Popular poker personality and poker player Kara Scott announced Tuesday that when this year comes to a close, she will be stepping down from her role as partypoker ambassador. On her CardRunners.com blog, Scott said she is ending her five year run simply because the role no longer offers the opportunities it once did.
She explained her thought process as follows:
I’d like to announce that as of the end of this year, I will no longer be an ambassador for PartyPoker or their associated brands. When I first started with the company in January 2010, I was recruited in large part for my on-camera work. Over the past five years, I’ve had the opportunity to host a variety of projects for the company, including the Premier League, the Big Game, the World Open, the European Open and the World Women’s Open.
PartyPoker has gone through many changes and unfortunately as their focus shifted, there were fewer and fewer TV projects. As those shows disappeared, so did one of my favourite parts of the job and now my association with Party is ending. However, I’m not going anywhere. I still love playing poker and have made a lot of great friends in the industry.
Scott does not go into detail as to the focus shift, but partypoker did remake itself a few years ago into much more of a casual gaming site, catering towards recreational players. This may have resulted in the conscious decision to not produce as many televised poker shows, but at the same time, televised poker has been on the decline for several years, anyway.
She added:
Although I’m no longer wearing an orange patch, you’ll still be seeing me as a sideline reporter on your TVs or sitting with a chip stack of my own in tournaments around the world. I’ve already booked a flight to Malta and reserved a seat at my favourite reggae bar there, just in time for the big poker festival in March.
The Malta trip she is referencing is the European Poker Tour (EPT) Malta stop, whose massive schedule was just released. This will be the first time Malta makes an appearance on the European Poker Tour. Kara Scott may be best known to television viewers for her role as the floor reporter for the World Series of Poker broadcasts on ESPN.
Scott, while not in the top strata of poker players by any means, is still a solid poker player in her own right, in addition to being one of the more popular personalities in the poker industry. She frequently plays in live tournaments when she is not busy in front of the camera. Her best cash, according to TheHendonMob.com, came in 2009 when she finished second in the PaddyPower Irish Open €3,500 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event, earning €312,600 ($413,612).