Tiffany Michelle and Maria had started to grow on me. In Japan they couldn't finish a task because they lost a person, but were saved by a non-elimination leg. They fought back and started to do better. I think we will be seeing a non-elimination leg soon.

The poker girls probably didn't know how far back the other team was or even if they had finished the golf challenge. All the other teams soared past them so they didn't know if taking the thirty minute penalty could have worked in their favor

Remember when Rob (of Rob and Amber) didn't want to do the eating challenge, and convinced others not to do it too, they beat out the other non-finishers even with the penalty. The Poker pair should have passed on the bell, danced and gone to the mat, and taken their penalty, bet they would have beat Erika (counting is HARD!).

They should have combined their strength by standing one in front of the other and using four arms to swing the hammer and bring it down....with a little coordination and the upper body strength of both simultaneously the might have been able to ring the bell....that being said I agree with the poster who say they should have bypassed the bell challenge and gone straight to the dancing and hoped for just penalty.

If the Poker Girls were really smart, they would have skipped the bell ringing to move right on to the dancing. Seems like they could have kept int the race from the get go even with a 30 or 60 minute penalty.

Actually, I was impressed with the poker gals. How often did they try the "ring the bell"? 80 times?! And they did ride the bike and swim across the river twice AND did the golf challenge like a millions times, too. Did they blame each other? No. Were they frustrated? Of course they were. But they didn't give up, until they reached a point where there was no chance they could ever finish the task. Phil would've come to tell them they are last anyway. It was ridiculous they had to ring the bell in the first place. Choices are usually between strength/dexterity...
Next week will be fun to watch. I remember the road-block well :)

Bell-ringing is not about raw strength. It is a carnival strength. ANybody can do it once they know the trick (rotational force).

Look, if you are doing this race, you gotta know there will be challenges. Afraid of a water slide is ridiculous. The "strength" was not so much of a challenge that an old man could not do it. Plus, the poker tramps were given the answer on the bell tower and no one complained about using the wink and a wiggle to con guys. The area in which I viewed the show had no finishers other than the two who had a penalty. Bad editing locally. You could figure it out that there was one elimination and one only meaning everyone else is safe but who won the stage?

The poker girls didnt give up the race. They were physically too weak to do either of the tasks. They didnt have the upper body strength to ring the bell and they didnt have the strength or coordination needed to play the golf game. They didnt give up. They were bested by the tasks. Some of the stronger all womens teams of past seasons would have done better.

I have totally had my fill of Erika. Her constant moaning is getting really hard to take. I was so hoping that she would be sent home tonight, but the pathetic poker girls were just not up to the task.

This last leg of the Amazing Race, where Tiffany and Maria were eliminated, was definitely tipped in favor of the men. Strength was definitely an advantage in both tasks, so teams with men had a huge advantage. Extremely unfair. No wonder an all-female team has never won. Shameful.