“Oh . . . my. . .God. Look who it is.”

So said Erika Moutinho while sitting at the main feature table on Day 6 of the World Series of Poker Main Event. Her boyfriend, David “Doc” Sands, had just been moved to her table.

“This is. . .a. . .crazy little thing here,” said Ben Lamb, also at the feature table, his words not only heard by the other players but also by the many watching the (almost) live coverage of the tournament. “I’m glad to be here,” answered Sands with a wide grin. Moutinho was also smiling, and it was hard for everyone else not to smile as well.

“Are you at home recording this?” asked Lamb of Moutinho a little later.

It was certainly a moment worth preserving. Incredibly, the longtime couple had together outlasted 6,800 or so to make the final seven tables at the WSOP Main Event. And both had almost identical stacks, too -- about 2.1 million -- putting them both right in the middle of the pack with a little over 60 players remaining.

As it happened, I was well aware of both Sands and Moutinho way back on the first day of the Main Event.

Sands came into this year’s Main Event a known entity. In addition to a resume full of significant online wins, Sands already had a number of live scores to his credit as well, including four cashes at last year’s WSOP and three this summer prior to the Main Event. And all three of those 2011 cashes came after deep runs -- a third-place finish in Event No. 22 ($1,500 PLO), a 10th in Event No. 51 ($1,500 PLO/8), and a 14th in Event No. 57 ($5,000 PLO/8).

I happened to have covered Event No. 51 in which Sands was the chip leader during the latter stages and in fact was in front with 10 remaining before running into some bad fortune to finish 10th. His deliberate style of play, always following the same, almost scripted-seeming routine when making bets, had stood out to me, as did the way he constantly put pressure on opponents who often seemed to struggle with their responses to his play.

Meanwhile, I did not know of Moutinho until the first day of the Main Event. She was pointed out to me as “Doc Sands’ hot girlfriend” whom he had put into the Main Event. In other words, as I suppose was the case for most, my first introduction to her as a player was as someone who was only there thanks to her relationship with her more accomplished male friend.

I remember how Moutinho was in my section during that first day of the Main Event, a day when we bloggers are often searching -- sometimes with great difficulty -- for familiar faces on which to report. I passed by her table several times, though never at a time when she was involved in a hand. I would note her chip count each time. I recall she’d added some to her starting stack (30,000), but seemed mostly to be avoiding getting too involved. (She’d end Day 1 with 40,000 even.)

While I’d see Sands off and on over the next few days and would report on his play, I didn’t think too much about Moutinho again until Day 5. She wasn’t again in my section, and frankly I hadn’t really noted that she was still in until less than 200 players remained and she was one of the last of the few women still left in the tournament.

On that day I happened to spend the dinner break with a couple of the remaining players, one of whom mentioned a hand he had played with Moutinho. I don’t remember the details perfectly, but I recall it had to do with her actions post-flop -- something involving her carving out a certain amount to bet and then checking, or perhaps hastily making an oddly-sized bet.

Whatever the exact details, I remember thinking how what he was describing seemed much different than the careful, choreographed manner of betting I’d come to associate with Sands. In other words, I am confessing that my instinctive reaction was to interpret Moutinho’s action/play by comparing it to that of her boyfriend, my response essentially being, “Well, I don’t know what it means, but it doesn’t sound like he taught her that.”

I was making an assumption, of course, though afterwards we’d learn that Sands indeed had taught Moutinho the game. As Sands would explain on the Two Plus Two Pokercast later, he did teach Moutinho and unsurprisingly the pair consulted regularly throughout the tournament. Sands explained how he almost felt like he was playing “one-and-a-half tournaments” since he was constantly advising Moutinho about her position, stack size, opponents, table dynamics, and so forth while also concentrating on his own situation.

We all know how the pair’s incredible run would continue further into Day 7 where they’d be eliminated one after another, Sands in 30th and Moutinho in 29th. Moutinho’s finish made her the “last woman standing” at this year’s WSOP Main Event.

I remember thinking at the time -- then later hearing Pokercast co-host Adam Schwartz make the same observation -- how their back-to-back eliminations reminded me of that phenomenon that sometimes happens with old married couples, when one spouse dies and the other soon follows. And speaking of married couples, Moutinho and Sands became engaged a week after the Main Event concluded, a fitting postscript to this WSOP love story.

It’s possible some might want to derive some sort of conclusion about the current status of women in poker from the performances of Moutinho and the other women who made deep runs in this year’s Main Event.

Claudia Crawford, who finished 85th, is engaged to a successful pro, Gabe Costner, who finished 35th in the WSOP Main Event a year ago. And while 62nd-place finisher Amanda Musumeci isn’t necessarily known for her relationship to a male player, some might point to her sponsorship by Bodog poker -- resulting from a search specifically looking for a female player to add to their team -- as also highlighting the fact that women need special help in order to succeed in what is still regarded by many as a man’s game.

Something to ponder, perhaps. For me, though, Moutinho and Sands’ performances more readily demonstrate something else. While one has to give some credit to Sands’ teaching for Moutinho’s great run, it is certainly also the case that Sands benefitted significantly from Moutinho’s presence and support, too, during his long tourney journey.

Those of us lucky enough to have supportive spouses or partners know how much easier everything becomes -- and how much clearer one’s perspective often can be -- when having someone special by your side accompany you through any difficult endeavor. So let’s call the Moutinho-Sands dual run a testament to such relationships.

Or, as Ben Lamb called it, a crazy little thing . . .

See also: She Said: Why We Loved the Moutinho/Sands WSOP Love Story