Niall Farrell is Scottish poker king of Las Vegas

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Niall Farrell is a feared opponent on poker tables around the world

A quiet town in southern Scotland is a long way from the bright lights of Las Vegas.

And yet Niall Farrell is happy moving between those two worlds as Scotland’s top professional poker player.

His exploits recently featured in the documentary The Four Rules of the Poker Kings.

How did the 36-year-old make his journey from growing up in Dumfries to winning – and losing – fortunes around the world?

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Over the years the Dumfries man has worked to develop his game

Poker takes him to tournaments in the likes of Monte Carlo, Prague and the United States but he is happy to have his base in the small Scottish town he calls home.

“I think it’s nice to know everything about the town that you’re in – its good points and its bad points,” he explained.

“It’s my town, you know?”

Niall was first drawn to poker – like many in the UK – by the Channel 4 programme Late Night Poker.

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Niall is no stranger to the tables in Las Vegas

“I think I stayed up to watch the wrestling when I was 14 or something and this late night poker was on,” he said.

“When you’re watching poker, just without any information, it’s quite boring.

“It was the first show that had the little glass squares in the tables so you had the whole card camera so you could see what people had.”

It wasn’t until he started studying business law in Stirling that he began playing the game with house mates and then online.

Bodhi Media/BBC

Niall says he has always been good with numbers

Over time, he started to develop his game.

“I don’t know if it’s maybe a little bit of arrogance or just confidence or something,” he says.

“But I think if I spend time at something and I enjoy it – which is really crucial for me – that I will get quite good at it.”

However, he freely admits he was “very bad” at the outset.

“I thought I was quite good quite quickly – but I was wrong and I was soon humbled when I started,” he said.

“But then you kind of get humbled and then you can start building up again.

“Roughly by the time I graduated, I was at the point where I was like, OK, I’m going to try and do this professionally and give it a go.”

Billy McCrorie

The poker player is happy to call Dumfries his home

He said he was lucky his parents were happy to give him the freedom to make his own mistakes.

Not that it went smoothly.

“I was very close to quitting – I was having a bad spell,” he explained.

“I’d borrowed money off my girlfriend at the time as well.”

He had given himself about two weeks more before he packed it in when he entered an online tournament about 10 days later.

By “cosmic force” or “sheer blind randomness” he won – picking up $33,000 in the process.

“I could pay my girlfriend back and kind of went from strength to strength,” he said.

When he is away at tournaments Niall says he misses being at home with his partner Edita and son Ruairi

That is something of an understatement for a man whose career winnings now run to millions and is one of only a small number of players to have won the game’s “triple crown”.

The BBC documentary charts the ups and downs of his return to poker after taking a break for the birth of his son.

It captures both the delight of winning and the pain of losing, despite his skills.

“You are just completely numb,” he admitted.

“I try to keep myself away from people for like, 30 minutes because I know you just say and do stupid things at that point.”

And what does he think makes him good at the game?

“I’ve always been quite good with numbers in general,” he said.

“A lot of it’s just quite deep maths, which is kind of less glamorous than James Bond makes it look.

“There’s also an element of psychology too, especially when you’re playing live.”

Next in line could be a trip to Cyprus in a couple of weeks or a big World Poker Tour event in Las Vegas.

In the meantime, though, he’s happy to be in Dumfries with his partner Edita and son Ruairi, without feeling the need to buy a “massive house”.

“We’d lose the wee man in one of the 18 bedrooms,” he joked. “It just it wouldn’t feel like a home to me.”

Instead, he is happy with a nice house and a play park within view of the front door and the “peace of mind” that not having to worry about money can bring.

Niall reckons his upbringing in Dumfries has played a part in that attitude.

“It helps keep you down to earth for a start,” he explained. “You don’t get above your station, so to speak.

“And, I don’t know if it’s a Scottish thing, but you just roll with the punches if bad things are happening.”

It has helped him rise towards the top of a game he still enjoys.

Even if, when he is in Las Vegas, he is sometimes wishing he could be back pushing a swing in his Scottish home town.

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