Playing Her Cards Right
Craig Fitzsimons meets Kara Scott, poker’s 2011 ‘Personality of the Year’, who’ll be in the thick of the high-stakes action when PKR WPT Ireland takes place between January 5 – 8 in Dublin’s Citywest Hotel.
Craig Fitzsimons, 06 Dec 2011
The wonderful, dangerous, frightening and glamorous world of poker is booming like never before, with thousands of devoted enthusiasts from all corners of the globe engaging in online combat at any given moment. Of the many websites catering for this booming industry, PartyPoker has of late become one of the most successful, a development not entirely unconnected to the presence of Kara Scott as host for shows such as Premier League Poker and The Big Game.
A media natural, Kara was recently named 'Poker Personality of the Year' at the 2011 British Poker Awards, and 'Top Media Personality' at the 2011 Maven Awards in the USA. In addition to media duties, she’s also a highly accomplished player, whose best career result to date was a heady 2nd place in the 2009 Irish Open, a triumph which banked her a cool €312,600.
Kara is keen to play down her status, modestly protesting that "Pro is a fairly extreme word for what I do. I’m basically an enthusiast and a media person, and my main job is working in front of the camera, commentating and hosting. That gets me into tournaments, which is frankly amazing. But I work with some amazing professionals. I wouldn’t feel quite right describing myself as a pro."
In truth, Kara has gathered attention for more than merely her poker prowess. Ridiculously good-looking with a sunny, bubbly personality to match, she’s lately become the face of PartyPoker and the subject of several admiring views on YouTube from numerous colleagues of mine who shall remain nameless out of respect to their WOGs (wives or girlfriends). Given Kara’s pin-up image, does she feel she has the complete respect of her rivals as a serious player?
"Well, poker’s a funny thing – nobody ever has complete respect. It’s such a competitive world that if someone drops even a little bit, you hear people saying, ‘Oh I knew it was just a fluke, he can’t play really.’ We’re a funny bunch in that way. But most of my friends are pros, we all hang out together and go to tournaments and talk about hands together – so in as much as poker players ever give each other respect, I’d say yeah."
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