You fly all the way from the United States for a seat by the Normandy coast and you end up sitting next to your roommate. Such was the story for Brandon Schaefer and Carl Olson, room-mates from the University of Washington in Seattle, who qualified at PokerStars for EPT Deauville on season one and ended up going heads up for the title.
Such also is the case today for Maria "maridu" Mayrinck and Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick, who are currently roommates in Austin, Texas, but have made their way to Europe on a poker excursion and were drawn beside each other on table 33 today in Deauville. What are the chances?
In truth, it could be worse. Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet, who completes this particular trio of globetrotting poker-star roommates, is also in today's field, but is on the adjacent table 29 rather than alongside the others.
Still, provided Mayrinck and Chidwick don't allow living room bragging rights to affect their game and they don't knock one another out, all three have all the skills to reunite in the deep stages of this tournament.
"Apestyles" is a formidable online MTT force, and his alter-ego Van Fleet has been cashing at will in live events. "Stevie444" is the much-covered online satellite qualifier extraordinaire, whose real-life incarnation Chidwick has also begun to make a splash surrounded by bricks and mortar.
And as for Mayrinck/maridu, you can hardly miss her. What she gives up in stature, she makes up for in conversation, be it in a chat-box, an MSN window or across the felt. Having occupied media row beside her for numerous events during her career as PokerStars blogger for Brazil, I should know.
And I wish her well today - if only to keep her out of the press box.
