Tiffany Michelle and The World Series of Poker - Part II

A couple of days ago I posted some thoughts about the whole Tiffany Michelle situation. In fairness, mine is not the only opinion regarding her behavior. Ivan Demidov, one of the “November Nine” had this to say about Tiffany Michelle when asked:

Ivan Demidov: “I don’t really like her. I know that when I played with her at the same table she was pretty rude to everyone and she thought too highly of herself. At the same time, she really had no idea of what she made a certain move. If you check to her on the turn, there was almost a 100% chance she would bet. She really is not a good poker player and she was lucky to get so deep.”

Another blogger at the World Series of Poker known as FTrain had the following to say”

“During the Main Event I was less able to avoid Tiffany for the simple reason that she often sought out the bloggers to give us updates on her tournament progress. Plenty of people playing tournaments do that; generally I don’t begrudge them it. They have friends and family following along in far-flung places, and one of the perqs of getting in good with the bloggers is that we’re willing to throw a little press your way. However there was one particular episode from Day 4 of the Main Event that really etched itself into my memory.

I was sitting in the absolute back corner of the Amazon Room, near Blue #1, chatting with FerricRamsium. The money bubble burst on Day 3, with 474 players finishing the day with chips. So at the time of this incident I’m about to relate, somewhere around 300-400 players remained in the tournament. If my memory serves, about 6% of the starting field were women, which means that all other things being equal at least twenty females were still in the field.

Tiffany saunters up to our media table and gives us an update on her chip count. Then she adds, “Maybe when you guys have some time, you can figure out how close I am to being the last woman standing.”

To say that I was dumbstruck is an understatement. Here we are, doing our damndest to provide the most comprehensive coverage of the biggest poker tournament on Earth, and Tiffany expects us to figure out how many women are left because she wants to know how close she is to being the last one? Never mind the fact that there were still hundreds of players left, and that without standing up and from the back corner of the room, I could see Van Nguyen, Evelyn Ng and Kara Scott.”

Even Barry Greenstein chimed in on the matter on the PokerRoad Forums stating. “Tiffany is an attractive and sexy young woman who got a little full of herself during that energizing run toward the final table.”

My opinion is not based on solely hearsay. I am not the only person to speak out about her and her actions. Tiffany Michelle has said that people should talk with her and try to get to know her. That is all fine and good if you want to make friends with her and to get her spin. There is nothing wrong with that. However at this point, the facts and the footage are out there. People will formulate their opinion based on what they see and hear, and video footage alone is damaging.

With that being said, if Tiffany Michelle wants to prove that she is the way that she claims, then go out and prove us wrong. She has the endorsements with UB and will still receive a lot of media requests based on her finish alone. If she wants to fix her image, the best way is to learn from the mistakes made and move forward and improve her image. It can be done. People love to see people that learn from their mistakes and go forth and become or continue to be successful. It’s all a part of growing as a person.

Much more will be said about this, both positive and negative. Tiffany has mentioned that what has been said about her hurts her. Good. That means she is paying attention. I am more worried about people that don’t care about how they viewed.

In the end, no amount of spin is going to change what has already happened. If Tiffany Michelle wants to change our opinions, the solution is relatively simple. Go out and prove us wrong.