Almost a year after his death, six-time World Series of Poker champion Layne Flack received the game’s ultimate honor on Sunday. The man known as “Back-to-Back Flack” for winning consecutive tournaments earlier in his career was named as the latest member of the Poker Hall of Fame. He passed away at age 52 last July with $5.1 million in lifetime tournament winnings as well as a World Poker Tour title and numerous other top finishes.
Beyond the big tournament wins and card skills, however, many friends and fellow poker minds appreciated his outgoing personality, fun-loving nature, and plenty of laughs. Many were pleased to see Flack posthumously inducted, including fellow Hall of Fame member Daniel Negreanu. The two entered the game about the same time and became friends. He remembers Flack as a player who played a style that was a bit ahead of where the game would evolve in the coming years.
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“He had a very aggressive style of play that was before its time,” Negreanu said. “He really was sort of like a bull in the china shop, but he was always smiling and having fun, no matter if he had money or not.”
Fun-Loving Poker Shark
When it comes to credentials for the Poker Hall of Fame, Flack found plenty of success playing at high stakes against some of the best competition. Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, Flack grew up in Miles City, Montana, where his grandmother taught him the game at an early age.
Later Flack worked at a casino, but would head to the poker tables after his shift. By the mid-1990s he was playing full time and finding success even before the “poker boom” of the 2000s. In 1999, Flack won his first WSOP bracelet in a $3,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event. He added two more WSOP bracelets in 2002 and another two in 2003.
When poker took off after the advent of the online game and televised poker, Flack thrived and became a regular at high stakes events. He added another WSOP bracelet in 2008 and won more than $1 million playing in WPT events, including two runner-up finishes. He scored the title in the WPT Invitational in 2003 for $125,300.
Phil Hellmuth is one of those who points to Flack’s years in the game as fitting for hall credentials. He reflected on Flack’s career and believes he easily earned a spot in the Hall of Fame. One finish also stands out in his mind and shows just how close he was to having an even bigger legacy.
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“Layne Flack has the credentials to be admitted to the Poker Hall of Fame,” Hellmuth said. “Six WSOP bracelets, a World Poker Tour title, and ‘Layno’ played high stakes poker for two decades. I was with Layne in Aruba when he was heads-up for another WPT title. He somehow was all in with 7-7 versus 2-2 for all of the chips, when his opponent hit a 2, on the turn.”
A second WPT title was not to be, but Flack’s reputation with fellow pros flourished nonetheless.
Making An Impact
The Hall of Fame announcement of Flack’s induction came on Sunday in tandem with Day 4 of the WSOP Main Event and Poker Hall of Fame bounty tournament. Both are currently underway at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas. Many within the industry commented on the poker pro’s induction on Sunday as well as his charm away from the table.
Flack’s personality and chatty personality made for great TV at a time when the game could be found on networks across the television landscape. Viewers tuned in to see larger-than-life poker players betting huge sums of money, and Flack was one of those who stood out.
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“He made the game fun, regardless if it was losing or winning,” PokerGO President and 2018 Hall of Fame inductee Mori Eskandani said. “Seriously, he was the same guy. He might have gotten quiet for a short while after taking a few beats, but it never lasted more than two or three hands. He’d come back and make sure everybody's having fun at the table. That's one thing that’s pretty valuable.”
Eli Elezra, inducted in the hall in 2021, remembers Flack as always being one of the best players at any table. His appearance also made for quite an entertaining few hours playing cards.
“He was the most fun guy to play poker with,” Elezra said. “I played with him until the last moment. Me, he, and Doyle would play … and I mean the way that everybody said Layne is the best to play with on the golf course, nobody was better to play with at poker. Nobody was more talented than this guy. He was so talented, and not because he won back to back or the six bracelets. Just when I sat with him in a poker game, I never knew where he was at. And he always had all the tricks. He was the best.”
Flack was not only on a short list of players to win multiple WSOP bracelets in a year, but he was also the sixth player in WSOP history to do it twice. Elezra believes bullet points like that stand out and that he was underrated by many. The wider poker community may not realize just how great a player Flack was, Elezra adds.
“He was so good and he would have kept going and winning bracelets, and even beaten Phil Hellmuth (his 16-time WSOP bracelet record) if he wanted,” he says. “He was the best.”
WPT executive tour director Matt Savage was among the Hall of Fame nominees this year and knew Flack well. He found many of his skills uncanny and the poker pro had a knack for luring players into calling even when they probably should have known better.
“Layne had such an amazing ability to read other players at the table, it was the best I had ever seen,” he said. “He was able to talk players out of their chips but always within the rules. He always made it fun to play poker and we need characters in the game like Layne. Congratulations to the Flack family, his legacy is now secure.”
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