When I Was a Donk -- Dan Harrington

In this series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their game.

Dan Harrington is the 1995 World Series of Poker main event champion and has over $6.3 million in live tournament earnings over the course of his career. The 66-year-old pro known as “Action Dan” is a former champion chess and backgammon player and has two WSOP bracelets, a WPT title and is the author of the “Harrington On Hold’em” series, considered to be among the best poker strategy books ever written.

Here, Harrington relives one of his early mistakes and explains what learned from it.

“One thing that kind of shaped my philosophy earlier in my career was a hand I played against Gus Hansen.

“I was sitting on a relatively short stack just outside the money and raised from one off the blinds. Had I known then what I know now, I would’ve just moved all in. Instead, I gave an aggressive player the chance to do what he does best.

“Gus was punishing the money bubble and thought there was enough room to move me off my hand. He ended up putting me all in and I was forced to call for the rest of my stack with a relatively strong, but not strong enough starting hand.

“I busted and Gus eventually went on to win the tournament, which was his first World Poker Tour title. That’s when I learned that I had to start considering my opponent’s playing styles when I’m at the table.

“Sometimes, it’s best not to give them any room for creativity. I on the other hand, was trying to be too refined with my play when I should have been using brute force.” ♠