It’s been a wild ride for the former teacher from Edmonton, Canada, but now Kara Scott is a bona fide poker playa. She spoke to WPT Poker magazine.
She’s one of the most recognised faces on the poker circuit but you’re more likely to see her talking to the players than tangling with them at the tables. Kara Scott has been a permanent fixture on the poker scene since Poker Night Live graced our screens back in 2005. Since then she has commentated on poker across the world–recently stepping into the hostess’ role on High Stakes Poker and handed several gigs on the World Poker Tour–and has even had time to squeeze in two deep runs in the WSOP and a second place finish at the 2009 Irish Open. Now that she’s part of the illustrious PartyPoker roster we’ll be seeing much more of her at the tables too over the coming months. We caught up with Kara to get the lowdown on a hectic year.
Kara, following on from your success at the Irish Open last year, you’re now a PartyPoker sponsored player and the WPT’s newest hostess. Describe how the last year has been for you?
It’s been one thing after another, really. The Irish Open was a massive thing for me, to final table was amazing in itself and to come second was pretty mind-blowing. I learnt a lot about my poker game from that experience and used it to go to Vegas and play in the WSOP. I went deep in some side events and then I played in the Main Event and went deep in that too, so poker-wise it’s been an amazing year. After that PartyPoker got in touch with me and said they wanted to have me join their team. I was really flattered and we spent a little while talking about it and figuring out what my role would be. To be in charge of their TV presenting and be one of their ambassadors is exciting.
Being primarily a presenter, are you a little bemused that you’re being bought into these pro tournaments or do you have a lot more confidence in your own game now?
I do spend a lot of time playing poker now as well as talking about it. I play a lot online as well when I can, so I guess yes and no. I see my value to a company like Party in terms of the TV side of things because it’s great to have me wearing their logo but I also had a great record playing last year. I think they are trying to pull in as many successful female players as possible because it’s a huge untapped market. I’m just really grateful that it’s me to be honest and hopefully I can do a little something this year to back it up.
How does it feel playing with someone else’s money?
Oh, it’s great, it’s always better [laughs]. When I played in the World Series last summer I played with my own money and there’s nothing like the feeling of handing over $10,000 of your own money, waving it goodbye and knowing that you might not ever see it again. That was a bit scary but it was nice having a bankroll and being able to do that, but obviously it’s much better being a sponsored player.
You’re now part of the WPT team. Can you tell us a little more about where we might be seeing you on the tour?
It’s still up in the air; hopefully I’ll be involved in a few upcoming legs. It will involve a lot of travelling, especially with the other things I’ll be doing for them, including the TV stuff and the playing, I’m just trying to make sure I won’t be away from home my entire life. I’m going back to Vegas for the WPT World Championship in late April and I believe I’ll be hosting (and possibly playing) the Canadian WPT as well as playing. It’s really gratifying that they asked me to come on board and I love Mike Sexton. I also met Vince Van Patten at the Celebrity Poker Invitational and they’re just a lovely team to be able to join, particularly Mike who has been so welcoming and has helped me find my feet.
You said in an interview once, “I’m not a pro, I’m a television hostess that gets to play a lot.” Do you still feel that way or would you like it to go the other way and play more poker?
I think it’s hard to define what a poker pro is and a lot of people call themselves pros because they aren’t doing anything else. It’s kind of like being a writer; everyone’s a writer [laughs]. I have had a great 18 months playing poker and I could have made a living playing poker for the last 2 years, but I didn’t; I was doing other work. My main job was to be a hostess and I love that and I don’t plan to quit that for poker full-time because it’s a very difficult thing to do, especially as a tournament player. I have a huge amount of respect for the tourney pros that manage it, though. It’s a hard old life.
Do you think TV poker has been served badly by women who don’t know their way around and is that something you’re quite mindful of when you’re on TV?
I’ve always wanted to be good at what I did, even when I didn’t know anything about poker. I was a TV hostess for a martial arts show and I was trained as a martial artist so I went into that as with some inside knowledge, I’ve never been one to get into something I didn’t understand. When I did a backgammon show I didn’t know anything about backgammon so I took a massive crash course on it, got lessons and read all the books I could, and it was the same with poker. When I first got involved in poker I had people teaching me how to play and I read every book I could get my hands on. I don’t like to ask questions that players of the game don’t understand just because I don’t understand the game. [But] I don’t think the women that have done presenting jobs have done a bad job at all. [Poker After Dark’s] Leeann Tweeden is a really talented TV hostess and she’s been involved in poker for a long time now and is very good at dealing with the players and getting them to give up their information.
