ESPN World Series of Poker host. Thai kickboxer. Special Needs teacher. World traveler.
Jedi in training. Cheese lover. 2009 Irish Open runner-up. partypoker sponsored pro.
There are a lot of interesting and amazing things you can find in the life of Kara Scott.
Stumbling onto a career in poker around 2006, Scott immersed herself fully in the poker world from the get go and has added nothing but life and enthusiasm to it since.
Moving through gigs as a presenter on Poker Night Live, Sky Poker, the EPT and High Stakes Poker, Scott has now settled in as the railside host of ESPN's World Series of Poker coverage and as a semi-pro player in the partypoker stable.
Anyone who's come across her on the circuit knows we're all better off to have her involved in poker with her effusive charm and ever-present smile.
We were also lucky enough to have Scott host our very own debut live event, the Battle of Malta, and she sat down with our PokerListings France colleague Fred Guillemot for a round with our modified Proust Questionnaire.
PokerListings: If you were an animal, what would you be...
Kara Scott: I would probably be a rhinoceros. I would really love to have thicker skin, not to be bothered by things so much, especially when I was playing poker you know, bad beats would just roll off my back.
PL: A country?
KS: I would be Canada! I'm from Canada and even though I haven't lived there in almost 15 years I am unfailingly polite all the time and that's very Canadian.
PL: A city?
KS: I would want to be Venice. It's the most beautiful city in the world and it has so much character. It's one of my favourite places in the world.
PL: A poker tournament?
KS: I'd want to be the WSOP Main Event, big and important. But if I was a poker tournament, I’d probably be WPT Venice, smaller and stylish.
PL: A card?
KS: The 10 of Spades, because it's a good-ish card, but not a great card, and I have no illusions about my abilities.
PL: Another famous man or woman?
KS: Someone once asked me who I'd want to play me if there ever was a movie about my life, and I said I'd want it to be Sandra Bullock, because she's really funny.
PL: A movie?
KS: Rocky 1 or 2. My favorite movies.
PL: Not the other ones? Even Rocky 3?
KS: No, not the other ones, they were terrible. They jumped the shark. The third is okay but the first two are two of my favorite movies of all time.
PL: A sport?
KS: I'd be Muay Thai. It'd deadly and brutal but it's hidden behind this beautiful grace.
I used to host and produce a show in England that was all about Thai boxing. I used to even actually train and fight as a Thai fighter myself. I had 6 fights.
PL: Ah, then maybe you can face ElkY or Lex Veldhuis!
KS: No, it was a long time ago. And I think ElkY has a reach on me, have you seen how tall he is? (laughs)
PL: What's your favorite addiction?
KS: Cheese. I love cheese, of all kinds. Really good cheeses. I love French cheese, I love Italian cheese, everything.
PL: If you were a fictional character?
KS: I'd love to be some kind of female James Bond. Something with all these incredible skills, really smart and lots of gadgets.
PL: The song you like the most?
KS: I'm really bad at remembering the names of songs, but at the moment I love Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men. It's beautiful and a little hard to understand, but I like that.
PL: The sound you like the most?
KS: Laughter. I just love it when people are happy.
PL: The one you dislike the most? Crying maybe?
KS: Oh, yes. Crying kills me. I'm too soft-hearted, it absolutely kills me.
PL: Your favorite quality in a man, and in a woman?
KS: Honesty.
PL: What is your main fault?
KS: That's a tough question. My main fault is that I'm never around for my friends' birthdays or their kids being born or anything, cause I'm always on the road.
So I miss everything. I'm a bad friend.
PL: The fault you forgive most easily?
KS: Overeating (laughs).
PL: The word you like the most?
KS: Is it redundant if I say ''cheese'' again? People just say ''cheese'' and I get all excited.
PL: Let me try: cheese!
KS: Cheese! (big smile) See? I'm so happy right now! Or ''scotch." Either word just makes me so happy. Put them together and I'm ecstatic.
PL: The one you dislike the most?
KS: Failure. Hate that.
PL: Which superpower would you like to have?
KS: I'd like to be able to transport myself instantly to any place I want to go.
PL: What's your greatest fear?
KS: Well, I grew up in Northern Canada, so I used to have nightmares about falling through the ice and being trapped under there. Or in an avalanche.
I'm terrified of avalanches. That's why I left Canada.
If it's a bad dream, it could also be something about going to school and forgetting there's a test. I hate that too. Failure or avalanches. One or the other.
PL: What do you hate the most?
KS: Intolerance. It really pisses me off when people are bigoted or intolerant about things without actually thinking about it.
PL: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
KS: I'd worry less. I wouldn't be so stressed out about things, I would just take them as they come.
PL: What other job could you have done if you hadn't become a poker player?
KS: Well, I was a teacher. I taught Special Needs, in a special school for kids with autism, Down Syndrome or who are wheelchair-bound or have no language skills. So I could be a teacher.
PL: If God exists, what would you like Him to tell you when you die?
KS: Well, I'd love to hear him say that he's going to fix everything. That would be great.
And about me, that I did a good job, that I did what I was supposed to do I guess, and that I somehow made the world a better place in any kind of way.
PL: What would you like to be reborn as?
KS: I'd do my life all over again. I'm extremely happy. I think I'm one of the happiest people I know and I'm really grateful for everything I have, so I'd do this again.
