky somewhere along the 00:08:48.009 --> 00:08:50.629 line. You have to win coin flip after coin flip. 00:08:50.789 --> 00:08:52.669 And Harrington made the final table again. Back 00:08:52.669 --> 00:08:54.870 to back final tables. It's almost statistically 00:08:54.870 --> 00:08:57.789 impossible to dodge that many bad beats to survive 00:08:57.789 --> 00:09:00.409 that many all -ins against thousands of unpredictable 00:09:00.409 --> 00:09:03.440 players two years in a row. It's just absurd. 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:05.159 It's like walking through a rainstorm for two 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:07.419 weeks and not getting wet. It is. Mark Newhouse 00:09:07.419 --> 00:09:10.120 actually matched this feat later in 2013 and 00:09:10.120 --> 00:09:13.100 2014. But Harrington doing it right as the wave 00:09:13.100 --> 00:09:14.860 was crashing over the poker world, I mean, it 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:17.519 solidified him as a legend. It proved that his 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:19.600 tight, aggressive style wasn't just old school. 00:09:19.799 --> 00:09:22.519 It was a survival mechanism. And just to prove 00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:25.059 it wasn't a fluke, we looked at his other results. 00:09:25.240 --> 00:09:28.000 He made the final table in 1987, finishing sixth. 00:09:28.220 --> 00:09:30.220 And when he was the defending champion in 96, 00:09:30.500 --> 00:09:34.409 he finished 17th. Even in 2009, long after his 00:09:34.409 --> 00:09:36.610 prime, he cashed in the main event, finishing 00:09:36.610 --> 00:09:40.970 252nd out of over 6 ,000 players. The consistency 00:09:40.970 --> 00:09:43.269 is what separates him from the one -hit wonders. 00:09:43.649 --> 00:09:45.590 Okay, so we've established he's a poker titan. 00:09:45.610 --> 00:09:49.009 But here is where the learner in you, our audience, 00:09:49.230 --> 00:09:52.269 might get their biggest aha moment. Despite the 00:09:52.269 --> 00:09:54.169 millions in winnings, despite the bracelets, 00:09:54.730 --> 00:09:57.070 Dan Harrington doesn't really consider himself 00:09:57.070 --> 00:09:59.639 a full -time poker player. This is what makes 00:09:59.639 --> 00:10:02.259 Harrington so unique in the pantheon of greats. 00:10:02.259 --> 00:10:04.840 He has always viewed poker as a way to make money, 00:10:04.899 --> 00:10:07.600 not necessarily a lifestyle or a quest for glory. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:10.019 He's explicitly said, I'm here for the money. 00:10:10.120 --> 00:10:13.200 Yes. And that brings us to his real job. Anchor 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:16.679 loans. Exactly. In 1998, Harrington, along with 00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:18.860 poker buddies Jeff Lipton and Stephen Pollock, 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:20.980 co -founded Anchor Loans. And this wasn't just 00:10:20.980 --> 00:10:22.559 a small side hustle where they bought a couple 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:25.549 of condos. Not at all. They built a powerhouse. 00:10:25.809 --> 00:10:29.610 Anchor Loans is a hard money lender. Can you 00:10:29.610 --> 00:10:32.490 explain hard money for us? Sure. In the real 00:10:32.490 --> 00:10:34.710 estate world, specifically for people who flip 00:10:34.710 --> 00:10:37.190 houses, fix and flip, traditional banks are way 00:10:37.190 --> 00:10:39.529 too slow. Right. If you see a rundown house you 00:10:39.529 --> 00:10:41.950 want to buy, fix and sell in six months, you 00:10:41.950 --> 00:10:44.730 can't wait 60 days for a bank mortgage. Hard 00:10:44.730 --> 00:10:47.149 money lenders provide that capital quickly, but 00:10:47.149 --> 00:10:49.669 at a higher interest rate. It's bridge funding. 00:10:49.970 --> 00:10:53.149 Exactly. And here's the genius part. Harrington 00:10:53.149 --> 00:10:55.750 and his partners use their poker winnings to 00:10:55.750 --> 00:10:58.669 fund the loans initially. That is the ultimate 00:10:58.669 --> 00:11:02.039 bankroll management. Taking the volatile... winnings 00:11:02.039 --> 00:11:04.159 from the poker table where you could lose it 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:06.220 all on a bad turn card. Yeah. And putting them 00:11:06.220 --> 00:11:08.740 into real estate finance, which is secured by 00:11:08.740 --> 00:11:11.120 actual property. And it worked. Harrington served 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:13.639 as the first CEO. The company has funded over 00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:17.139 $5 .3 billion in loans and has been profitable 00:11:17.139 --> 00:11:20.139 every single year since its inception. $5 .3 