Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho on Next Season of The Amazing Race

Maria Ho apparently waiting at LAX as filming for The Amazing Race began on July 15. (RealityFanForum photo)

It appears that Jean-Robert Bellande and Annie Duke may soon have some company when it comes to pro poker players making a name for themselves on a reality television series.

Sources close to CBS have confirmed that the upcoming season of The Amazing Race will include two professional female poker players playing as a team but would not confirm the identities of those players.

A forum poster at RealityFanForum.com may have done that already having recently snapped photos of contestants as the race began and one of those photos clearly showed Maria Ho. Her partner on the race is rumored to be Tiffany Michelle whose recent decision to preclude herself from the World Series of Poker Main Event however put her at the top of the list of the suspects.

On her blog just before the start of the Main Event Michelle wrote “It’d have to be something pretty big to deter me from the WSOP Championship Event this year and trust me, IT IS! I can’t disclose much right now but I’ll be leaving to film a project for a month and it conflicts with the Main Event. … This project and my part are very huge and it’s an opportunity is just too good to pass up. At the end of the day, acting and performing have always been my passion, in fact it’s how I fell into poker to begin with and I never want to lose sight of that part of my life and career.”

Pre-production filming for The Amazing Race began July 12 in Los Angeles with the actual race beginning July 15. Michelle has not sent out a tweet since July 13 when she let the world know she was filming a project.

“Couple days into filming & I’m having a blast, lovin’ the cast & crew but remembering how long filming days can be. Love being back on set!,” wrote the last woman standing from the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Michelle or Ho however may not have been the first choice of the shows producers.

Back on May 14, Evelyn Ng posted on her Twitter account that she had been preparing for a spot on a reality TV series only to find out that Canadians weren’t eligible to participate.

“spent 2 days preparing to be cast for a reality show (it was in the bag), only to find out that Canadians aren’t elligible. FML … it was a big network reality show,” wrote Ng. According to the official application form only American citizens living in the United States are eligible.

This news came shortly after Bellande, who appeared on CBS’ Survivor in 2007, posted on 2+2 indicating that friends of his were looking to cast two female poker players for an upcoming reality show. Some believe that Ng was one of the original choices of producers as was Lacey Jones.

The Amazing Race begins airing on CBS on September 27.

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