Kara Scott is a Canadian British TV personality, journalist and

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

player. Born in northern

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada, Scott moved to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 1999 and worked in the UK media until 2009 when she moved to California. Having trained in

Muay Thai Muay Thai or Muaythai (, , ), sometimes referred to as Thai boxing, the Art of Eight Limbs or the Science of Eight Limbs, is a Thai martial art and full-contact combat sport that uses stand-up striking, sweeps, and various clinch fighting, cl ...

while she lived in Canada, she became a sports presenter and producer on Five. She is a

brand ambassador A brand ambassador (sometimes also called a corporate ambassador) is a person paid by an organization or company to represent its brand in a positive light, helping to increase brand awareness and sales. The brand ambassador is meant to embody the ...

for

888poker 888poker, formerly Pacific Poker, is an international online poker brand owned by Evoke plc. It was founded in 2002, and is headquartered in Gibraltar. History The poker provider was originally launched in 2002 as ''Pacific Poker'' and later r ...

and host of 888poker News.

Television hosting

She was the host of the first televised

backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...

series with

Paul Magriel Paul David Magriel Jr. (pronounced Ma-grill) (July 1, 1946 – March 5, 2018) was an American professional backgammon player, poker player, and author based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Magriel became New York State Junior Chess Champion (January 1967 ...

and John Clark, High Stakes Backgammon, produced from the 2005 World Backgammon Championships for

Game TV GameTV is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel. Owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, it primarily broadcasts competition-based programming, including game shows and reality competition series. The channel was first laun ...

in Canada and Pokerzone in the UK. Scott also hosted the first series of World Series of Backgammon, in 2006 which aired across Europe on

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

, Poker Channel Europe and Game TV in Canada. Scott was also one of the main hosts of the award winning show " Poker Night Live". She quickly immersed herself in the poker media and previously wrote a regular column in industry magazine "Flush" as well as having articles published in " Poker Player Magazine" and her poker exploits have been documented in other poker media such as " CardPlayer Magazine", "Gambling Online Magazine" and "UK PokerNews." Scott is also one half of the duo behind UK poker

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

"On The Rail". Scott is known as one of the faces of Sky Poker on Sky Television channel 865 (alongside Helen Chamberlain, Richard Orford and Norman Pace); a dedicated poker channel which launched in February 2007, as well as being the TV Host for the 2007/2008 season of the

European Poker Tour The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker Poker tournament, tournaments created by John Duthie (poker player), John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas ...

. In August 2008, following her success at the World Series of Poker, she announced her departure from Sky Poker. Scott is also involved in the film world and was one of the stars (and the line producer) for martial arts film "Sucker Punch" starring Danny John-Jules. In 2007, Scott lost a

proposition bet In gambling, a "proposition bet" (prop bet, prop, novelty, or a side bet) is a bet made regarding the occurrence or non-occurrence during a game (usually a gambling game) of an event not directly affecting the game's outcome. Proposition bets in ...

to Chris Tessaro, host of The Hardcore Poker Radio Show, resulting in her having to do her commentary from the EPT San Remo while dressed in a bunny suit. In February 2010, she joined

Gabe Kaplan Gabriel Weston Kaplan (born March 31, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, and professional poker player. He played the title character in the 1970s sitcom '' Welcome Back, Kotter''. He later became a professional poker player and a commentat ...

as co-host of '' GSN's High Stakes Poker'' for its sixth season, following the departure of previous host A. J. Benza. Scott's role is conducting direct interviews with the players as the game progresses. Kara joined ''

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

's coverage of the World Series of Poker 2011 Main Event'' as a "sideline" reporter. Scott had been based in California. After marrying Giovanni Rizzo in 2013, Scott lived in Parma, Italy. Scott has lived in Slovenia for over a year.

Poker

Scott has played in various television poker tournaments broadcast on Challenge and Five, primarily in celebrity heats. She won the celebrity heat of the PartyPoker.net World Woman's Open which aired on Five in late 2007, before going on to win the first main heat and placing 6th in the final. In 2008, she won the PartyPoker Sports Star Challenge. Scott finished second at the Irish Open in 2009, winning €312,600. As of 2010, her total live

poker tournament A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a " heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tabl ...

winnings exceed $550,000. At the

2008 World Series of Poker The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Held in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series began on May 30, 2008, and featured 55 poker championships in List of poker variants, s ...

(WSOP) $10,000 buy-in Main Event, Scott finished in 104th place out of a field of 6,844 players, earning $41,816. Scott is the only woman who cashed in both the 2008 and 2009 WSOP Main Event, the second woman ever to have cashed in back-to-back Main Events, after finishing 238th out of a field of 6,494 players in 2009. Responding to critics, Scott said, "I know a lot of people don't think I can play and there are always going to be people who say I can't. But I have made the final of a female championship, I won a Sports Star Challenge, I went deep in the World Series of Poker Main Event and now I've come second in the Irish Open." On 14 January 2009 PartyPoker announced that Scott would join Team Party alongside other poker professionals such as Mike Sexton and Felipe "Mojave" Ramos, which means she will appear playing more often with the PartyPoker branding and yet still continue with her Poker TV presenting career. In her new blog over at Cardrunners, Kara Scott announced, that she would be leaving PartyPoker as 2015 began. Scott explained that the reason for her departure was the lack of TV projects. In 2016 Scott signed with

. In the past she held a similar role with Tilt Events with her husband Giovanni.

References

External links

Official websiteCard Player profileHendon Mob profileWSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Kara Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian poker players Female poker players Poker commentators Canadian female Muay Thai practitioners Canadian expatriates in England