He picked up big slick, someone shoved ace-queen, he called and held. Easy game.
Soon after, he had aces and still found some value despite a growing reputation as a player who always seems to have it.
"I'm running good and you can't do better than that," he said.
Ho is now the first player past the 350,000-chip mark and begins the last three levels of the night with ambitious plans to bag double that by the time they are through. No one is betting against it.
Prize pool information for the 2016 Seneca Fall Poker Classic has been released.
With 300 total entries and reentries, a $264,810 prize pool was created that will pay the top 27. One more entry and they would have paid more players, making each of the 27 payouts that much bigger.
The winner will earn a $64,882 top prize, Seneca Niagara poker glory and a spot on the cover of CardPlayer Magazine. A min-cash is worth a few dollars more than double the buy-in at $2,013.
The top six payouts are all five-figure prizes. Full payout info is available in the Payouts Tab above.
Toronto Canada's Veerab Zakarian, who finished runner up in this event in 2014, has heaps heading into the late levels and is looking to bag big.
Zakarian has a reputation as one of the top young players in the area and is apparently as smart as a whip. He hasn't sent anyone to the rail and has avoided big confrontations all day, just grinding it up into a big stack without raising the heart rate too much.
Although, he just moved over the 200,000-chip mark making a set of fours in a decent-sized pot to grab the chip lead.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, it's the same story for Rochester, NY's Tony Angora, who has crept up right behind Zakarian into a spot near the top of the leaderboard, without the benefit of very many big pots either.
With the registration and reentry period now officially closed we can tell you that this flight drew 179 total entries and reentries.
Added to the 121 from Friday, that makes for a grand total of 300; An entries number that has eluded Seneca Niagara Main Events in the past, but was finally met today.
That many entries and reentries have created a $264,810 prize pool and we will release full details and payout information as soon as it becomes available.
Either way, the event drew eight more entries than last year and bumped the prize pool up close to $10,000 more, proving poker is alive and well in Western New York.
The players are now off on a 45-minute dinner break with ten full 40-minute levels in the books. Michigan's Vinnie Ho leads on 200,000 now.
When they return at approximately 7:05 p.m. local time the registration and reentry period will close.
With 171 entries already today, and 121 recorded Friday, the $200,000 guarantee has already been decimated, and there is still a chance, however slim, that the total entries could break 300.
Full prize pool info will be headed your way soon after play resumes.
North Central Pennsylvania's Sean Bartlett, who allegedly claims to have cut his teeth playing in some kind Amish cash game with the best poker talent in the Pennsylvania Dutch community, has jumped up to the top of the counts.
It was a massive set-over-set debacle that saw Bartlett get it in for heaps with a set of jacks against a set of sevens.
He had the best hand, the biggest beard and now has the chip lead.
In the meantime, he's dressed in all black today as a tribute to the man in black himself: Mr. Johnny Cash.
"Johnny Cash and that's what I'm hoping to do...cash," he said. Crickets.
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