Trying to Get Back at that Dirty Little Ho

Mrs. lightning is quite creative. Among her many hobbies are scrapbooking, creating greeting cards and making jewelry. She informed me a few days ago that she had a jewelry making class on Saturday morning. This was of great interest to me since the site of her class is not far from a casino. In the past she's dropped me off at the casino, gone to her class and then picked me up on the way back from the class, allowing me to get in a three or four hour hour poker session. That sounded good to me!

We left early in the morning to begin our trek. I got on the poker room's call-in list and hoped that a game would be ready to start when I got to the casino. Unfortunately, I got to the poker room and found out that I was one of only two people on the call-in list. I decided to burn some time on slot machines. Seinfeld machine -- no soup for me! Lightning link -- nothing. A few other machines gave me nothing until I tried the Zeus machine. Bingo! It not only took care of my previous losses, but even put me ahead for the day!

I then went back to the poker room to wait it out. A few stragglers were around, but finally it looked like we might get enough to start a game. We had four people and were waiting for a fifth. And then a guy who I was expecting to play showed up: Ho.

As I've played more hours against Ho the past year or two, I've decided that he probably really isn't a bad guy. He is a short guy and sometimes a bit difficult to understand with his accent. However, my introduction to Ho included two instances that made me not like him. The first was when he tried to rathole green chips at the table. Someone caught him and he was busted. Instead of just manning up, he acted like he couldn't understand English well enough to get what he was being told. I was reminded of when Sammy Sosa had an interpreter with him at the senate hearing when the government was looking into steroids in Major League Baseball. Suddenly a guy who appears to communicate in English well enough seems to lose his ability to do so. Jerk.

Ho was asked to either put his green chips back on the table or leave the game. Surprisingly, he left! Another time when I nearing the top of the wait list, he weaseled himself into a game ahead of me. Needless to say, I considered him a scummy guy.

I have been at the table against Ho enough times to know how to play him. He is uber aggressive and loves to steal pots. If he sees me in a hand, he will rarely stay in. If he does, he will almost always fold if I raise, so my strategy with him is to bluff and to trap. I was able to bluff him several times and was hoping to set a trap with Ah-Kh on the button and Ho on my left in the big blind. A few players had limped in the hand, and I decided to just call on the button. I was hoping that Ho would do his usual trick of making a big raise, and then I was going to put in a huge re-raise. Unfortunately, he didn't do as expected that hand and got away with minimal damage. He is, at heart, a good and sneaky player. However, he later got busted by someone else when a bunch of players all called a pre-flop bet of seven. Ho, in late position, made it $41 to go. One guy called and eventually took a huge chunk of Ho's chips. This was an up and down day for Ho.

Before the game ended, I was able to double my buy in in the two hours I was able to play. With my wife's class over and with her on the way to pick me up, I had to cash out, which effectively ended the short-handed game. Ho muttered something and sprinted off with his chips, probably heading to a blackjack table or craps pit to try his luck there. That was fine with me, for I had taken enough off him to make a dent in his stack. We will face off again another day.

Thanks for reading!

Note: Today (Sunday) I popped into the poker room. Ho offered to sell me his seat for $20. I got out four redbirds and held them out in my hand. When he made a motion toward them I closed my hand and snatched them away. 😁