You obviously get to see so many top-class hands when you’re presenting. How much do you absorb from watching the pros?
When I’m on a set watching I have the commentators in my ear so I get to listen to the commentary, which is great. I can also hear the table chat and I’ve learnt so much from that. I think aside from experiencing poker yourself, watching poker and not just hands cherry picked from tournaments or cash games is a great way to learn the game.
Any plays in particular that stick in your mind or players that you’ve learnt something from?
A lot of the players that I’ve learnt from have been the ones I didn’t really know too much about before at a European final table. Guys like Mike “Timex” McDonald. He is a wonderful tournament player and he thinks on such a high level. Isaac Haxton too, he’s done some commentary on PartyPoker events such as the Premier League and he’s got such a clear view of the game.
You’ve interviewed loads of pros. Anyone you particularly like interviewing and anyone you dread?
I don’t think there’s anyone I dread coming up against. I was nervous going into High Stakes Poker because a couple of the guys I hadn’t interviewed before. I hadn’t interviewed [Patrik] Antonius or Phil Ivey before and I was surprised, pleasantly surprised, especially by Phil Ivey. He was very personable, really easy to talk to and had a big smile on his face, which was fantastic. The whole three days were great and I was really nervous stepping into it in the first place. It was a bit of a blur but by the end of it I was so sad it was over.
Did you have any favourite moments this season? Phil Hellmuth seemed to get a really rough ride this time. Do you ever feel kind of sorry for him?
Yeah, I did, I felt really bad for him. It went from HSP to seeing him play in the PartyPoker Premier League where they rode him so hard; it was constant needle from minute one and I felt really bad for him [laughs].
Does he invite it on himself?
Yeah, I think he admits it too. He would probably say that because he’s the best player in the world people are going to come after him [laughs]. I think he probably looks at it like that, but it’s still hard to watch. As for my favourite moments, there were a couple of really big hands that happened that were so much fun to watch. Obviously there was the really big bluff Tom Dawn pulled on Ivey [see sidebar]. It was hilarious looking at Phil’s face and watching him think it through and seeing Tom’s face as though he wanted to throw up. He said afterwards that it was the lights and they were hurting his eyes, but wow, there was something really powerful in that hand.
So you’ll be back for number seven then?
Oh, here’s hoping, yeah. Apparently the ratings are really good and working with GSN is really fun so hopefully that does happen.
Let’s go back a bit. How did you first get into the game?
I was asked to do a show called Poker Night Live and one of the pros on the show was Nick Wealthall. We became really good friends and he taught me how to play. I didn’t want to be asking silly questions on TV so I spent a lot of time reading all the books I could. I really threw myself into the deep-end. The show focused on online tournaments and we watched hands from beginning to end, I listened to the pros talk and that really helped me develop my own style of play.
It seems likes there’s a poker mini-boom happening over in Canada. Do you see yourself playing a bit more over there in the near future and becoming an ambassador for Canadian poker alongside Negreanu?
Wow, I don’t know if I can follow Negreanu, but I‘d really like to. I’ve not lived at home for 11 years now but I’m still very much Canadian. All my family are there, I go home for business and it’s really exciting to see how poker is growing there. I think PartyPoker is going to send me to a lot of the Canadian live events. I was in Toronto last week meeting some of the PartyPoker players and it really made me hungry to go out there and play some of the live events.
Let’s talk a little about your boyfriend [Brian Townsend].
Erm, OK [nervous giggle].
No, nothing personal. How important has Brian Townsend been in furthering your game? And has he learned things from you?
[Laughs] You can’t be serious. Has he learned from me?!
Come on, there must be something.
No, I’m a philistine at poker compared to him. We don’t really talk about poker, if I’m entirely honest. If I have questions about the game I generally go to Nick (Wealthall). When I was getting ready to play the NBC Heads-Up Championship I had a HU specialist who was working as a coach with me. Me and Brian don’t really talk about poker that much, though.
What are your plans for the rest of the year? Any WSOP events pencilled in?
