Niall ‘Firaldo’ Farrell: My Idol Told Me I Sucked At Poker

Niall Farrell is the most successful Scottish player of all time with almost $7 million in tournament earnings, and one of just 10 ever to claim poker’s Triple Crown (WSOP, WPT, and EPT titles).

In 2015, Farrell took down the European Poker Tour Malta main event for €534,330. A year later, a World Poker Tour title and $335,000 also went his way after claiming a victory in the WPT Caribbean in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. His list of wins also includes a World Series of Poker Europe bracelet in 2017 after taking down the €25,000 high roller for €745,287.

In a career stretching back to the poker boom of the 2000s, Farrell has seen just about everything in the modern game – from massive growth of the online game and the bummer that was Black Friday to huge player pools and railing friends at some major final tables.

Farrell was recently a guest on the Table 1 podcast and brought plenty of great stories to the microphones which included the time he was kicked out of the WSOP main event final table three times, and some insight on English poker fans’ penchant for chanting and songs when railing a friend – similar to those that might echo throughout a soccer stadium in the United Kingdom. He also wasn’t afraid to sing a couple ditties.

Farrell discussed his unique online poker nickname and how it led to a night of drinking and gambling with one of soccer’s biggest stars. Check out some of the highlights from the interview below. You can also watch or listen to the entire episode below or on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or any podcast app.

Justin Young: Your online name is ‘Firaldo,’ quite famously. Can you tell us how that name came about?

Niall Farrell: That came from my football days because my surname was Farrell and I was a striker. At the time, my idol, the best striker in the world, was the old Brazilian Ronaldo, who I later got to meet at PCA (PokerStars Caribbean Adventure). He knew roughly who I was because I had just punted a big bluff on the stream and he loved poker. And he said, ‘Oh, you’re the guy that sucks.’

He goes, ‘Oh, you’re a Scottish bluff man.’ I thought, ‘That’ll do.’

Justin Young: Yes, and I need to change my shorts.

Niall Farrell: And I told him how Farrell and Ronaldo became ‘Firaldo.’ I told Ronaldo that story, and he and his smoking hot girlfriend drank with all of us for the rest of the night. I did tequila shots and played blackjack with Ronaldo for one night.

Justin Young: Amazing.

(Farrell also discussed being part of a rail cheering on players from the United Kingdom and how these gatherings can get a bit raucous with their own chants and songs as the action progresses.)

Niall Farrell: One of the best things about UK rails is because we’re all football fans, we’re really used to coming up with songs. We had this brilliant one for Chris Moorman. We used to have these tournaments on PokerStars called ‘The Reds.’ The majors were all colored in red in the lobby and stuff. So, we had a chant for Moorman and I think it was Craig McCorkell who came up with it. We’re all wasted, but these guys have talents. It was Bob Dylan-esque, right?

Art Parmann: Well, let’s hear it.

Niall Farrell (singing): When everyone thought backing was dead, Moorman won.
He lost his head. He got the call from every shit reg.
He said, ‘You can play 5Ks and all the Reds.’
He hates money. He hates money. He hates money.

Art Parmann: Will you please think of a Table 1 chant? You can just sing it to me and record it and send it.

Justin Young: My wife and I have talked about this a lot recently. We’re big American football fans, and we’re put to shame by all the European chants because we just have two-word chants. Every time we watch anything that’s European based, they have literally 20-second songs that are fucking amazing and well thought out.

Art Parmann: Listen, we have a song for corner kicks on one side of the field. We got a song for goal kicks, a song for [a particular] guy missing a pass. We got an offside song.

Niall Farrell: It’s weird. Soccer, especially in the UK – I say soccer because I’m a respectful tourist – is a very working-class sport. But the chants are like, ‘I believe the opposition left back was caught drunk driving last week. I have a 16-page aria for that.’

Justin Young: You just show up and hand out your pamphlets.

Art Parmann: We really need a guitar, a trombone, and a piano at this game please for the song.

Niall Farrell: My favorite chant for me was:

When the chips hit your eye
And it says, ‘Shit, three to five,’
That’s Firaldo.

(Another topic of conversation was Black Friday and what it was like being a player outside of the U.S. and seeing how things were shaking out.)

Niall Farrell: I wasn’t as worldly wise as I am now. I wasn’t a big picture guy back then. At the time, the Americans were by far the best online players. So, when you guys got kicked off, I just stayed awake for 15 days and played online every single day. I made more in those 15 days than I did in other years.

