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Sitting in 31st place among the chip holders at this year’s World Series of Poker as of press time with only 41 players left in the field, Erika Moutinho was the last woman standing.
Moutinho is the long time girlfriend of DoylesRoom pro David Sands, with ESPN.com painting a rather romantic picture of this epic showdown.
Although Sands is talkative, Moutinho is reserved. She'd almost seem delicate if not for the fortitude she's shown in this tournament, piloting a stack that has been consistently below-average and never faltering, never losing her focus. All this in her first tournament of this size.
Moutinho, a 25-year-old Connecticut native, and Sands, a 26-year-old Montana native, met six years ago while traveling through Australia. That's when she was introduced to poker. "We spent every day together in Australia, and he was playing online," she recalled, showing remarkable poise and calm throughout the conversation considering the day's events. "I had no idea what hands beat what, but I started watching, learning subconsciously as we hung out. I eventually started playing. … He put some money online for me, and I started playing some tournaments. I won a tournament when he was at Bay 101, an online $24 buy-in with 1,500 players for like $12,000, and I started playing more online. This summer I started playing the prelims and now this."
No woman has ever won the World Series of Poker Main Event on US soil.
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