00:11:20.139 --> 00:11:22.860 billion. That is massive. It is. And if you think 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:25.279 about it, the skill set is identical. Whether 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:28.279 you are holding ace king at a final table or 00:11:28.279 --> 00:11:31.700 deciding whether to fund a rehab project in Calabasas, 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:34.500 it's all risk assessment. You are calculating 00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:37.399 the probability of a return on investment versus 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:40.320 the risk of ruin. It really reframes his tight 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:42.480 poker style, doesn't it? Yeah. He played poker 00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:45.019 like a loan officer. Yes. He only put money in 00:11:45.019 --> 00:11:47.159 the pot when the collateral was good. Precisely. 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:50.220 He wasn't gambling. He was investing. He was 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:53.179 looking for positive expected value or plus EV. 00:11:53.720 --> 00:11:56.860 If a hand or a loan didn't have positive expectancy, 00:11:57.159 --> 00:12:00.860 he simply folded. So simple, but so hard to do. 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:03.419 He retired from the company in 2010 but remained 00:12:03.419 --> 00:12:06.039 a shareholder. It really drives home the point 00:12:06.039 --> 00:12:08.019 that Harrington was a businessman who just happened 00:12:08.019 --> 00:12:10.519 to be world classic cards. Now, we can't do a 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:12.399 deep dive on Dan Harrington without talking about 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:14.559 the books. If you walked into a Barnes & Noble 00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:17.320 in 2006 and went to the games section, you saw 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:19.460 one face staring back at you. The Harrington 00:12:19.460 --> 00:12:21.899 on Hold 'em series. These books are arguably 00:12:21.899 --> 00:12:24.080 the most influential tournament strategy books 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:26.179 ever written. I remember seeing them everywhere. 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:28.399 The green cover, the blue cover. They weren't 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:31.480 exactly works of art. Design wise. No, terrible 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:34.019 graphic design. But the content was pure gold. 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:37.100 He co -authored them with Bill Roberti, who, 00:12:37.220 --> 00:12:40.200 fun fact, is a world class backgammon player. 00:12:40.460 --> 00:12:42.720 Again, that connection to other strategy games. 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:44.480 What made them so special? Why did everyone read 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:47.539 them? Well, before these books, pros guarded 00:12:47.539 --> 00:12:50.139 their secrets like magicians. You had to learn 00:12:50.139 --> 00:12:54.159 by losing money. Harrington essentially democratized 00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:57.080 the knowledge. He broke down the math. He introduced 00:12:57.080 --> 00:13:00.210 concepts like the M ratio. The M ratio, that's 00:13:00.210 --> 00:13:01.730 a term you hear a lot. What does it actually 00:13:01.730 --> 00:13:05.289 mean? It's a survival metric. M is your chip 00:13:05.289 --> 00:13:07.950 stack divided by the cost of one orbit, so the 00:13:07.950 --> 00:13:10.250 blinds and antis. It tells you how long you can 00:13:10.250 --> 00:13:12.690 survive before you are blinded out. So instead 00:13:12.690 --> 00:13:14.190 of just looking at your chips and saying, I'm 00:13:14.190 --> 00:13:16.429 running low, you have a precise number, like 00:13:16.429 --> 00:13:19.779 my M is five. Exactly. And he created a zone 00:13:19.779 --> 00:13:22.799 system based on that number. If your M is over 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:25.139 20, you're in the green zone. You can play conservatively. 