Looking back, obviously, it was catastrophic. But there were some great camaraderie stories and I remember guys on Full Tilt from America who were still logged in. If you didn’t log out, you could still play even though your money was worthless. They were still just playing. It was like all the OGs and all these guys that played every day were still on and the hashtag was #neverlogout.

I think I can say this now that Full Tilt is dead and the law doesn’t really care about me, but most of my American friends just dumped their money to me and I got it back to them.

Justin Young: A firm fuck you to Full Tilt.

Niall Farrell: Looking back, how did we not see that coming? I was 23. I had £800 in my bank account. I win one FTOPS (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) and I have to send most of it to my backer.

It was like, ‘Are you sure you want to send $898,000 to MILFseeker69?’ Click yes, gone. No, fucking ‘Are you sure?’ That money is gone. No money laundering checks. Just cash it out the same day to a fucking prepaid credit card. We must have known something was going to happen.

Justin Young: Especially the few months before, where Full Tilt was like, ‘Oh no, you can buy in to the same tournament at the same time as many times as you want. Oh, it’s just the same rake though.’

Niall Farrell: Nowadays we’ve got millionaire Germans skipping to the back of the line to maximize late reg and back then we were like, ‘Six entries in the tournament and I can only win once? Sign me up.’

Justin Young: If I make the final table with myself, I get combined stacks. Seems upstanding to me.

Niall Farrell: I instantly lose 60% of my stack’s value. Let’s go.

Art Parmann: Just let me collude with myself.

Niall Farrell: I went from being in for like $3,000 on a Tuesday to being in for $26,000 on a Tuesday with the ability to win $30,000 if I was really good.

Art Parmann: And they still didn’t find the liquidity to pay everybody out?

Justin Young: Well, they found the liquidity to pay themselves out. That’s all that really matters guys.

Art Parmann: I just realized this is the first person we’ve had on the podcast that we asked about Black Friday, and they were outside looking in.

Niall Farrell: A lot of the American guys have moved on to lives they would never have had otherwise. They’ve broadened their horizons, made all these friendships and stuff. I don’t want to say it was actually a good thing, but I think some good did come from it.

(Farrell offered up another tale of his time in Las Vegas, which included getting kicked out the Penn & Teller theater three times and how railing a friend can be better than playing himself.)

Niall Farrell: I think I was the person who bought off a player who is much better than me now, Sam Grafton. I think I put him in his first $10,000 because I loved having the action of other people. I fucking love railing. Railing is so much better than playing, you just don’t get as much money for it.

Justin Young: You just get to enjoy it. That’s the allure of backing.

Niall Farrell: I know you had Moorman on [the podcast.] The Moorman backing stories are great. At a $3,000 table, some American guy he’s never met comes up and goes, ‘Chris, can I get $50,000?’ And he’s like ‘Yeah.’ He doesn’t even write it down.

Justin Young: Never go broke the same way twice.

Niall Farrell: I’ve got a little five ball of Moorman (in the WPT World Championship).

Justin Young: Oh, what’s 5% of $3.1 million? I’m sure you haven’t done the math.

Niall Farrell: I’m not sure.

Justin Young: You know exactly.

Niall Farrell: Obviously the whole tournament’s void because I got knocked out in 55th (for $71,000), but I hope all the competitors have a good time, and I get a big payoff.

Justin Young: As you scream at them drunk for about four hours. Yes, it’s going to be great.

Niall Farrell: I went to pieces when I got thrown out three separate times and just came back in.

Justin Young: Did you at least have the courtesy to put on glasses and a fake mustache or something?

Niall Farrell: I just went to different entrances. Because it was in the Penn and Teller theater. I’m not the most inconspicuous gentleman. ‘Is that the loud ginger guy?’

Art Parmann: I’m coming in, excuse me.

Niall Farrell: They kept putting me out and I’m like, ‘I’ve got to find another way in this fucking building.’ I say there were three magicians in that theater.

Justin Young: ‘The Reappearing Firaldo.’

Niall Farrell: I see security for the third time and he just makes eye contact and I’m like, ‘Come on, I’ve won.’ You met here three times, accept your defeat like a man.

Art Parmann: Do you know my brother? He keeps telling me he gets kicked out of here.

(Moorman went on to finish fourth in the WPT World Championship for almost $1.2 million, giving Farrell a nice return on investment.) ♠

About The Table 1 Podcast

Hosted by high-stakes poker pros Art Parmann and Justin Young, the Table 1 Podcast is on a mission to make poker fun again. Tune in to see world-class pros talk poker, gambling, and all manner of life experiences on and off the felt. Visit the website for the podcast, newsletter, or even to get in the game. ♠

*Photos by PokerGO – Antonio Abrego