In my own pathetic defense, I’d never known anyone to leave Full Tilt Poker before voluntarily or otherwise. Even my buddy Paul Wolfe who NEVER wins, still wears the famous poker logo.

But then it seems Mr. Flack found an even better friend than Howard Lederer. He was re-funded in tournament entry fees and the new backer gets paid. Typical.

Congratulations to Layne for turning his life around. I, least of all, never wished him ill. He has been one of my favorite players to write about since his first bracelet quest and WSOP cash on April 27th, 1998.

My title of that tournament report was Prince Layne of Flack for what seemed to me then as outsized hauteur for someone I’d never seen before. He’d dominated a strong, but small field (by today’s standards).

Poker Tournament Results
29th Annual World Series of Poker
Event #7 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em
April 27, 1998 at 12:00 PM
Binion's Horseshoe
Tournament Schedule
Buy-In $2,000 + $70
Prize Pool $700,000
Entries 350
Place Name Prize
1 Jeff Ross (Honolulu, HI, USA) $259,000
2 Layne Flack (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $133,000
3 Scotty Nguyen (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $66,500
4 Barry Shulman (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $42,000
5 Bob Feduniak (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $31,500
6 Taz Kampf (Yucaipa, CA, USA) $24,500
7 Marsha Waggoner (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $17,500
8 Mickey Finn (Frankfurt, Germany) $14,000
9 David Kim (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $11,200
10 Sam Korman (Caufield, Australia) $8,400
11 David Evans (Northampton, UK) $8,400
12 Alex Kong (Chester, UK) $8,400
13 Michael Carson (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $7,000
14 Dr Max Stern (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $7,000
15 Kent Hori (San Francisco, CA, USA) $7,000
16 Dennis Waterman (Sedona, AZ, USA) $5,600
17 Allan Stonum (San Carlos, CA, USA) $5,600
18 Cyndy Violette AKA "sweetest" (Atlantic City, NJ, USA) $5,600
19 Alex Brenes (San Jose, Costa Rica) $4,200
20 Richard Kane (Bothell, WA, USA) $4,200
21 Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (Pacific Palisades, CA, USA) $4,200
22 Rusty Bagaygay (Diamond Bar, CA, USA) $4,200
23 Dan Brings (Bainbridge Island, WA, USA) $4,200
24 Don Barton (Pahrump, NV, USA) $4,200
25 Don "Pilot" Pittman (Sapulpa, OK, USA) $4,200
26 James Massar (Berkely, CA, USA) $4,200
27 Mike Hart (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $4,200

Then something happened. Suddenly, with a ten-to-one chip lead heads up on a $2-$4 player from Hawaii, Layne quit winning pots and the Prince-ly confidence disappeared. He’d come over between hands to consult with Johnny Chan, his coach, to no avail. In a startling upset, Jeff Ross swiped a bracelet everyone in the audience that day (including me) felt Layne Flack couldn’t lose.

Well Layne ‘Back-To-Back’ Flack is back.

What do you think?

Love

Mike Paulle

Email: mikepaulle@aol.com

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