I have had the best pre-birthday weekend ever. My birthday is Monday, March 8. I am still a kid at heart so I tend to get a little giddy for such days of celebration. On Saturday I went to see the final performance of Curtains at the Cocoa Village Playhouse. I attended this performance with my youngest daughter (who by the way is home on spring break) and my best girlfriend. Be for the show, I purchased some raffle tickets and I won!

After this was over, we went to the cast party. Our son made it over with our granddaughter, Addyson. While Addy was tired, she just played shy girl and quietly met a few people. The company was outstanding and the food was simply heaven. Addyson and I especially like the macaroni and cheese. I ate until I could eat no more. Whoever brought the ice cream Snicker bars should be given some kind of prize. After leaving the party, we came home and hung out with our backdoor neighbor (best kind).

I woke up easily Sunday morning. My hair cooperated as I was readying myself for church (first miracle). I attend church with Corky and we are served communion. I smile to myself as I feel at peace for the first time in weeks. After church I meet up with Kat for a cup of coffee. We have a wonderful chat and I get the all important hug from my best girl. My Love and Miss Independent come by to pick us up. We are off to Cracker Barrel for a late lunch with my son Adam and our granddaughter Addyson. We had a wonderful meal and a nice time hanging out with each other. After lunch we came home and watched two movies together in our theater.  It was so relaxing.

Now the room is quiet as My Love sleeps…I am blessed to have a wonderful husband and father for our children.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MEDIA CONTACT:

January 27, 2010 Apoorva Stull

(703) 837-3687

apoorva.stull@preventcancer.org

Famed Poker Player Jena Delk Joins Prevent Cancer Foundation
Bad Beat on Cancer Initiative

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Famed poker player Jena Delk will partner with Bad Beat on Cancer, pledging to donate one percent of her winnings towards the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Proceeds from Bad Beat on Cancer™ members go towards the Foundation’s mission: the prevention and early detection of cancer through scientific research, education and community outreach to all populations, including children and the underserved. Jena will join current Bad Beat on Cancer™ top professional poker champions such as Phil Gordon, Andy Bloch, Lee Childs, Rafe Furst and Howard Lederer.

“I am so excited to be a part of the Bad Beat on Cancer™ team,” explains Jena. “It’s wonderful to be a part of an organization that raises funds for Cancer Prevention and I hope this will be a long-lasting partnership.”

During the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP), poker professionals Phil Gordon and Rafe Furst started a drive to help fund cancer prevention research and education ― by playing poker. They asked their friends to pledge just one percent of their winnings at the WSOP Championship Event to the Prevent Cancer Foundation as a tax-deductible donation, resulting in enough money to fund a research grant for an entire year. This grand gesture capitulated into the Bad Beat on Cancer™ initiative. Since its inception six years ago, Bad Beat on Cancer™ has raised nearly $3 million for cancer prevention research and has grown to include other major poker tournaments, leagues and home games. The initiative has inspired amateurs and pros alike to pledge one percent of their winnings for life, including stars Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Paul Wasicka, Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Mike Matusow and Dennis Phillips.

If you’re interested in holding a Bad Beat on Cancer™ tournament or poker game in your community to benefit the Prevent Cancer Foundation, visit: www.preventcancer.org for more information.

###

About The Prevent Cancer Foundation
As a leading health organization for 25 years, the Prevent Cancer Foundation has catapulted cancer prevention to prominence and provided more than $113 million in support of cancer prevention and early detection research, education and community outreach programs across the country. The Foundation’s peer-reviewed grants have been awarded to nearly 500 scientists from more than 150 of the leading academic medical centers nationwide. This research has been pivotal in developing a body of knowledge that is the basis for important cancer prevention and early detection strategies. Through healthy lifestyle choices, you can reduce your risk of breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, oral, prostate, skin and testicular cancers. For more information, please visit www.preventcancer.org.

We live in the most amazing place on earth.  I am surrounded by beauty.

