Daily Rewind: WPT SA Update, Kara's Blog, Sahamies' Win & Pros to Fight

In today's Daily Rewind we get the latest action from South Africa, see what Kara Scott's been doing recently, review Ilari Sahamies hot streak and preview another poker player duel.

The Daily Rewind is your one-stop-shop for a sharp review of the day in poker. Join us here for a mix of the latest news and a more irreverent insight into the poker world. Today we discovered the following topics for you:

WPT South Africa Latest

That's one lucky giraffe

The WPT's South African soirée continued yesterday with 114 players becoming just 27. From an initial field of 230, the end of the day left just 27 players in the hunt for the $206,153 first place prize at the end of Day 2.

Today's action will finish when there are just 6 players remaining and at the time of writing, PokerStrategist Dominik 'ace0ntheriver' Nitsche was leading the pack.

Tomorrow will see the conclusion of the event and the first WPT South Africa champion crowned.

While the remaining players were busy at the felt, Liv Boeree and 'melanieweisner' were busy flirting with some South African natives.

A trip to the local zoo saw them both get up close and personal with a giraffe and Liv get bitten by a lion cub.

This year's event has certainly proved popular with the poker community with many top pros, such as Liv, making the trip to Johannesburg.

Kara Coming Back to Europe

PartyPoker's Kara Scott doesn't usually let the grass grow under her feet as there's always another poker tournament for her to attend.

Being both a player and a presenter, the Canadian barely finds any time to take a break, but before she embarks on her next assignment – covering the WSOP final table for ESPN – she took some time to blog about her trip home.

Aside from being jet-lagged for much of the visit, she still managed to relax and eat "like a queen every day" thanks to her mum's baking skills.

In the blog she also revealed that she is moving to Europe. Having lived in California for a while, Kara has decided to cross the Atlantic and base herself closer to the European poker circuit.

Jet-setting Kara

High stakes corner

Ilari on a hot streak

Ilari Sahamies has enjoyed a fantastic high stakes run since Monday, banking over $1 million. The Finnish pro won over $600,000 on Tuesday and continued to add to that figure yesterday.

Having been down $1.4 million this year, he has now wiped $1,030,543 off that amount.

Such a run could prompt Sahamies to enter PokerStars latest high stakes spectacle: An All-Star Showdown.

The eight man single-elimination event will pit some of the best cash game players in the world against each other in a $100,000 battle where the winner will walk away with $550,000.

Already confirmed for the event are: Alexander "Sussie Smith" Roumeliotis, Alexander "Kanu7" Millar, Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky, Tobias "KTPOKP" Kuder, Phil "mrSweets28" Galfond and Isaac "Ike" Haxton.

Two more names need to be added to the list before the weekend when the event begins its seven day series of matches.

Boxing Pros

John ready to fight

Irish poker pro John O'Shea is joining an ever-growing list of players who've stepped in the boxing ring to test their toughness.

This time, however, he's not doing it for himself but for charity. On December 1st O'Shea will square-off against friend and fellow poker player, Ross Johnson.

The fight is being organised by Rob Smyth and will take place at the Leopardstown Pavilion, Dublin, in aid of motor neuron disease.

Commenting on the bout, Smyth said: "Ross has the more powerful punch, but how many of them will he get out? John has the speed and endurance but does he have the power?"

Daily Signoff

Kevin Pollak might be used to cracking jokes in his day job, but he certainly wasn't laughing about his tough exit from this year's Main Event.