Fish at the Tables During PCA

If you follow the WPT circuit or kept track of the 2009 WSOP at all, the name Darryll Fish ought to look familiar to you. Fish, known to his friends by his online screenname “DFish”, has spent time at the top of the chip counts in just about every WPT event he takes part in and racked up a remarkable seven cashes at last year’s WSOP. He has yet to convert those big stacks into a WPT final table appearance just yet, but he does have quite a few noteworthy poker accomplishments, including a World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) bracelet, a WSOP final table and, most recently, a 3rd place showing at a preliminary event of the Southern Poker Championships in Biloxi, Mississippi.

The 23-year old Fish recently took some time to talk with BLUFF about his life before poker in Florida, his life in Biloxi post-Katrina and his life living with his former backer and good friend, Matt “mattg1983” Graham:

Let’s start at the beginning. How did you end up getting into poker?

Before I was a poker player I was into skateboarding. Then I had heart surgery, which meant I couldn’t skateboard anymore. After that, I started playing Magic the Gathering and got to know Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Justin Bonomo and all those kids. We all slowly transitioned into playing poker and I started playing cash games, small stakes like $1/$2 No Limit and $5/$10 Limit.

How old were you once you started grinding the cash games?

I was seventeen when I really got into poker. I started by playing $1/$2 Limit at the dog tracks [in Florida] and then deposited $50 on PartyPoker and started playing $.50/$1. The next week I was playing $1/$2 and the next week $3/$6 and I started moving up durrrr-style. I built a $15,000 roll from $50 in two months, but then I lost it all in one day playing $15/$30 across 4 tables like an idiot. I played home games and underground cash games in Florida to build my bankroll back up and then I moved to Biloxi, lived in the casino and played $1/$2 and $2/$5 for a year.

The South is known for having a unique brand of poker. Any particularly crazy games during your time there?

Oh yeah. Here’s a good example: I lived in a pretty crappy casino, but the games were really good because after Hurricane Katrina people had their FEMA money and they were gambling with it, playing $1/$2 with $1,000 stacks. One night I couldn’t sleep, so I went down to the poker room at 2AM and there was a guy who was blackout drunk with $2,000 in front of him, so I sat down. I knew if I made a hand I could stack the guy…he builds his stack up to around $4,000 and I finally made a set against him and stacked him in a $7,000 pot at the $1/$2 game.

After your time in Biloxi, you headed to Vegas. What prompted the move?

I went out to Vegas one summer during the Series, played some cash games and met Matt Graham. We hit it off and the next year he said he was getting a house in Vegas and had an extra room so I moved in with him. He got me into playing tournaments more, but I was under-rolled to play the stuff I wanted to play. Matt was going to help me get a backing deal, but then he saw me play and liked the way I played, so he decided to back me himself.

Is it hard to maintain a friendship when that person is the one backing you?

You know, people say to keep business and family separate, but I think it was better because he was more hands-on as a backer. He could give me guidance as to what I should and shouldn’t be playing and coach me a little bit. It was easier on his side too because, as far as the business aspect is concerned, I’m there and I’m working at his house, so it was easy to keep track of things. I think it was easier really, but I guess a lot of people would assume it would be more complicated. We never fought or anything because we’re both logical and understand downswings happen.

What was some of the best poker advice Matt has given you?

The main thing was that, coming from a cash game background, I wasn’t used to playing shortstack poker. When it came to having 10-20 big blinds and needing to re-shove properly I was having a lot of trouble. I got it, but I didn’t know how to do the math to figure out when you should be re-shoving. He would give me examples of situations where people would be raising with a ton of hands and you didn’t have to have much of a hand in order to shove on them and have it be profitable.

In 2009 you hit the circuit and had a couple nice scores, including a WCOOP bracelet. Would you consider last year to be your breakout year poker-wise?

Definitely as far as tournament poker goes. I had a few big scores and won a few major tournaments. Things really started to click during poker tournaments, which was the most important thing. I finally got it and started figuring out how to play each stage of a tournament properly.

Is poker something you plan to do for the foreseeable future?

I don’t really plan much in life, I just kind of go with the flow. I’m kind of carefree. I really love playing live tournaments and I plan on staying with it until I get bored with it. Then, hopefully I’ll have enough money to do something else like open a restaurant or something. I don’t know though, I love poker right now, so we’ll see how long that lasts and go from there.

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