For a game with such drama at its heart, the true appeal of poker can be difficult to convey on screen. Real poker stories rarely end the way they would in the movies; narratives are messy, the hero doesn’t always win, bad plays go unpunished.
But then, real stories never end at all. Like poker, life is all the same, long game; beginnings and endings are a matter of perspective.
The action in The Four Rules of the Poker Kings, a new documentary following Scottish pros Niall ‘Firaldo’ Farrell and David Docherty, runs from EPT Prague in late 2021 through to the WSOP in 2022. Farrell and Docherty are already established pros and this picks them up as they do what they do. No dramatic beginnings or twist endings: this cross-section of the professional poker life aims to show what it is to exist inside ‘the poker bubble’, and it does a great job.
“I’m just a guy from Scotland who plays poker,” Farrell tells us when we meet to discuss the upcoming film. “I was thinking: why would anyone wanna watch me go play cards?”
The real answer lies with Farrell and Docherty, two genuine people navigating a world of ups and downs, in the money and in the muck, and the honest and upfront way their journeys are captured on film.
‘Would you change it for a boring 9-5 at Carphone Warehouse?’
The question comes at Farrell from behind the camera, as he sits sipping a drink on a sunny hotel terrace in Monte-Carlo. “Right now I would,” he says, without irony, “100%, absolutely.”
Farrell had just won over €41K in the EPT Monte-Carlo Main Event, but in doing so he’d missed out on the €940K up top, finishing 16th of over 700 entries.
“I cringed a little bit,” Farrell confesses when we bring up the scene, “but right in that moment, you know, it's hard to explain. When you bust a really big spot, you have this big adrenaline dump, you have all this excitement and pent-up energy, and then it just all goes at once. And at that point, you're just, like, 'teleport me anywhere, teleport me down a mine, I’ll dig some coal for half an hour'.”
In a world where outward expression of emotion can be a liability, Farrell’s willingness to share his inner thoughts and approach to the poker life marks him out as a great focus for the documentary.
He’s open about the challenges many players face in dealing with variance, disappointment, and the pressures of providing for a family in a career that can cost you money to pursue.
‘A lot of downs and a lot of ups’
Farrell and Docherty both bring the camera crews home to Scotland for a look at the realities of their lives when they’re not at the tables. These include convincing skeptical parents to support an unconventional career choice, to the difficulties in leaving a young family behind to gamble for a living.
Away from their homes in Scotland, we take in stops at EPT Prague, a tournament win for Farrell in Dublin, the aforementioned deep run at EPT Monte-Carlo and on to the summer’s World Series of Poker.
Wins and losses are totted up on screen for all to see, and the result is an often stark view of ‘the hardest way to make an easy living’. Farrell works hard to tread water in the seas of profit and loss, while Docherty endures a terrible run of variance in Las Vegas, though - slight spoilers - viewers who stay tuned to the end may see him turn his luck around.
“It's a documentary about people in poker, not a documentary about poker,” says Farrell, “but we did get really lucky that we got some proper deep runs and actually a win. Greg [Clark, producer/director] made it very clear from the start that it had to be authentic, whether there are negative or good outcomes and I was like, that’s fine, because that is essentially poker. It's a lot of downs and a lot of ups.”
Featuring cameos from the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Sam Grafton, Fedor Holz, ElkY and Dara O’Kearney, The Four Rules of the Poker Kings airs Friday, August 16 on BBC Scotland, and will be available to view on demand on BBC iPlayer. Get your VPN ready if you're outside the UK.
Images courtesy of Bodhi Media/BBC Scotland/PokerStars
