Name: Kara Scott
Position: 238th
Prize: $32,963
BoB Ranking: 13th
Snoopy: In what way did your run in 2008’s Main Event aid you this year? Did you approach the tournament differently or make any changes to your strategy?
Kara Scott: Going so deep in the 2008 Main Event was a real shock to the system for me. I’d had nothing really to prepare me for playing such a marathon of poker for such high stakes and I think that totally showed in my game. It was an absolute blast but somewhere inside I was always aware that I was doing well above expectation!
Just having the experience of going deep in 2008 taught me so much. I found that I was learning and adapting and finding my feet on a level-by-level basis. The learning curve there was steep but I was able to apply the things I learned during my first Main Event to my game throughout the rest of the year. As a result, this year I was a lot more prepared. I’d played more deep stack, big buy-in events but also I just had an understanding of what it would be like to play the long days, feel comfortable in the room, understand what the bubble would be like (interminably boring) and know where to get the best cup of coffee. All very important things! I felt a lot more comfortable this year and less like a ‘poker tourist’ as I was there with my own money rather than as a sponsored player.
Snoopy: How much difference did the increase in starting stack make to your play and the general dynamics of the game?
KS: Given the increase in the starting stack I was pretty surprised to see how fast my Day One table played. We had three all-ins in the first forty minutes with some really surprising hands and I think we lost our first player within the hour. Even with the bigger starting stack, the whole tournament seemed to really rock along at a fast pace with early days being called because we were reaching player number targets quicker than anticipated.
I love playing such a deep stack and it definitely helped me out during a difficult Day One. After an initial good start, I just couldn’t seem to win a pot and kept running into big hands. Towards the end of the day, I raised A-Q from the button and was called by J-6 in the big blind. A Q-6-6 flop seem designed to punish me and my opponent check-called my flop and turn bets and then showed me the winning hand when I checked behind on the river. This was closely followed by me raising with J-J in mid position and having the big blind call and flop a straight with his 8-5. Ouch. I’ve never been great with folding but somehow managed to put down made hands all day and was almost always rewarded by being flashed the winning hand by my opponent.
I managed not to go broke but ended up finishing the day with almost 10,000 chips less than I started with. Not ideal but with such deep stacks, it meant I didn’t have to panic. In the early stages I found it really important to keep an eye on my stack size relative to the blinds and antes, rather than comparing it to the big stacks around me. I’d have friends and bloggers coming around to check on me, seeing my smaller stack and giving me sad smiles of encouragement when in reality I still had 70 big blinds!
Snoopy: Did Brian Townsend offer any tips? How has your friendship with him assisted you as a poker player?
KS: I’m lucky to have a lot of friends who are poker players and journalists as well who give great advice. Nick Wealthall taught me how to play and is still the person I run hands by or talk strategy with although it’s great to have other people to get different ideas from as well. I found myself really short stacked on Day Five after running A-K into K-K and had just been moved to the second feature table. I was really frustrated and a bit tilted and it helped a lot to be able to clear my head by chatting with Brian Hastings who happened to be on the rail watching a friend of his. It’s amazing how helpful most pros are and how free they are with advice on hands, if you just ask.
Snoopy: What do you think of the standard of play in the Main Event? Did you see anything unusual?
KS: I’m not sure if my view of the standard of play was skewed by having had a lot of hard tables during the 2008 Main Event but I didn’t find that it was as tough this year. The first few days there would rarely be more than one pro on my table for more than half an hour at a time. It’s a lot easier to build a stack when you’re not watching the big guys battle it out for every pot around you. Instead, it seemed that I spent more time at tables where players seemed to be doing things like showing a high percentage of their hands and giving off a lot of information.
I spent Day Two at a table with a player who just couldn’t seem to lose no matter what they did. I got involved in a hand with them where I raised preflop from mid position and they called from the blinds. The flop was A-A-6 with two hearts. The other player jammed a large amount of chips in and then when I folded, they showed A-6. During a break the player came up to me and told me that they put in the large bet because they were worried about the two hearts on the flop. I wasn’t really even sure how to respond to that! I did hear stories from other players though who had killer tables so I think I was pretty lucky with my table draws early on in the event.
Snoopy: How would you describe your Main Event graph?
KS: Day One was disappointing as I finished with nearly 10,000 chips less than my starting stack but Day Two saw me getting some good cards early on. In fact, I was five minutes late at the start of Day Two (damn traffic!) and sat down to K-K after a preflop raise and a call in front. A few hands later I had pocket sevens, hit my set on the flop and quads on the river and got a small pay off. Having doubled my stack I managed to steadily build it up (give or take some lost pots and one terrible call on my part) all the way through the bubble and towards the end of Day Four before really losing momentum (and a couple of big pots) and ending Day Four a bit below average. Sitting on the right of Theo Tran and SBrounder [Tom West] wasn’t brilliant for me but I managed to keep my head above water. I did manage to lose 180,000 chips from a 450,000 stack early on Day Four though when I ran A-K into Jon Eaton’s A-A. Day Five really crushed me though, beginning when I ran A-K into K-K which dropped me down to 13 big blinds. I ground it back up only to lose A-A to A-K, all in preflop when A-K hit the flush and then dropping my last few blinds on A-2 against 5-3 and busting when he made trips.