Join a Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge volunteer to get close views of adult American Bald Eagles and young on their nest through a spotting scope. No need to make reservations, just drive your own vehicle to the site. Weather permitting; a volunteer will be stationed along the Black Point Wildlife Drive between stops 11 and 12 on the following days:

• Mondays - 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm

  Wednesdays - 2 pm to 4 pm

  Thursdays - 1 pm to 3 pm

  Saturdays - 1 pm to 4 pm

  Sundays - 1 pm to 3 pm

  Call 321-861-5601 for information. http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland/Calendar.html

Feb 4, 2010 2:30 am

I am sitting at a 1/2 game.  It is 2 am at The Borgata. The annoying end of the table is comprised of:

• Internet Hoodie Kid - fancy play syndrome  which has been working and providing nice profits.
• Wheelchair Guy - horrible and likes to complain
• Mr Annoying - knows it all and will not shut up
  
• Good Ole Boy - Early ejection from second chance drunk fest.  Watch us play and jumped in when a player busted
• Grinder - works for the money but average  best

Now, I must admit I enjoy chatting it up at the table.  But tonight this guy (Mr. Annoying) was even too much for me! So you know he was definately over the top. I changed seats and found myself between two buddies.  These two friends were good players, whom were taking  a deal of great enjoyment out of irritating the annoying end.

There seems to be a lot of what  I like to call “Measuring” at this table.

Looks like the makings of a wonderful night at the tables.

My adventures at the Borgata continue. I got snowed in on Saturday when a blizzard hit the Jersey shore. A state of emergency was declare, so I wasn’t going home this weekend.

It was an amazing site from the 30^th floor of the hotel. Visibility was sharply reduced and I could not even see the hotels next door for several hours. The snow was pouring down verticlally in the wind but yet was still accumulating. The hotel had four snow plows circling their entrance for hours and the road still was snow covered. My flight for Saturday evening was cancelled due to airport closures. My stay has been extended to Monday morning.

Thank you, Thomas, for helping me extend my hotel stay. Borgata is my happy place to be snowed in!

I stayed up playing last night and dropped into bed around 3 pm and then woke up at 10 pm. I made it to the poker room around one in the morning. I played $2/5 nlh for a couple of hours, making a nice profit for the session. I had two amazing hands. The first happened on my second hand at the table. I picked up pocket queens in middle position. Several people had already limped so I bumped up the pot with a sizeable bet and there were two players calling! The flop came out ace high with a very beautiful queen! This hand is the reason we play the game. These profitable amazing hands really get my heart pumping. Scoop it!

As I play poker I am affected by many internal and external distractions. Being fully aware of those distractions, can help a player to minimize mistakes. Some of the internal distractions include such things as being tired, hungry, or in pain. External distractions are not generally under your control; therefore you should have a plan to deal with them as best you can before they occur.

I woke up this morning several times. I woke the first time around 6 am because I was cold. I got up and adjusted the thermostat and added a blanket to my bed. I woke up again at 9:30 am when the doctor’s office called to confirm an upcoming appointment. Wow, the room was still cold. What’s going on with the heat? I add a sweater and crawl back under the covers for my last half hour of sleep. At 10 am, I get up and head to the Jacuzzi for morning therapy. The hot tub is NOT hot. How strange! No therapy for me this morning, I guess. I return to my room to shower, thinking this should tie me over for a bit, and find there is no hot water. Not a drop! Irritation begins to rise.

Now for those who know me, know that I can be rather grumpy in the morning, so I was finding it a challenge to stay relaxed. I made some coffee and this helped to warm my mood while I finish dressing. My hair was not cooperating and before I knew it, I was out of time to prepare. I skipped reviewing my tournament checklist and slapped on some makeup instead. Huge Mistake!

