Dan Harrington is definitely considered as one of the favourites for the WSOP 2011. In looking at the field of candidates as scientifically as possible we have decided to focus our attention on chess players. There are lots of similarities between chess and poker and those who are good at one tend to be good at the other. The amount of pressure a professional chess player comes under is every bit as daunting as that of a poker player and there are several players who moved from chess to poker and did pretty well.

One such player is Dan Harrington, winner of the Main Event in 1995 and twice on the final table, as was Ylon Schwartz, the winner of the 2008 Main Event. There are two very hungry young poker pros who have made their way over from chess in the form of Almira Skripchenko and Dinara Khaziyeva who have been cashing left right and centre but are still empty handed, or empty wristed! There is also the child chess prodigy Jeff Serwer who has been taking massive pots down on the European Poker Tour (EPT). He argues that those whose minds are used to chess are much more likely to do well at poker due to the skills that come from playing the game.