Snoopy: What were your experiences of the bubble?
KS: I was glad that I’d played through a large event bubble before as that really is an endurance test. I get really antsy and probably am a bit annoying as the boredom of playing a hand for two minutes before waiting fifteen for the other tables to finish is just ridiculous. I wasn’t particularly short stacked but with aggressive players at my table and larger stacks, anything can happen. I was acutely aware that any hand could be my last in this tournament. The player to my direct left was an older gentleman who seemed bound and determined to play and win every single hand but with two aggressive Internet pro’s on his left, this just created fireworks which meant that I had to pick my spots. The bubble certainly focuses the mind but I was determined not to play too passively!
Snoopy: Who was the most impressive player you came up against?
KS: I found that some of the most impressive players that I played against generally weren’t at my table for very long (thank goodness!) I changed tables pretty often through the five days so wasn’t really seeing that many hands with people. I played against some WSOP circuit event winners, a former Main Event champ (Joe Hachem) and some damn good online players like Prahlad Friedman. Often the best players at the table were the ones I didn’t recognise. I always knew it was trouble when two or three of the younger players had vaguely familiar faces and then all seemed to know each other when they sat down.
Snoopy: What was the biggest mistake you made in this year’s event?
KS: I put myself into a bad situation on Day Two when I wasn’t paying enough attention to someone’s stack. They’d lost a number of small pots and I wasn’t aware enough of this and so made a bet on a flop which committed me to call when he shoved. I lost 25,000 from my 95,000 flop and felt like a bit of an idiot as well.
Snoopy: How important was laddering to you?
KS: I wasn’t so much intent on laddering as I was at beating my last year’s result. Having that as a goal was great but it still didn’t really change how I played (at least I hope it didn’t) as I’d hate to think that I was too passive or weak in certain situations, simply so I could go a few places farther. The money does make a difference though. Handing over $10,000 of hard earned cash was not easy and improving on my investment was certainly on my mind.
Snoopy: Take us through your exit hand?
KS: My exit hand wasn’t so interesting actually. My knockout started a few hands before at a different table where I managed to get another player all in with A-K suited against my A-A. Unfortunately he hit his flush and I was down to only six or seven big blinds. I was moved tables immediately after the hand and had to drag my measly few chips to a new table only to get them in with A-2 against 5-3. The guy to my right raised his 5-3 and I’d already committed some chips in the blind. I shoved my last few blinds over the top with A-2 and he was of course committed to call. He was pretty embarrassed by it though! The cameras were there of course to catch it and I just hope I didn’t look too much of a prat when two other fives rolled off on the flop and turn and my forehead hit the baize in despair.
Snoopy: Did being the only woman to cash in both 2008 and 2009’s Main Event mean anything to you at all?
KS: I’m surprised by it and it’s cool and all. I’d rather be the only woman on the final table though. I’m pretty amazed that I managed to run deep again this year. It was almost exactly the same time on Day Five that I busted out this year as last year - but 134 places worse. I feel pretty damn fortunate to have had two good runs at it though and hopefully can do it again some time. I think it may be too much to ask for another deep run in 2010 though but I’ll be hoping for it!
Snoopy: You’ve had a few results now. Are people still doubting your abilities or have you been accepted now as a talented player? What is your own assessment on where your game is currently at?
KS: Ah, one thing I’ve learned in this industry is that a few results do not a great player make. I’m a far way off from becoming a full time pro (if ever) but I do love that I get the chance to play so many good, live events. It’s a good feeling to be going deep in such events and not have people falling over in shock and surprise when I get results. I do feel a lot less pressure to ‘prove’ my worth now but I’m aware that my game still needs a lot of work. I simply don’t play regularly enough and then there’s always the inevitable process of donking money off when I do sit back down at the tables, while I work to get my head back into the game.
I’ve been told that I’m a little too hard on myself when it comes to my play. I think that maybe spending my time around so many great poker players and watching so many hands of poker being played at the highest levels when I’m working, all of that means that my standards for ‘talented player’ are pretty high and in my opinion I’m just not there yet. Give me time though…
Snoopy: What are your plans for the rest of the year? Are you currently sponsored?
KS: I’m not currently sponsored and didn’t play the WSOP as a sponsored player. I’m hoping to play a few more events this year and will no doubt be ploughing some of my winnings back into the poker economy in tournament buy-ins. I really enjoy playing live and will have a hard time choosing between all of the cool events in great locations.
Kara Scott is a friend of Black Belt Poker and is a signed member with a profile page.