Tiff Michelle vs pokernews

anybody hear about this fiasco yet??

copied from TM's myspace statement:

Tiffany Michelle Official Statement
Thursday, July 17, 2008

It is with great sadness that I’ve had to see my accomplishment of finishing 17th in the WSOP Main Event clouded by slanderous accusations and inaccurate information. I have been humbled by the overwhelming support from friends, fans and the media and for their sake as well as mine I feel as if I must respond and bring clarity to the situation.



There is no denying the positive press and exposure I brought Pokernews by wearing their logo and being their representative during the 2008 World Series of Poker main event. After such a successful series, I am greatly dismayed by Pokernews' subsequent actions. No one has ever questioned my integrity before this and I am so distressed that Pokernews is using their powerful public forum to spin such a negative recounting of the facts of what occurred during the final two days of the main event.



As we all know, it is standard practice for players to wear multiple logos during the main event. Pokernews was aware of this, having placed their logos on a number of players with sponsorship deals with other companies. Throughout the World Series I saw several players wear the Pokernews logo alongside the logos of online card rooms such as Pokerstars and T6. This makes it very clear that Pokernews supported this practice as a rule and were not against players wearing their logo in conjunction with the logo of an online card room. Like many other people, I wore multiple logos but in no way diminished the presence of Pokernews in doing so.



Unfortunately in this instance, Pokernews suddenly felt that I was in violation of my backing deal by wearing another logo. I have a written contract that has been reviewed by legal counsel – and it is very clearly a non-exclusive contract meaning that while I was expected to wear the Pokernews logo – I was in no way prevented from wearing any other logo. Furthermore Pokernews did not possess any power to make, advise or negotiate any kind of logo or sponsorship deal that came about via my playing the main event. In light of recent allegations by Pokernews, I have had this contract reviewed again by legal counsel to reconfirm my stance – that I in no way was in violation. It was never even said to me verbally until after the fact that there was an expectation of exclusivity. Even in my previous dealings with Pokernews, as their On-Camera Host I have made a point to never agree to any kind of exclusivity with their company as advised by my talent manager. The first I heard of Pokernews’ disapproval to me wearing the Ultimatebet logo was after I already had it on and was playing on the featured table.



It was unfortunate that while I was working hard to try to win the main event (and in so doing help to further promote Pokernews) I was chastised by Pokernews representatives at all hours of the day and night for wearing a second logo. Despite my repeated requests that they go through my manager and let me just concentrate on playing, they insisted on contacting me directly, greatly upsetting me during the most important weekend of my life. These representatives of Pokernews kept repeatedly telling me they had nothing but ‘my best interests at heart’ yet I felt bombarded by several parties trying to control my decisions and pressure my actions.



A fact that is known to Pokernews is that I was approached by many online poker sites wanting me to represent them during the last few days of the event; however I chose to work with UltimateBet. Tony G even quotes in his BLOG “I had been working on putting a deal together for Tiff with PokerStars and they had just emailed me. I knew Tiff could become a huge star and I was going to allow her to do a deal that would protect Pokernews also for the main event”. The fact that Pokernews was willing to work with PokerStars on a joint deal says it all – the contract was NONEXCLUSIVE.



I am a grown woman and I can decide for myself who I choose to associate myself with. That should not be Tony G’s decision. Just because Tony G. backed me in the event (and profited quite nicely by doing so) does not mean that he should be able to control or profit from any logo or sponsorship deal I might make or have any say in how I handle my career. I have been around poker a long time and it’s widely known that a backer has no say or cut of a player’s sponsorship or logo deal. Again, I had seen several Pokernews sponsored players wearing online card room logos already so clearly the backing deal and the logo deals were separate for every other player wearing Pokernews.

Why would it be different just for me?

In the end, I completely stand by my decision and I feel that UltimateBet was the one site that treated me with the respect and dignity deserving of someone in my stressful situation. Throughout the whole event they were insistent on wanting me to just concentrate on my play and were clear that the decision in the end was mine and I should do what I felt was best for me.



It is unfortunate that Pokernews has taken the step of publicly accusing me of breaching their contract when I have been scrupulous in fulfilling my obligations. I have always felt that disputes like this should be handled privately and in this case using such a broad reaching platform to air such a dispute seems really inappropriate to me. Still, I want to say how much I appreciate the opportunities that Pokernews has given me. I am deeply grateful to Jeff Lisandro and Tony G for backing me in the event and giving me this opportunity to play in the most exciting event of my life.

Yeah I read the statement from PokerNews but this totally puts it in a new light. If her contract was non-exclusive and she already has an agent, then Pokernews has no business negotiating her other deals. I saw her with the PN logo in pictures from the event, so I am not sure what the hell PN's problem is other than being guilty of getting too greedy in controlling some of their talent's careers.

I would have told pokernews to fck off and if they didnt stop harrassing me id rip their damn logo right off, bring it.

Seriously, what assholes to do that....

It's sad to see the other side of companies, I thkn she has done the right thing,...........does anyone think she would have done better if not pressured so much???

her AJ push was pretty terribad so yeah I bet she would have, maybe not though perhaps shes just an average player.

possibly.. in a high pressure environmment the last thing u need is corporate aggression disguised as concern uping ur stress levels

I believe that Poker News has recently taken the stance that until the ongoing cheating scandals at Ultimate Bet are cleared up that they would no longer accept advertising from them. To see one of their own paid spokespersons aligning herself with Ultimatebet probably pissed them off big time and they over reacted.

However legality aside, Miss Michelle's decision to align herself with Ultimatebet while still accepting support from Poker News was ill advised. Just because you have the right to do something doesn't make it right to do.