00:13:25.139 --> 00:13:27.159 If it's between 10 and 20, you're in the yellow 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:29.340 zone. You need to take some risks. And under 00:13:29.340 --> 00:13:31.600 five. You're in the red zone. You have to move 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.379 all in. He gave amateurs a flow chart for decision 00:13:35.379 --> 00:13:37.600 making. He basically gave away the blueprint 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:40.039 that he used to win millions. He did. And he 00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:42.799 also wrote Harrington on cash games and Harrington 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:45.940 on modern tournament poker. He taught a generation 00:13:45.940 --> 00:13:48.950 of players how to think. If you sit down at a 00:13:48.950 --> 00:13:51.269 poker table today, the average player is better, 00:13:51.389 --> 00:13:53.629 largely because Dan Harrington wrote those books. 00:13:53.830 --> 00:13:55.990 It's almost ironic. The tightest player in the 00:13:55.990 --> 00:13:58.429 world opened up the game for everyone. Well, 00:13:58.429 --> 00:14:00.830 remember, he had the lending business. He was 00:14:00.830 --> 00:14:03.409 semi -retired from poker by then. He could afford 00:14:03.409 --> 00:14:05.230 to be generous with the knowledge because he 00:14:05.230 --> 00:14:07.610 wasn't relying on poker winnings to pay his mortgage. 00:14:08.190 --> 00:14:10.929 So let's summarize this incredible run. We have 00:14:10.929 --> 00:14:13.649 a man born in Cambridge, a U .S. chess master, 00:14:13.870 --> 00:14:16.470 a bankruptcy lawyer. He goes to the Mayfair Club, 00:14:16.710 --> 00:14:20.070 wins the 1995 main event, makes back -to -back 00:14:20.070 --> 00:14:22.549 final tables in the poker boom, beating thousands 00:14:22.549 --> 00:14:24.950 of players. Co -founds a billion -dollar lending 00:14:24.950 --> 00:14:27.710 company and writes the Bible on tournament poker. 00:14:27.929 --> 00:14:29.690 And he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame 00:14:29.690 --> 00:14:33.009 in 2010. His live tournament winnings exceed 00:14:33.009 --> 00:14:37.009 $6 .6 million. It's a staggering resume. It really 00:14:37.009 --> 00:14:40.129 is. And for our listeners, the key takeaway here 00:14:40.129 --> 00:14:43.269 is about the integration of skills. Harrington 00:14:43.269 --> 00:14:46.110 didn't treat these as separate lives. No. The 00:14:46.110 --> 00:14:48.409 chess helped the law. The law helped the business. 00:14:48.490 --> 00:14:50.769 The business helped the poker. And the poker 00:14:50.769 --> 00:14:53.429 funded the business. He is the ultimate example 00:14:53.429 --> 00:14:56.169 of a generalist succeeding in specialist fields. 00:14:56.730 --> 00:14:58.970 Absolutely. He proved that you don't have to 00:14:58.970 --> 00:15:01.129 be the flashiest or the loudest to be the most 00:15:01.129 --> 00:15:03.490 successful. You just have to make better decisions 00:15:03.490 --> 00:15:06.529 than the person sitting across from you. So here 00:15:06.529 --> 00:15:10.009 is a provocative thought to end on. We've established 00:15:10.009 --> 00:15:12.590 that Dan Harrington treated poker as a part -time 00:15:12.590 --> 00:15:15.669 job. He split his focus between the felt, the 00:15:15.669 --> 00:15:18.149 boardroom, and the chessboard. It raises a fascinating 00:15:18.149 --> 00:15:20.710 what if. Exactly. If Harrington had dedicated 00:15:20.710 --> 00:15:23.370 himself 100 % to poker, if he hadn't been a CEO, 00:15:23.649 --> 00:15:26.250 if he hadn't been a lawyer, if he had just grinded 00:15:26.250 --> 00:15:29.090 cash games 12 hours a day for 40 years, would 00:15:29.090 --> 00:15:32.490 he have won 10 bracelets? Would he be the undisputed 00:15:32.490 --> 00:15:34.919 GOAT? It's tempting to say yes, you think more 00:15:34.919 --> 00:15:37.240 time equals more wins, but I actually think the 00:15:37.240 --> 00:15:40.299 answer might be no. Oh, really? Because of burnout 00:15:40.299 --> 00:15:42.659 and pressure, the reason Harrington lasted so 00:15:42.659 --> 00:15:44.639 long, the reason he could play so disciplined, 00:15:44.860 --> 00:15:47.700 was because he had the other interests. When 00:15:47.700 --> 00:15:49.980 he sat down at the table, he didn't need the 00:15:49.980 --> 00:15:52.539 money. He wasn't playing with scared money. Never. 00:15:53.129 --> 00:15:55.769 The business gave him the freedom to play correctly. 00:15:56.090 --> 00:15:58.529 If he was just a grinder relying on his next 00:15:58.529 --> 00:16:01.470 cash to pay rent, the variance might have crushed 00:16:01.470 --> 00:16:04.509 his spirit. So being a part -timer was actually 00:16:04.509 --> 00:16:07.309 his superpower. It was. It allowed him to maintain 00:16:07.309 --> 00:16:10.070 that emotional detachment that made him Action 00:16:10.070 --> 00:16:13.169 Dan. That is a great perspective. Sometimes the 00:16:13.169 --> 00:16:15.110 best way to win the game is to realize you don't 00:16:15.110 --> 00:16:17.490 need to play it. Dan Harrington, the ultimate 00:16:17.490 --> 00:16:20.070 shark in a businessman's suit. Thanks for listening 00:16:20.070 --> 00:16:21.690 to this deep dive. We'll see you next time.