The World Poker Tour’s Bellagio Cup IV Main Event will get underway Friday and when fans tune into the live video updates on WorldPokerTour.com they’ll see a new, albeit familiar, face smiling back at them.

Amanda Leatherman, who has covered professional poker tournaments around the world for over two years, will be replacing Kimberly Lansing as the live updates hostess.

“Amanda is a great addition to the WPT live updates team. She is extremely knowledgeable about the game, the players and the world of high stakes tournament poker,” said Joseph Grimm, WPT executive producer. “We are excited and lucky to have her on board.”

Leatherman’s resume includes covering the WPT, World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour, NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship and the Aussie Millions for various outlets including the now-defunct PokerWire.com and most recently for PokerRoad.com.

Leatherman’s replacement of Lansing could lead to speculation that Lansing may be the front runner to replace Layla Kayleigh as the hostess for the television productions of WPT. Kayleigh left the WPT following the conclusion of the most recent season and indicated she felt Lansing would be an excellent choice to take the hostess duties.

WPT will neither confirm nor deny that Lansing is being considered for the promotion but have indicated that an announcement is coming soon with regards to the TV hostess position. According to a press release to be issued today, WPT is still in discussions with candidates for the position.

Leatherman will continue to work with PokerRoad Radio while she takes on the new duties for WPT.

“I’m a poker player and have been for quite a while now,” said Leatherman. “So I’m very comfortable talking about hands and strategies. Plus I know a lot of the regulars on tour and it’ll be a lot of fun to talk to them on the webcam.”

While WPT does not currently have a broadcast agreement for Season VII, they plan to continue to produce the televised final tables in anticipation of an agreement being worked out.

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