That's one of the problems. In the Entertainment business, contracts and agents are King. Its all about the money and what the next gig is going to be, not if it's the "right thing to do". Very often folks who "do the right thing" in that business end up waiting tables at Denny's.

Personally, I think she did nothing wrong outside of picking the wrong horse to ride (Ultimatebet). If I was her, I would have gotten a PokerNews exec into a room and ripped his bloody head off for them messing with her during the main event. That was just not cool.

A-#$#%#-MEN!!!!

FYP

Here's a link to PokerRoad's take on the PokerNews article and an interview with Tiffany on PokerRoad, Poker Industry News, Poker Radio and Poker Video Content at PokerRoad.com.
Also 2+2 PokerCast, Two Plus Two Pokercast presented by PokerStars VIP Club, had a bit of an interesting take on her interviews on PokerNews, Tiffany 'Hot Chips' Michelle - Video - Poker News and Tiffany 'Hot Chips' Michelle - Video - Poker News. The 2+2 PokerCast hosts found it interesting that Tiffany purposely covered the Ultimatebet.net logo on her shirt, but forgot to remove her Ultimatebet.net hat.
To me, and this is without having all the info, it appears that she knew she probably should NOT be wearing the Ultimatebet junk. And knowing that she was bought into the ME by PokerNews' Tony G. and Jeff Lisandro, it would have been a good idea to at least let them know that she was beginning to court logo sponsorship offers. That way she would have at least known that there were other potential offers on the table.
Also, since she is very knowledgable of the poker business world, she should have known that aligning herself with Ultimatebet, as they go through a cheating scandal, was not in her or PokerNews' best interest.

I guess it's good then that she didn't make the November Nine. The last thing the WSOP would have needed was a court circus going on in the days leading up to the biggest night in poker.

Doubt it would've made it that far - as Tony G points out, trying to take a contract with an online poker site to a US court is not really something that's on the cards.

FWIW, Dr Pauly did a pretty comprehensive wrap on the issue for anyone that wants to catch up on the whole dramabomb: Tao of Poker: Pauly's WSOP Poker Blog

I think she just took advice from the wrong people.

Tiff Michelle 1 PokerNews 1

Ding ding....round 2

shes pretty attractive but im just looking at her myspace page

court harrington is our local pro and plays in many of our home games and cash games when he is in town!!..hardly ever tho..the lucky rascal!!!

I think the problem is that the two logos are contrdictory since pokernews does not offer a sign-up deal on Ultimatebet.

Also I don't know how much Tiff got from her sponsorship deal, but I hope it was a lot because what Tony has been setting up seems to have been a very good opportunity for her.

I was thinking more along the lines of mainstream endorsements. Or what would have happend if Playboy made her an offer? Would they want a cut of that too?

Plus the online sites under their .net monikers are perfectly legal in the US. That's why they can run the commericals that they do.

less stess by irrelevant noise, more concentration = better result in high pressure enviromen.

But do they really want to subject it to that kind of scrutiny? Especially in a case like this, where it's about a US citizen getting paid by one of these sites - sure, the logo they're wearing says .net. But a judge isn't going to ask where this money's really coming from? Because it ain't a free-to-play .net site that's actually coughing up the money.

that's what makes her right.

Corporate America's motto: When all logic fails choose the one with the biggest rack.

But tiffany doesn't really have a big rack... but she's still hot.

shes got a rack, what else are you looking at?






apart from here arse.

Sorry, but Tiff is all face.

Agreed... Quite nice face I might add... It is unfortunate what happened to her in this situation. Anyone think this will lead to the end of people wearing multiple names in the future?

copied from TM's myspace statement:

Tiffany Michelle Official Statement
Thursday, July 17, 2008


There is no denying the positive press and exposure I brought Pokernews by wearing their logo and being their representative during the 2008 World Series of Poker main event.

What about the positives for her? - a major payout from a tournament she didn't pay 1 cent to enter.

Yep, Pokernews fronted the $10K entry for her.

It's interesting that neither Ultimatebet.net nor Ultimatebet.com makes any reference to Tiffany Michelle on their websites. You would at least think they would have something to the effect of, "Congratulations to Ultimatebet Team member Tiffany Michelle as the Last Woman Standing in the WSOP ME!" But I couldn't find anything on their home page or in their news sections. Though they make sure to mention that some rock guitarist has joined the Ultimatebet Team. LOL What gives?

Or are they just waiting for the WSOP to begin airing on ESPN? You would think that they know that all of us on-line players are already aware of the standings up to this point, and would want to gain as much hopefully positive publicity for Ultimatebet as possible.

It'll be because she's not actually a member of Team Ultimatebet, or the Ultimatebet Army, or whatever it is they're calling themselves. It'll have been a one-time deal, they just rented space on her chest for a few days.

Happens all the time - Scotty Nguyen wore a Full Tilt logo at the $50K HORSE final table, but Poker Stars at the Main Event.

pokernews didnt..jeff lisandro and tony g split it, and both are aligned with pokernews...

Can I rent her chest for a micro second? lol,

goes to show ya that there's drama everywhere, when did such a fun game turn into a drama fest

when did pretty women start playing poker?

By all accounts, the only thing that's uncommon about this story is the fact that it's made it into the public spotlight like this.

Staking deals and arguments over them are 100% standard, especially at an event like the WSOP. You just won't read about many of them on PokerNews unless it's something really obvious that they can't avoided. Like, say, "ZOMGZ, Vinnie Vinh's empty chair just cashed in a tourney!" or "ZOMGZ, the whole internetz is talking smack about your sponsored player doing a deal with UltimateBet whee!!!".