Kara Scott Needs to Try To Remember How to Play Poker Again – “I’m Jonesing a Little”
We caught Kara Scott after her exit from the Flop O Mania Invitational to talk a little bit not only about the game itself but about her trip to São Paulo and how she’s preparing for the upcoming tournaments. While she hasn’t played in a while, Scott has always been a force to be reckoned with on the felt and she really wants to lock up a WSOPE package from this event.
We asked Scott about her experience with Flop O Mania first and asked her to give us some insights into her game plan for the tournament.
“It’s the first time that I’ve played Flop O Mania,” Scott explained. “I haven’t even been able to play it online, so it was really good fun. It started so well for me. And it’s really… it’s a lot easier to play it when you have a big stack. When you have a small stack and you need to shove, you’re like whatever, eight to ten big blinds, and you see the flop and you have no equity, that’s really hard.”
We asked Scott about changing shoving ranges for this type of poker, and what kind of experience it was to adjust her game in that way.
“Yeah! I mean yeah, and I couldn’t quite do that on the fly,” she said about changing her ranges. “So I was like you know what? I’m just gonna blind out. Which I didn’t. I’m kidding. But it got really close,” she said laughing.
She elaborated on this idea a bit as well, saying that because of the tournament structure, and the all antes no blinds, she was forced to adapt, changing the way she thought about the game a little bit.
“I mean if it’s a tournament, absolutely the idea of your shoving ranges, you have to adjust that because there are times where you really should, if it was preflop, shove, but then you have no equity whatsoever,” she said. “Finding the line between that is going to be interesting. Really interesting. And also the fact that it’s like an ante only tournament, how much are you betting on the flop after everyone’s anted in, and that sort of thing. I’d have to look at that specifically and kind of figure that out because it’s a new one for me.”
Despite not being able to find success in the Flop O Mania tournament, Scott is enjoying her time in Brazil so far, explaining that the city itself has left her in awe.
“This venue is beautiful,” Scott said. “I went and took some really lovely photos of the city. You have a whole view over São Paulo, which is the biggest city I’ve ever been to in my life. It’s just this massive mega city. It’s like being in some sort of futuristic city that’s been compressed into an area that’s too small to be this big a city.”
We gave Scott the comparison of Blade Runner, to which she replied, “It’s so futuristic like that. Yeah. I love it though. I really want to get out and take some photos and kind of have a look around but we’re pretty busy. There’s like a load of poker. So.”
When it comes to poker, Scott said she is really excited to be getting back into the game, despite not having played for a little while, and not having a chance to get her feet wet in Brazil at all either, besides Flop O Mania of course.
“I’m hoping to win a package for the World Series Europe in the ladies event, and if not, I’m gonna try it in the main event, so that’s my plan,” Scott said about her goals for the 888Live Festival in São Paulo. “You know what I’ve been thinking about it and this year has been the least I’ve played poker in my entire career. Going back like how many years, I don’t know, 12 years? I’ve never played this little and it’s incredible. I haven’t really played much online because of regulation stuff, and then I have really not played a lot live. I didn’t play any World Series this year because I was in a wedding. I mean it’s weird. I’ve played maybe five live tournaments this year? I need to play some poker. I’m feeling the itch. I’m jonesing a little.”
We asked Scott what he plan was for both tournaments, or if there are any specific strategies she wants to bring into the Ladies Event and the Main Event.
“Try to remember how to play poker for one,” Scott said laughing. “When you don’t play poker for a long time, or at least when you’re not playing regularly and enough, it really harms your game, and not being able to play online is incredibly difficult but then not actually playing a lot live either, it means you kind of fall behind where everyone else is moving ahead. The disparity is huge. So I’m just going to try to find my feet again.”
While Scott doesn’t plan to enter the Main Event until tomorrow, she does want to find a way to play in both events.
Speaking of the Main Event, Day 1d has already reached 140 entrants, which is more than any other starting flight so far with time still left to register. Also kicking off soon is the celebrity invitational which should be starting any moment. Be sure to stay tuned as we will bring updates from both events through the rest of the day.