To the modern generations of poker fans, Layne Flack may not be one of the more recognizable names, but those who know poker history understand just how big of an impact this South Dakota native had on the game.
Born in 1969, Flack began playing poker at a very young age, having barely turned legal. His talent for the game was evident almost immediately, and he became a professional poker player before he was 30.
The legendary poker player went down in history as “Back-to-Back Flack,” a nickname he would earn just a few years into his professional poker career for winning two Legends of Poker events back-to-back.
Despite his incredible poker skill, Flack met an untimely demise, as he could not shake the bad habits that often accompany the world of poker and life in Sin City.
This is the story of Layne Flack, one of the biggest talents in the history of poker, and a player whose name will be remembered for years to come by the elite echelons of the poker community.
Flack Jump-Starts His Career and Gets His Nickname
Flack’s poker career started around 1995, when he became a poker dealer and gradually started playing the games himself.
To start out, he dealt cards in smaller card clubs in South Dakota and neighboring states, but gradually his appetite grew. Despite having a newborn daughter, Flack moved to Las Vegas on his own to pursue his poker dreams in 1997.
His early poker career was a massive success too, as he captured his first World Series of Poker bracelet in 1999, winning a $3,000 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament for $224,000, a very substantial prize at the time.
That same year, Flack played the Legends of Poker tournament series in Vegas, which was one of the biggest events of the year back in the early 2000s.
Layne won the $330 Seven Card Stud one day, only to come back and win the NLH tournament the very next day, earning him the nickname “Back-to-back Flack.”
The two tournaments he won were not the biggest he would ever play or win, but the manner in which he seemed to breeze past his opponents all the way to the final table seemed very unusual to the other players.
Flack was an exceptional talent indeed, and his run of wins at the tournament poker tables continued in the years to come.
In both 2002 and 2003, Flack won two WSOP bracelets, once again staying true to his nickname. After a five-year hiatus, he won his sixth WSOP bracelet and $577,725 in a PLO tournament at the 2008 WSOP, as his poker career lasted for well over two decades.
“Back-to-back Flack” won over $5 million playing poker tournaments, but the cards were never his problem. Both at and away from the tables, Layne quickly became a drunk, and other addictions followed, which ultimately ruined one of the best the game had ever seen.
Struggles with Addiction and Playing Drunk
As early as 2002, when his poker career was really taking a major leap forward, Layne Flack was already suffering from major alcohol problems.
Despite winning in the games, he could not seem to do anything without a beer bottle in one hand and a cigar in the other. These habits ultimately caught up with him, and worse habits followed.
His early poker career was marked by addictions to ecstasy and meth, as well as other drugs, which he would often consume, according to fellow players who spent a lot of time around him.
Yet, despite the booze and the drugs, Flack was always on top of his game, making the right plays, reading his opponents, and winning left and right.
The wins came easy to Layne, but staying sober was a major problem. In 2009, a year after winning his biggest WSOP tournament ever, Flack was arrested in Las Vegas for DUI, after apparently shooting tequila with none other than the legendary Andrew Robl.
This kind of behavior continued for years despite his friends’ best efforts. Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu even tried to get him sober by paying for all the expenses of an elite rehabilitation clinic, but nothing seemed to work.
A Beloved Character in the Poker Community
Despite his addictions, Layne Flack was always loved by his peers, many of whom considered him one of their closest friends.
In the years between his early wins and his death in 2019, Layne’s name came up in countless interviews, poker books, and anecdotes, almost always in a very positive context.
The legendary Ted Forrest in particular had some stories to tell about Flack, including the one where the two got detained by the police in Mexico, bribed their way out, and ended up winning $200,000 playing poker at Larry Flint’s that same night.
Scotty Nguyen, a WSOP Main Event champion, shared the story of the time Flack helped him buy in to the $50,000 HORSE event at the WSOP, which he ended up winning for $2,000,000.
4 max, 16 bracelets (Layne Flack 6, Ted Forrest 6, Randy Ohel 3) https://t.co/tqdTyebBEX
— Julien MARTINI (@JulienJRMARTINI) February 16, 2020
Flack was everyone’s best friend except his own, as he would often share in his success, pay for the parties and the good times, but end up broke at the end of the day.
By his own admission, there was a time in 2004 when he had nothing to eat, despite winning four WSOP bracelets in the two years before.
None of that was ever apparent to the outside world, as Flack always seemed to be right in the center of the best of times, and his success at the table was the only thing that mattered to the observers.
An Early Passing for One of the Game’s Greats
In 2019, Layne Flack’s lifeless body was found in his Las Vegas home. The cause of death appeared to be fentanyl, and his passing was unusually reminiscent of that of Stu Ungar, another poker legend whose life ended too soon.
By 2021, Flack was no longer a major fixture in the poker tournaments, although he had played the 2020 WSOP, which was moved to the online poker arena due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The $5,000,000 in poker earnings Layne made came as a result of playing almost exclusively WSOP events and limited buy-ins, all of which make the number even more astonishing.
I lost a friend and poker world lost a friend: RIP Layne Flack. @themouthmatusow will do a LIVE show remembering Layne. Sean Chaffin will have an article out about the legendary—6-time @WSOP winner—w tributes from some of us. Mikey, Matt Savage and I on 3-way w tears in our eyes https://t.co/CAn1D3x0Kl
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 20, 2021
Yet, all the success could not help Flack chase away his demons, which eventually caught up with him and cost him everything.
His passing was marked as a sad day for the poker world, and all of his closest friends in poker still remember Layne as one of the biggest characters the game ever gave them, a true legend of poker and a deserving member of the Poker Hall of Fame.
