A POKER king who makes millions of pounds tax-free has revealed he can’t even get a mortgage.
Niall Farrell, 36, is Scotland’s top player and has earned huge sums of money by taking place in high stakes tournaments across the globe.
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But despite earning more than six figures in profit across his career, banks always stack the decks against the former law student.
The high roller, from Dumfries, said: “Poker income is still classed as gambling income so it’s not taxable. I don’t pay any tax on it which is great but it also means I can’t get a mortgage.
“Nobody loans a professional gambler money — even if you show them detailed records from the last decade of how much you won and your return on investment. So I had to buy my house outright.”
Niall is giving viewers a glimpse into his life as part of new BBC Scotland documentary The Four Rules Of The Poker Kings.
The series, which begins August 16, showcases all the drama of his unique career path as he takes part in contests in Dublin, Monte Carlo, Prague and Las Vegas.
Although the lifestyle might sound glamorous, Niall doesn’t like to show off — as proven by him carrying €25,000 in a Sainsbury’s bag to enter a competition in Monaco.
The dad-of-one, who lives with wife Edita, claims flying first-class and buying a $500 steak during his single days were his most extravagant purchases.
He said: “I would say in dollars I’m roughly $4million in profit over the last ten years. But you have to live as well and spend money. I didn’t always have the house so I’d have rent and travel.
“So you’re making a great living but you’re not Warren Buffet-ing about the place. I’m quite easily contented. I have a nice house, my family is looked after and if I want to go to the pub and have a pint, I don’t need to worry about it.
“My Tesco bill has doubled but I’m not flying private jets.”
And with the nature of the game, you have highs and lows. Niall said: “Your money doesn’t come steadily in poker, it can be feast or famine. When you’re in the feast stage it’s human nature to think you’re a god and that money comes in at this rate forever.
“Then you lose and you think you’re a fraud so it’s important to keep those emotions in check.”
Fellow Scot poker pro David Docherty, from Coatbridge, is also featured in the documentary.
He doesn’t have as much experience as Niall but hopes to emulate his more successful counterpart.
However, Niall cautions anyone who thinks a life of tax-free cash is their ticket to fame and fortune.
He said: “It’s cooler to say you put money on the table Wild West-style but it’s much more geeks and nerds and formula.
“Just to learn the rules and play, you can do it in a few hours, but until you’re in the industry you won’t understand fully.
“The top end of poker is incredibly complex and dominated by Russian ex-chess grandmasters.
“I’ll spend three hours a day looking at different simulations and you’d never fathom it was like this from watching Casino Royale and seeing James Bond playing. I wouldn’t put anyone off learning the rules.
‘TIRED OF 14-HOUR GAMES’
POKER pro David Docherty ensured the documentary ended on a high note – as he won over £600k.
The 35-year-old hopes to keep winning big but knows it won’t be easy. Like Niall, he hopes the show educates people on how tough playing poker really is.
He said: “I feel like I should have made my breakthrough as long ago as a decade ago, a lot of people were predicting I would have done.
“It’s taken until the last year to finally go in an upwards trajectory. It looks like eight or nine guys round a table playing cards but every decision could be worth thousands. It also messes with your head.
“You’re in the mindset where we need to make the right decisions constantly so it makes it very lonely because you can only discuss it with other poker players and often they don’t have much sympathy because they’ve been through the same thing.”
David added: “I’ve gotten to the end of three to five day tournaments before and not been able to lift my head off the pillow for 24 hours because I’m so exhausted. You’re playing 14-hour days.”
David first learned how to play poker by watching competitions on TV. For the first year he only played freerolls – where there is no risk – so that he could learn the game properly.
It was only then that he started using small amounts of his own money to try and win larger prizes.
His big breakthrough came at the GUKPT Luton Main Event in October 2021 when he scooped £138,000.
“It’s a great game socially and so much fun, but to do it for a living a lot of things need to come together and it’s definitely not for everyone.
“The vast majority wouldn’t like if you do it for a living and the reward was for somebody to take £100,000 out your bank.
“If you have no natural talent in poker you could learn enough to be decent but never be excellent.
“You have to have logical reasoning and generally be quite smart, have a good sense of people and a high understanding of how people react in certain spots. You could make enough to get £50k a year if you’ve not an ounce of talent and just hard work.
“It’s also all down to luck at the end of the day, so you can’t always rely on skill.”
Niall added: “It’s very mentally draining because humans strive for fairness and poker doesn’t reward you like that.
“You can have one of the best players in the world and they can go on a really bad run that makes them look awful.
“It’s an occupational hazard. It’s not like chess where all the information is known and the best player wins 99 per cent of the time. In poker the skill is getting an opponent in situations where you have maybe a 70 or 80 per cent chance of a win.
“Even as a big winner, I’m currently in a downswing for ten months now and if that happened earlier in my career, I’d panic.
“But you budget for it and the real skill is to lose less when these bad things are happening.
“It can affect people in different ways. For me, if something really unlucky happens I’ll be annoyed.
“If it’s costs you a quarter of a million it’s annoying, but the thing that annoys me most is if I make a mistake.”
Niall admits people thought he was crazy when he switched from law to poker.
But speaking on the show, he joked: “Some people say it’s an irresponsible way to live your life.
“My mum was a bit raging about it when I said I’d be doing it instead of being a lawyer.
“Then I bought her a house — she doesn’t have a problem with it now funnily enough.”
And it is that mental fortitude that Niall thinks is needed to do well in poker as players try to hide their emotions from each other.
In the documentary, opponents question whether Niall is drunk during his games or just pretending to gain an advantage.
But the Scot doesn’t like to give too much away when there is so much on the line.
He quipped: “It’s like any competitive game, because there’s an element of chance, you are trying to outsmart people and it’s a battle of wits and nerves.
“If I’m playing higher buy-ins I won’t have any beers because I need to be more professional.
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“You can still play lower stakes with a few pints and have some craic.”
The Four Rules Of The Poker Kings begins at 9pm, August 16 on BBC Scotland.