Going back to the WSOP for a moment, one of the darker sides of the whole event was how Tiffany Michelle and Tony G got into it about how the former PokerNews employee in Michelle was supposed to be representing the company throughout the Main Event. Now this story has been beat to death by some people so I don’t want to go into it anymore.
The only thing I want to say is that her wearing UltimateBet gear to the Main Event caused the rift because PokerNews paid her buy-in and she argued that other PokerNews employees were allowed to sponsor other companies and so should she.
Well today, the weird saga came to fruition when Michelle was signed by the scandal-ridden UltimateBet today. Apparently they, like many other people in the poker world were very impressed with her 17th place finish at the Main Event which drew major attention since she was the last female standing. I’m sure they were also impressed by the fact that she’s one of the more attractive women in poker today (I’d give her about an 8 personally).
And all this got me wondering if this is one move that UltimateBet is banking on to help them restore their already broken image. If Michelle turns out to be a big star in the form of their already popular UB team member in Annie Duke, it would certainly help out a lot. However, what’s to stop Michelle from jumping ship as soon as soon as her playing ability is solidified enough to match her looks?
I don’t know who’s right or wrong in the PokerNews dispute but the reputation has already been created in some people’s minds that she would leave for greener pastures if given the chance. All of this created for an interesting story to watch develop in the future.
UB isn’t going to be able to fix their image within the poker community with those that know about the crime anytime soon. It was a crime. I’m surprised there are people still playing there. Perhaps they haven’t heard about it and unless they’ve been surfing poker blogs or poker forums, they haven’t heard about it. Tiffany has made a mistake going with UB, but I guess the money was good enough for her to sign with them.
It would have been good to see her communicate with her Boss/Backer just to make sure she wasn’t stepping on any toes, I think she was going on advice from her manager who probably saw only in his eyes.
Maybe all this disrupted her play, she certainly dumped alot of chips from 3rd in chips with 27 remaining and out in 17th.
Still, a very good result!
Yea, I hear now that AB and UB are going to be sharing players through a network called Cereus. They aren’t going to combine sites totally but rather work together a lot. Maybe this is what really made Tiffany Michelle want to sign with them.