32 players of the original 313 that played made the money in the €10,450 Euro World Series of Poker Europe Main Event in Berlin. Unfortunately, Niall Farrell wasn’t one of them. He was eliminated in 33rd place after coming into Day 3 as one of the chip leaders. 32nd place was worth €20,000 Euros, more than the $15,000 that was paid out in the first tier of payouts at this year’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. 33rd is obviously worth nothing.
Farrell is a professional poker player with over €1.3 million Euros in live lifetime earnings. Before the Main Event, he cashed in two of the preliminary tournaments here in Berlin, taking 25th in Event #2, Oktoberfest, and 35th in Event #7, Pot-Limit Omaha. Farrell’s biggest live score to date is over $366,000. He came in second place, narrowly missing a bracelet, in a World Series of Poker event in Las Vegas back in 2013.
Farrell had plans to head directly to a local Irish bar to drown his sorrows, but we were able to catch him on his way out of the Spielbank Casino. He was kind enough to give us a few minutes of his time. Without a doubt discouraged by busting the tournament in 33rd place, Farrell was in a surprisingly decent mood. (Possibly due to the beer we offered him prior to asking for the interview.)
He explained that as a professional poker player, you learn how to deal with disappointment when knocked out of a tournament. According to Niall, it's easy to figure out who the amateurs are based on their mood when they are eliminated.
We also discussed how Farrell lost his sizeable chip stack in just a few hands, with a large portion of them going to the current chip leader.
Farrell was pleasantly surprised with the gifts on offer from 888poker, including a hat that is very useful in chilly Berlin, a pair of Sony headphones and a miniature chip set for playing on the go. Let's not forget the infamous 888 Bad Beat Can that includes a bottle of vodka and a shot glass. Farrell accepted the gifts gratefully but asked that we hang on to them until the next day. He was concerned that, as he had plans to drink so much, he was likely to end up trading them for something ridiculous. He said that he doesn’t know how he’ll stumble back to his hotel from the bar and that it's possible he’ll wake up with a dog in his bed with no idea how it got there!
Farrell’s next stop is Malta for the European Poker Tour that starts next week. He plans to go shopping in the next few days to prepare for the balmy weather, seeing as the clothing he brought to Berlin will be a bit too heavy for Malta’s climate. We're inclined to agree.
