Daniel Ryan is an American professional poker player who grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota in the United States of America. He went to college and studied finance, political science, and Spanish.
His association with poker began when he was 12 years old, when he played with his cousins. It was during his freshman year of college that Daniel Ryan considered taking poker seriously. One of his friends in college played the game and he began watching him play online. It wasn’t long before Daniel Ryan too followed in his footsteps and began playing online under the screen name “THE_D_RY”. He started out with low stake games in college and he continued playing even while studying abroad.
Daniel Ryan started playing live tournaments soon and the 38th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) was where he made his first appearance in the international poker arena. On June 18, 2007 he competed in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Short Handed event held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, which played host to 846 other poker players. Daniel Ryan managed a 42nd-place finish among the entire lot and made $6,429. On June 25, 2007 he managed to reach the final table in No-Limit Hold’em event during the Bellagio Cup lll and finished eighth. In 2007, he had a total tournament winning that added up to $34,557.
Daniel Ryan started 2008 with a final-table finish at the European Poker Tour (EPT) German Open – Season 4, where he walked away with $26,212 for finishing fourth in the No-Limit Hold'em Rimowa Open. This event took place at the Spielbank Hohensybyrg on February 2, 2008, and Daniel Ryan had to compete against 111 poker players for the title. In the same tournament that day, he increased his bankroll by $68,414 when he finished tenth in the No-Limit Hold’em event. However, the biggest prize money of his career, till date, came at the EPT Scandinavian Open – Season 4 held at the Casino Copenhagen on February 23, 2008. Daniel Ryan found himself competing with 459 players for the title and played well enough to reach the final table. That day, Daniel Ryan made a fortune by bagging $226,612 for his fifth-place finish in the event. In June, the same year, he played in a few events of the 39th World Series of Poker 2008 and cashed $11,031 in total from three of them. On July 13, 2008, Daniel Ryan played at the Deep Stack Extravaganza and finished sixteenth in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event held at the Venetian Casino Resort. In a prize pool of $810,048 contributed by 172 other players, Daniel Ryan ended up pocketing $8,097.
A recent record shows that he has $374,923 from total tournament winnings which includes 12 cashes. Daniel Ryan shuttles between his hometown and Spain to balance his poker career, which he plans to pursue in order to support himself financially but also adds that he might try out something interesting for fun.
