Amanda Leatherman made a surprise return to poker as a special guest sideline reporter for the Heartland Poker Tour Main Event at the Indigo Casino; an event Reginald Roberts stuffed into his back pocket.
Former PokerStars Big Game host, Amanda Leatherman, has made a surprise return to poker. The Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) decided to bring her into the Indigo Sky Casino production as a ‘special guest’ sideline reporter.
Leatherman has been spending her time working on Star 1043 radio as part of the Josh and Amanda In the Morning show alongside her co-host Josh Michael. It’s unknown whether Leatherman will return to a full time position at the HPT.
She presided over the $1,675 Main Event at the Indigo Casino, Wyandotte, Oklahoma. It was a compact and bijou affair with only 89 runners, and it made it a little easier to produce a final table full of HPT gold.
The eventual winner Reginald Roberts was making his sixth final table, having previously won two of those; Gil George was making his third final table; former winner James Darnaby was in the mix; 2012 HPT Player of the Year Greg Raymer was in the house; and HPT legend Craig Casino turned up to create a new record. There were 19 HPT final table appearances between the final nine.
Craig Casino is something else.
The man has a homing beacon for these final tables.
Not only is Casino the all-time HPT money leader, with over $400,000 in cashes (Greg Raymer is second in that list), but his fifth place cash in this one means he has moved ahead of Stan Jablonski with the most HPT cashes. Casino also finished 8/761 at the HPT Main Event in Black Hawk a few weeks ago.
The heads-up action fell between Roberts and John Land. In total it took 60 hands before Roberts picked up his third title. According to the PokerNews blog the money went in on a [7d] [6s] [4h] flop with Land holding [As] [5s] for the straight draw, and backdoor flush draw, and Roberts holding [7s] [3s] for top pair and gutterball. The [5c] completed Roberts straight on the turn, and the river was a lifeless one for Land.
The HPT now moves to the Ameristar Casino in Kansas City.
Final Table Results
1st. Reginald Roberts – $40,051
2nd. John Land – $25,032
3rd. Daniel Snowden – $16,396
4th. Deborah Phillips – $11,890
5th. Craig Casino – $8,761
6th. James Darnaby – $6,884
7th. Greg Raymer – $6,008
8th. Ronald Hines – $5,382
9th. Gil George – $4,756
