Won back-to-back WSOP championships in 2002 and 2003.
While Deadwood, South Dakota is more famous for the poker career that ended there, it's also the place where one of the best pros in the game got his start. Layne Flack was a dealer in that old mining town, and he must've seen the "dead man's hand" many times. Those cards - a pair of aces and a pair of eights - are the ones Wild Bill Hickok held right before he was shot to death. Flack would learn, among other things, that there are much better ways to play that hand.
Flack was born in Rapid City, South Dakota, but grew up in Montana. After graduating high school, he worked in a casino as a busboy. During college, he returned in the summer and was eventually offered a management position. He turned it down to deal poker.
For several years Flack was a winning cash game player, but since he played mostly at small casinos in Montana and South Dakota he never considered making a living at it. Then he traveled to Reno, and after winning $10,000 in 30 days he rethought his career plans. In 1997, he entered the Hall of Fame Poker Classic, and despite having virtually no tournament experience, he won.
In 1999, he won his first WSOP gold bracelet and began making a good living as a poker player. But that all changed in 2002. That's when he started making a great living. He won two consecutive WSOP tournaments, taking home over a half million dollars and a new nickname - Back-To-Back Flack. It was the only time a player ever pulled off consecutive WSOP victories, until he did it again the following year, winning two more bracelets a week apart.
Flack had achieved more success and wealth then he could have imagined. But like Hickok who thought he held a winning hand, trouble was sneaking up on Flack. Never wanting the excitement to end, Flack fueled his days and nights with alcohol and drugs. It took the intervention of friends like Daniel Negreanu to get him to into rehab. When he completed his treatment, any concern that being healthy meant losing his edge was erased when he won a WPT Championship a month later.
Nowadays, Flack's recklessness is reserved only for poker tables. His willingness to play any two cards might seem insane, but for Layne Flack crazy works.
