If you like to watch poker on TV, you know who Kara Scott is.
She’s been the host of seemingly every major poker show in the Northern hemisphere, not the least of which include the ESPN WSOP Main Event broadcast, the iconic High Stakes Poker and, most recently, the American Poker Awards and Global Poker League draft.
On the more recreational side of things, Scott was also the host of the first two editions of the PokerListings Battle of Malta and now has found herself returning to those roots as a new brand ambassador for 888poker.
Her first official job with 888 was to host some of the activities around the 888Live Local event at Aspers Casino in Stratford/London last week, where we caught up with her to talk about her new role, her jet-set lifestyle and her rekindled passion for poker.
PL: You’re a British-Canadian living with an Italian partner in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Have you always been such a cosmopolitan kind of person?
Kara Scott: I honestly never had a chance to travel until I moved from Canada to London.
But since I’ve started working in the poker industry it’s a part of the job, so travelling to me today is not a hobby but really more of a lifestyle.
PL: How did your cooperation with 888poker start?
KS: I’ve known a lot of players and 888 people for a long time. I’ve heard plenty of stories at the poker tables.
Players told me about how well online qualifiers were treated and how many activities they did that I thought it could be a really cool job to work with them.
PL: What are your responsibilities going to be?
KS: As an ambassador I’m going to be playing some more poker than (I have been) lately. I was a little burnt out for a while and poker stopped being fun.
But I love the game and I’ll now play in some of the lower buy-in tournaments, which I’ve always enjoyed anyway because I’m an enthusiast. So this’ll be a way for me to get back into the game.
I’ll be playing online on 888, too. They had a welcome tournament for me with my name on it, which was nerve-wracking. I’ll probably be making some other things like video updates, too.
PL: Are you going to be at the 888 Live events?
KS: Yes. I’m not sure yet which ones, but I will be. Some of the events are even rather close to where I live.
Still so Canadian
PL: There might be 888 events in Canada…
KS: How funny, I’m Canadian! (laughs) Well, if they have something there, of course I’d love to go.
I wouldn’t move there, but visit ... anytime. I love to be around people who sound like me.
PL: What are your online poker activities going to look like?
KS: I’ve played quite a bit of heads-up sit-&-gos lately, which is good fun. Now I’m going to start playing the large Sunday tournaments on a regular basis.
I’ve never been a very good cash player so I won’t be spending too much time there. Or maybe I will, but then I still need to learn.
I’m a mid-stakes player so it’ll mostly be tournaments from $50 buy-in and then all the way up.
There will also be tournaments with a bounty on me and I’m going to set up a home game once a month.
Easy money?
Not a high-stakes game though, I want it to be fun.
PL: 888poker offers home games?
KS: This is a very new thing. It might be named differently, but that’s the general direction.
They set up a tournament with a bounty on me last week and to me it felt like 'you’re having a party and you don’t know how many people will show up.'
If there aren’t enough, it can be very embarrassing. But when registration opened 1,000 people registered during the first three minutes. And in the end there were 12,000 players in this event. It was awesome.
This was a freeroll with added money to the prize pool and money on me. It was a lot of fun and that’s what I want it to be in the future.
PL: You must be the most popular personality in the industry.
KS: I’m not so sure if that’s true. Maybe they all just wanted my bounty and thought I’m easy money.
