Photo : Antonio Abrego
DESPITE THE ODDS Ho cites using expectations of her as a player to best her male opponents and to help blaze trails for women at the poker table .
7 . HO TOLD THE WALL STREET JOURNAL in 2015 —“ It ’ s important for poker players not to get psychologically stuck in the bad luck of a given hand . If you keep lamenting the hand , whether you played it poorly or just got unlucky , then it starts affecting the way you play the next hand and the hand after that . Obviously that route is catastrophic . Poker is a game where your fate is never predetermined . ... Any given player on any given day could beat you . That ’ s the beauty of poker and why it attracts so many players — you can beat the best .”
8 . “ WHAT POKER DOES AFFORD me is the time and flexibility to do things that are more fulfilling ,” Ho says . “ That ’ s why in these past few years I ’ ve spent a lot of time working with charities and being involved in philanthropic endeavors . Poker might be what I do for a living , but I look for fulfillment in other ways .” promotion , you ’ ll get what you want . But that ' s something that doesn ' t happen very much in poker . What you get isn ' t always a reflection of the work . That ’ s tough mentally on anybody .”
HO HAS MADE A POINT to expand her horizons and parlay her poker stardom into a career outside her seat at the table — from broadcast commentating on high-profile tournaments , to appearances on TV shows like American Idol and The Amazing Race . And with the growing popularity of poker in the past 15 years , Ho saw a platform to take her poker celebrity and turn it toward something far bigger than herself . 8
“ Being a poker player gives you a lot of time to do what you want , so when you have free time you should use it in a productive way ,” she says . “ Poker can feel self-serving — it ’ s a zero-sum game , and that wears on a lot of players . In the last few years there ’ s been a group of us who wanted to do something about how we ’ re choosing to spend our time , and how we can benefit society .”
Ho spends time working with charities and nonprofit organizations , including the NASCAR Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club , which she attended in her youth . She ' s played for causes like the Malala Fund and the National Kidney Foundation , and additionally organized and hosted a charity event to raise money for the T . J . Martell Foundation , which earned her a nomination for the American Poker Awards Charitable Initiative of the Year .
There ’ s a saying in poker tournaments that to have a chance to win you need only “ a chip and a chair .” In Ho ’ s case , she started with even less , and had to first earn a chair in that off-campus game . Yet from there , she grew her pile of chips and brought them into some of the highest-stakes games in the world , where she became a winner with an ability to transcend poker and apply herself to the greater good . That takes skill and smarts — two things Maria Ho has in spades .
Go online for video clips and Maria Ho ' s tales from the poker table : tritonmag . com / poker
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