The Scoop -- Layne Flack

Layne Flack is a longtime poker professional who lives as fast as he plays. He picked up the nickname "Back-to-Back Flack" after winning consecutive events that he played at the World Series of Poker. He's won a total of six World Series of Poker bracelets, and accumulated more than $4.1 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Flack's life hasn't always been picture-perfect, and he opens up to Adam and Diego on an episode of The Scoop.

Diego Cordovez: One thing I've heard that you can confirm or not is, from the time I've known you, you've always been a fun-loving guy who enjoyed a good time and so forth, but you really had not been a drug user until recently, and then when you did get into it, you got into it relatively hard.

Layne Flack: I remember, I was best man at a friend's wedding who was in the military, I think this was when I was 27, and his friend was passing around a joint. I said, "If you touch that, we are no longer friends." That's how anti-[drugs] I was. I mean, I was just a straight arrow. And then I tried an E pill with someone I trusted.

DC: Ecstasy, I think you are referring to.

LF: Yeah. Everything I do, I do full force. Not only that, but I was uneducated, obviously, in the dangers of what it was. I just thought everything was great. I was winning, I had the money, I didn't have to be anywhere. I thought I had a hold of it, until I found that it had a hold of me.

Adam Schoenfeld: How did you get out of that?

LF: I went to a rehab, which helped, but didn't conquer. Have you seen the movie The Color of Money? Ed Walters, the inspiration for the character Fast Eddie Felson, is actually a life coach. He's dedicated his life to understanding and counseling the human emotion of people. I was with him for a year, seeing him two or three days a week before the World Series came up. What you do is go through a degree of tech, and then you start strategizing your life. It's kind of like a movie. You can pick the ending of how you want your life to be, and then you go with it.

AS: This was the real difference that I saw in you, because I've seen you when you weren't high in the prior five years, but when I saw you before the World Series, you were calm, making a lot of sense, and playing golf well.

LF: I think every drug has a power and force. When you start out with drugs, you think you can do anything, but they will turn on you. And when it happens, you're just screwed. The number-one thing my life coach said was, "Layne, it takes a lot of courage for you to walk in here every day. You have to admit your faults, your problems, and everything, and want to change. Every day, you can give up, but every day, you come in here and fight and have the courage to forgive yourself and handle it." Handling it was the hardest part, because I went through a lot of days of pain, and I could make one phone call and make it go away, but I just stood with it. It was important. A lot of people do not come back from a situation like that.

DC: I'd say most. One thing about the poker world is that in the gambling business, if you have a leak, it can really get a hold of you, because you don't have that other structure, or the other influences.

LF: A lot of other people can perceive me how they want to. I mean, they can frown on me because of whatever, but it's not about what other people think, it's about what I think. And I do know this … I know that what I came back from took more than any other accomplishment that I've ever had in a tournament.

AS: I agree with that.