While the Conrad hotel is hosting it's first LAPT, several of the seats are filled with familiar players.

One specific pair of players looks like they can't get enough of each other.

For the second consecutive LAPT, Brazil's Renata Teixeira and Chile's Oscar Alache are seated right next to each other on Day 1a.

But this is far from the first time the two have played against each other.

LAPT veterans might recall earlier this season, when Teixeira and Alache went heads-up for the title in Chile.

Regardless of who won, there was going to be a footnote added to LAPT history that day.

With a guaranteed second-place finish, Teixeira became the highest-finishing woman in LAPT history with a shot at becoming the first woman to take down an LAPT trophy.

Alache on the other hand was fighting for his second LAPT title. After winning, Alache became the third player to win multiple LAPT titles.

The two haven't slowed down since their bout and both are in the top 5 players competing for this season's LAPT Player of the Year.

Alache is currently leading the race with 674.62 points while Teixeira is in 4th with 541.01.

The majority of Alache's points came from his victory in Chile, but he added another 172.08 points in Panama with a victory in a $600 Freezeout and a 58th-place finish in the Main Event.

Then Alache finished 5th in the $5,000 High Roller in Peru for another 156.68 points.

That's the tournament Alache found himself seated next to Teixeira on Day 1a, a coincidence that everyone's ecstatic happened again.

While the two are currently even in chips, Teixeira is trailing Alache in the POY race by 133.61 points. The bulk of Teixeira's 541.01 points came from her runner-up finish in Chile and --just like Alache-- she scored another pair of points in Panama.

Teixeira finished 6th in the $1,100 NLHE Re-entry for 101.32 points and picked up another 41.23 points when she finished 5th in a $600 Freezeout.

Teixeira then picked up another 92.45 points in Peru when she finished 9th in the $1,100 NLHE Re-entry.

Their results are so similar that we'd be convinced they're the same person if they weren't seated next to each other all the time.

But they're not, we know they know they're not. We think.

One is a bubbly Brazilian woman quickly climbing the country's poker ranks while the other is a stoic, bearded Chilean player approximately 2.2 Teixeiras in size.

One thing they do match up in is poker skill.

We'll see which one can make it further this event.

Photography from LAPT8 Uruguay by Carlos Monti. You can also follow the action in Spanish and in Portuguese.

Alexander Villegas is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.