Kara Scott is a Canadian British TV personality, journalist and

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player. Born in northern

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, 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 Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

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

Muay Thai Muay Thai ( th, มวยไทย, , ), sometimes referred to as Thai boxing, is a combat sport that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. This discipline is known as the "art of eight limbs", as it is characterised ...

while she lived in Canada, she became a sports presenter and producer on

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

. She is a

brand ambassador A brand ambassador (sometimes also called a corporate ambassador) is a person engaged 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 embod ...

for

888poker 888poker, formerly Pacific Poker, is an international online poker cardroom and network owned by 888 Holdings. 888poker was established in 2002, and is based in Gibraltar. History The poker provider was originally launched in 2002 as ''Pacific ...

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 nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

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 specialty channel owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment. It currently broadcasts a mixture of game shows, reality competition series, and films. The channel was first launched in 2005 under the ownership o ...

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 by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

, 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 Card players are those participating in a card game. Various names are given to card players based on their role or position. Position Games of Anglo-American origin In games of Anglo-American origin played in English-speaking countries, ...

", "Gambling Online Magazine" and "UK PokerNews." Scott is also one half of the duo behind UK poker

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

"On The Rail". Scott is known as one of the faces of

Sky Poker Sky Betting & Gaming is a United Kingdom, British-based gambling company, owned by Flutter Entertainment, with headquarters in Leeds, West Yorkshire and offices in Sheffield & Solihull. Sky Betting & Gaming consists of five core brands: Sky Bet, ...

on Sky Television channel 865 (alongside Helen Chamberlain,

Richard Orford Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

and

Norman Pace Norman John Pace (born 17 February 1953 in Dudley, Worcestershire) is an English actor and comedian, best known as one half of the comedy duo Hale and Pace with his friend and comic partner Gareth Hale. Both former teachers, they fronted seve ...

); a dedicated poker channel which launched in Feb 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 tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour (WPT), created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Tex ...

. 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 Daniel John-Jules (born 16 September 1960) is a British actor, singer and dancer. He is best known for playing Milton Wordsworth in The Story Makers and ''Red Dwarf'', Barrington which are both children's series. Also he played in ''Maid Maria ...

. 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 final outcome. Proposition be ...

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 eponymous teacher in the 1970s sitcom ''Welcome Back, Kotter''. He later became a professional poker player and a commenta ...

as co-host of '' GSN's

High Stakes Poker ''High Stakes Poker'' is an American cash game poker television program. The poker variant played on the show is no limit Texas hold 'em. The first four seasons ran from January 16, 2006 to December 17, 2007 on GSN. The next three seasons ran fr ...

'' for its sixth season, following the departure of previous host

A. J. Benza Alfred Joseph Benza is an American gossip columnist and Television presenter, television host. Early life Benza was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, though he moved with his family to West Islip, New York on Long Island shortly afte ...

. Scott's role is conducting direct interviews with the players as the game progresses. Kara joined ''

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

'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 poker, heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on th ...

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 30th, 2008, and featured 55 poker championships in several variants. All ...

(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 Michael Richard Sexton (September 22, 1947September 6, 2020) was an American professional poker player and commentator. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2009. Early years Sexton was a gymnast and attended Ohio State University, w ...

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 website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Kara Canadian expatriates in England Female poker players Canadian poker players Canadian Muay Thai practitioners Living people Female Muay Thai practitioners Year of birth missing (living people) Poker commentators