Kara Scott is a multi-talented woman, born in Northern Alberta, Canada, Kara moved to the UK in 1999 where she started presenting a kick boxing show.  She then moved on to presenting a variety of poker shows including GSN’s High Stakes Poker.

Not only is Kara a very popular presenter but she has also proved her skills at the tables too. She was runner up at the Irish Open in 2009 pocketing a cool €312,600. She is the only woman to have cashed in both the 2008 and 2009 WSOP main events making her the second ever female player to have cashed in two WSOP main events.

Kara is sponsored with PartyPoker and is currently in Vegas playing at the WSOP 2010.  She took some time out of her busy schedule to talk to me about poker, clothes, and guys, plus her recent nomination for a maven award.

Obviously the WSOP 2010 is on right now and you are in the middle of all the action, are you playing at all this year?

I am! Party Poker have been very generous to me and since I’ve joined their Pro Team I’ve had a couple of chances to play with their patch but the World Series is the first really big chance for me to play some serious poker. I’m going to be playing 8 or 9 NLHE events for them this WSOP. I just hope I can swing a result!

Have you got any secret gossip or funny stories from the WSOP yet this year?

Ooh, there’s always lots of good gossip and I swear that sometimes poker is full of soap opera style drama. I sometimes seem to be a ‘confessional’ for the players that I’m interviewing or those who I have become friends with. There are always stories floating around but if I tell you, then no one will trust me with them anymore!

You’ve been nominated to receive a maven award for top female media personality along with Michelle Orpe and Linda Johnson, how do you feel about being nominated for the award?

It’s always a really fantastic feeling to get recognition in your field and I’m so flattered to be nominated. The fact that it’s an award given by women in poker, well that just makes it better. I love my job and feel really lucky to be able to host the Poker tournaments and TV shows that I do. The fact that others like what I do and enjoy my work, I can’t tell you how good that is!

You’ve been a member of PartyPokers ‘Team Party’ for nearly six months now, how is that working out for you?

Being a member of Team Party has been fantastic. We have a smaller team than some of the other major sites and that makes for a much more friendly experience. I have to say that Party Poker really look after their players. Party have been so generous towards me and it’s been a good experience to really feel like I’m part of a team. We all have our niches and differing areas of expertise and it seems to work out great. I’m learning a lot from people like Mike Sexton who is obviously a fantastic ambassador for the game.

I get to be at so many big events, either in a hosting or a playing capacity and have also travelled to Canada to meet some of the players on our site. It’s a great community! I’m looking forward to meeting some more of Party Poker’s online players here at the World Series of Poker before the Main Event.

Did you enjoy presenting the ‘Premier League’ for PartyPoker?

Hosting the Premier League was definitely a wild experience! I don’t think any of us anticipated just how crazy things would get there and how animated the players would be. There were all kinds of shenanigans and trash talk but the ‘razzle dazzle’ didn’t outshine the poker. Players like Yevgeniy Timoshenko and JC Tran really stepped it up in terms of great calls and amazing laydowns.

Do you get on well with the rest of ‘Team Party’ and do the boys treat you any differently than they treat each other?   

 
It’s always good to get together with the other Team Party Pros. We seem to live all scattered around the world so when they bring us together its great to catch up. I’m sure that the guys treat me just the same as anyone else really. Ian Frazer DID jokingly ask me to iron his shirts once during the Premier League but it turns out that Felipe Ramos is far better at it than me! I’d known and been friends with a few of the guys (like Ian and Felipe) on the team for quite a while before I joined so it felt really comfortable and they’ve all definitely made me welcome.

You’ve been spotted in some gorgeous dresses recently, some women like to dress quite masculine at the tables to try and blend in with the men more, do you agree with that idea or are pretty clothes and jewellery to good to resist?

Depends on my mood! Casinos are notorious for having their own weird weather systems. You have to be prepared for some serious heat or ridiculously overdone air conditioning, no matter where you are in the world. It can make for definite wardrobe difficulties! I’m quite girly because of my job and love being able to wear pretty dresses while hosting TV shows but at the table my playing staple is a vest (tank) top, flip flops and jeans, with a hoody just in case the AC is unbearable.

The ladies have been really showing their strength and talent in poker this year, do you have a favourite female poker player at the moment?

I’ve always been a real fan of Annette’s. She’s a great player and you can always count on her to give her real opinion about things. She’s ferocious at the table but adorable in person. Quite a mix!

There have been some great female results this year and considering that in live poker, women very often make up less than 5% of the field – we’re certainly holding our own! I believe I heard the statistic that for the WSOP events, only 3% of the field is female. Considering those numbers and with everything being equal, we can’t expect to see a female bracelet winner in an open event this series but that certainly wouldn’t dull the accomplishments of women in poker so far this year.

What advice would you give to a woman poker player who was going to play in a big tournament like the WSOP for the first time?

Before any big event in a new place it’s a good idea to scope out the situation a day or so before. Go and check out the room, make sure you’ve got your seat ticket in advance so you don’t have to stress about standing in a HUGE registration line 15 minutes before play starts. Figure out where the restrooms are (being a woman in live poker tournaments means never having to stand in a queue for the loo – brilliant!) and know where you can get yourself a coffee/tea/soda. All these things will just take the edge off of your nerves and make you feel more ‘at home’ in the space so you can focus on playing.

Also, remember that the other players at the table are your adversaries. Be friendly by all means but don’t feel the need to make friends. You are there to take their chips. Be focussed on your goal.

In the future do you think you will be concentrating more on playing or presenting . . . or indeed something completely different?

I’m in a great place in my life right now. I get to present some fantastic shows on TV and play poker for Party Poker. I’m pretty happy with the balance that I have right now, and I am always interested to see where the next challenges might take me.

Woman Poker Player Magazine wishes Kara the best of luck at WSOP 2010.