Everyone has a story about how they met.
Ours just happened to require a lot of luck and a little magic! Story told in third person for clarity reasons.
It was January 2010. Zach was a senior at the University of Arizona, and Brittany was a senior at Hendrix College in Arkansas. Both hopped on planes to Paradise Island in the Bahamas. They both had dollar signs in their eyes and winning trophies in their hearts! Zach was there to play in the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure Main Event poker tournament, and Brittany was there to win the Ladies’ Event. Spoiler Alert: they didn’t win either.
But…The night they arrived, full of anticipation and money burning a hole in their pockets, they both decided to sit down and play in a small cash game to pass the time away. Zach was ever the quiet and mysterious player. Brittany was the only girl at the table. Scratch that, she was one of the only girls in the entire poker room. A zebra in a den full of lions. She always had her guard up while playing or even entering a poker room.
The game was going. Brittany was suspicious of the activity at the table. It came out that Zach and his two friends were all from New York. It wasn’t apparent to Brittany at the time that one of his friends, was actually his brother, Ryan, until later. She just happened to think they were soft playing each other aka colluding. She wasn’t getting cheated out of her money by those fast-talking New York yankees! So she left the table to find some other fish to fry.
She was unlucky in her quest to find a table, and when she returned to Zach’s table, she was delighted to find everyone was playing drinking games and it was a full-on party! She clearly had to join in on the fun! The entire table became friends for the rest of the trip!
Brittany cheered Zach on as he made the final table of the Main Event! He ended up coming in 7th out of thousands of people and was even on ESPN. Zach, Ryan, and their friend Val were railbirds for Britt during her tourney. She unfortunately, was the bubble girl, meaning she was one spot away from the money in the Ladies’ Event. Whoomp whoomp.
They all played poker after hours in the casino conference rooms ordering Bahama Mamas and chicken mojos all weekend long! Laughing, betting, bluffing, and check raising each other in ridiculous hats!
Then the fun came to an end, and they went their separate ways. Their story was over.
Until it wasn’t. A Facebook friend request notification popped up on Britt’s account a few weeks later from a cute quiet boy from New York. She obviously accepted his request, flew to Arizona Valentine’s Day weekend a few weeks later, and the rest is history!
So, in a nutshell, we met at a poker table in the Bahamas! We didn’t win the tournaments, but we won each others’ hearts!
Zach orchestrated an elaborate scavenger hunt for Britt all around Sedona, Arizona to find him! Watch to see the big reveal!
