Action Dan Harrington was born on December 6 1945 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He lives in Santa Monica, California and when he's not making money at poker, works in real estate and on the stock market.

''You don't win 100% of the time. You do something adequate. You stay in the game, and you keep playing. You're going to win eventually.''

In other words, slow and steady wins the race. So called 'Action' Dan Harrington because of his tight aggressive play at the tables (it's irony), Dan is the opposite of the flash, brash new breed. Barry Greenstein describes him thus: ''What I like best about Dan is he not animated like a lot of poker players and not too full of himself''.

Somewhat unusually these days, Dan is recognised for his poker rather than for his personality traits, with the ability to survive in tournament poker particularly admired as a key feature of his play. He does, however, wear a trademark Boston Red Sox baseball cap, if that counts as a personality trait? With impressive extra-curricular achievements as a former chess and backgammon champion (he won the 1971 Massachusetts State Chess Championship), he is also a graduate of Suffolk (MA) University, a qualified bankruptcy attorney, and successful writer and businessman.

He was at one time, part of the notorious 'Mission Impossible' team that took the casinois on at their own game basing their mathematical formulas on the MIT model (roulette in this case). The 'Mission Impossible' team managed to play with 40% per spin odds and only stopped doing so when the Sands Casino in Atlantic City made them an offer they couldn't refuse. Dan used to play poker with Bill Gates when Gates was at Harvard and some of his earliest forays into 'serious' poker were at the Mayfair Club, frequented by fellow geeks, Erik Seidel and Howard Lederer.

All round brainiac Dan could be seen as the tortoise, not the hare, of the poker world, but let's not forget it was the tortoise who won the 'long game'. And a fascinating, if irrelevant fact: Dan's cousin is Irish golfer Pádraig Harrington.

Harrington's tournament record is equally impressive, notably in WSOP events. He won the main event in 1995 for $1,000,000 and has sat at three other final tables in the main event, placing 6th in 1987 for $43,750, 3rd in 2003 for $650,000, and 4th in 2004 for $1,500,000. The same year as his main event win, he also won a bracelet in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for $249,000 and the Seven-card stud event at European Poker Open in London. His total prize money to date is a healthy $4,854,531. Take that, Mr Hare!

''I'm there for the money. You can keep the glory.''

So, he's a gambler (kind of), and a brain. That's almost half the cast list of The Breakfast Club, with a bit of artistic license. Plus, of course, Harrington is well known and widely regarded for the series of Hold 'Em tournament strategy books he has written (co-authored with Bill Robertie):

Harrington on Hold'em: Volume I: Strategic Play

Harrington on Hold'em: Volume II: The Endgame

Harrington on Hold'em: Volume III: The Workbook

(All published by 2+2)