Definitely, I think I’ve got 4 or 5 WSOP events that I’m going to be playing which is fantastic. I get to play the Main Event again, which is pretty cool as jobs go. I don’t think I’m going to be able to make Day 5 three years in a row but I’m going to try! I’m going to be playing Ante-Up for Africa and a couple of the smaller buy-in events but I’m going to be in Vegas the whole summer playing on and off in the cash games and just working on my game a lot.
OK, obligatory ‘Women in Poker’ question. Do you think women are regarded as stiffer competition now or do you think there is still a certain amount of discrimination at the tables?
I think that because there are more women playing it makes it seem like it’s stiffer. It’s not such a novelty any more which is nice; you’re not the only woman sitting down in a tournament with 200 guys. It doesn’t happen anymore, not that I can think of, I think just the fact that there are more women playing it become more normal. We’re not seen as the value in the field anymore.
Are you opposed to women-only events?
The last interview I did I said that I find it really hard to come down on either side of the fence. I don’t seek out women-only events, that isn’t something I would do. I’ve played them, I played the Women’s Open last week, and it was also my first ever live event a few years ago and I final tabled it. I think there’s a place for bringing more women into the game. Women’s events, when they are televised, tend to have higher ratings than their equivalent mixed or men-only tournaments. That’s got to be a good thing as it puts women out there, hopefully more women are seeing it and becoming more aspirational towards playing.
Any female or male players you admire on the circuit?
It changes based on the event; I’m so fickle. A lot of the players are really good fun to be around and when I was in Vegas I had a real soft spot for Daniel Negreanu. He’s a really nice guy and he’s always super nice to the crew, the make-up artist, the runners, everyone. He’s never got an attitude. David Benaymine was there as well; he’s a lovely man, very charming and sophisticated. They are all so different; I think it would have to be Mike Sexton overall, though. He’s so lovely and his wife is a sweetheart.
Anything you think you could possibly do if it wasn’t poker?
Yeah, loads of things. I used to work in TV as a producer and that was a lot of fun. I’m also a teacher and I worked in special needs school for years in London. It was during a break in teaching that I randomly got involved in TV. I’ve also done a lot of writing, all my family are writers, I was finishing off a screen play a few years ago before I got into poker, so there are a lot things I could do. I’m the sort of person who really enjoys a challenge so I don’t think I’ll ever be bored.
LUCK IN THE IRISH
All those years spent watching and presenting from the rail paid dividends for Kara when she entered the 2009 Irish Open. The Canadian beauty had tangled with many of the game’s greatest players off the felt but it was now time for her to enter their world and mix it up on the felt.
After navigating the first day’s play she entered the second day with average chips, but soon found herself all-in and trailing with K-J to Dave Colclough’s A-K. Luck was to smile on Kara though as a jack on the turn earned her the pot and kick started her push towards the final table. After dispensing with some of poker’s fiercest players she soon ended Day 2 with 151,000 and, for once, was contemplating her chances of playing at a final table rather than covering one. After watching 693 of the 701 starters fall, Kara found herself in fourth place when the final table began and was content to sit tight while the other players busted around her. After eliminating Atanas Gueorguiev in 4th Kara soon found herself heads-up with Swedish pro, Christer Johansson, holding a slight chip lead. The fairytale ending wasn’t to be though as she soon found herself committing all her chips on a Kd Jd 7s flop with J-9. Christer made the call with K-3 and with a Qs Ad on the turn and river she was eliminated in second place, picking up an incredible €312,600.
KARA’S TOP TV MOMENT
Tom Dwan vs. Phil Ivey
High Stakes Poker, Season 6
Kara’s High Stakes Poker pick is certainly one that will leave you lost for words. Pulling the wool over Phil Ivey’s eyes isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but it was something the brash Tom “durrrr” Dwan thought he could do in a pot worth $1 million.
With four players entering the pot for a raise, Dwan decided to juice up the action to $28,900 with 9s 8s. Only Ivey was brave enough to go along for the ride and on a flop of 10d Qc Kd, Dwan bet out $45,800 with the gutshot. Ivey decided to call with Ad 6d and take his massive draw to the turn. The 3s on the turn provided another opportunity for Dwan to bet $123,200 into the pot, giving Ivey pause for thought. With over $400,000 in the middle the 6c on the river was enough for Dwan to complete his three-barrel bluff by betting $268,200. Ivey quickly asked for a count before going deep into the tank. Dwan stared vacantly into the distance, trying to hide his fear, while Ivey ran through the options in his head. Eventually he folded and Dwan scooped over $650,000 with nothing but nine-high. |