I make it to the Event Center exactly on time. The floor is asking players to open their bags of chips. The cocktail servers swarm the room providing Red Bull and water quickly while taking orders for other drinks. I down my first Red Bull of the day as I observe my table mates. Luck was not on my side with my table draw. I am at a very tough table with seasoned players. Here’s the lineup of players:

Seat 1: Andrew “Tiltyjoker” Lee, 56,700

Seat 2: John Spagnuolo, 68,300

Seat 3: Matthew Waxman, 53,000

Seat 4: John Renzi, 126,000

Seat 5: Josh “Brikdog24” Brikis, 88,725

Seat 6: Jena Delk, 145,750

Seat 7: Robert Midgette, 40,375

Seat 8: Nicoles Fotios, 25,050

Seat 9: Tom Dobrilovic, 59,425

Seat 10: Edwin Hill, 45,400

Now when I got up this morning, I told myself, to play good. I knew today would be tough for me since I was unable to get my usual morning therapy. I was already fighting nerve pain, so I took a pillow to sit on while I played while I waited for my medication to kick in. There was no place to park my scooter close to my table, so I walked to my seat, carrying my poker goody bag. I travel anything but light. This bag is full of food, medical equipment, and nearly everything a body could want for 12+ hours. Halfway to my seat, I realized this bag was too heavy for me to be toting around. Did I ask for help? No, of course not.

The first round is pretty quiet for me and I am able to maintain my stack without much effort.

Somewhere in the second level for the day, I got caught up in those distractions I mentioned. Unfortunately, I fail to recognize that I was falling into trouble before it was too late. Here’s what had been going on. I was starting to get hungry and thought twice about ordering a glass of milk. But I didn’t do that. It was becoming very warm in the room. I had already removed my jacket but still was feeling the heat. Perspiration was dripping down my neck and back. And I was really in some bad pain. I had plenty of chips to be able to take a break to lie down, eat, and cool off. I look at the clock. There is still 30 minutes in the level. I tell myself I will sneak back to my room on break to rest, cool off, and grab some additional medical equipment.

Then the first miss step takes place. I am dealt AK off suit and raise the pot. The flop is king high and one player continues in the hand with me to the turn. When we get to show down, I see that this guy called my raise with a 4-6 suited. This gets under my skin a bit, like why he would call ME with that garbage. I do my best to talk myself out of this tilt. There are several tongue lashings among the players. Tempers have flared several time and angry words have been pass around the table. Everyone seems a bit on edge. It must be the heat getting to all of us.

A few hands later I am dealt pocket aces under the gun. Happy bells go off in my head. Finally a great starting hand. I can’t seem to remember how much the blinds are at this point, but rather than asking, I make it 3,200. Josh immediately says “oh, are we 4x’ing already?” It folds around the table until it gets to John (the guy who called my last hand with garbage) who flat calls my bet from the small blind. Alarm bells go off in my head to be careful. The flop comes nine high with two diamonds. John checks to me and I bet 6,000. John reraise and I look at him and say “really” to which John shrugs. I react and do not take time to evaluate the situation. I am thinking to myself that I need to take a stand and stop this guy from drawing to a flush. I skipped the step where I should think through the hand and put him on a range of hands. I say all in and John instacalls with his set of 8’s.

I am out of the tournament. I blew it. I played it terribly. I let the distractions get me off my game.

Tonight I will be playing the Championship Qualifier Event in which one in ten players will earn their entry into the Championship Event.  This event starts at 7 pm.  Wish me luck!

As I woke up feeling less than perfect, so I have rented a scooter for the weekend.  This will really help me conserve my strength for the game. Gosh, this place is huge!!

I arrived this morning in Atlantic City to participate in the Borgata Winter Open series of tournaments. This 16-day tournament series started on the 20th of January with a field of 1,563 runners for the first event, which was a $300+50 NLH Deepstack event.  The series will culminate with a $3,300+200 Championship event that will span five days.  The Championship event has a $2 million guarantee and will start on January 31, 2010.  Last years event drew over a thousand players and had a prize pool in excess of $3 million.

I will be playing in my first event of the series in the morning.  Event #17 is the two day $300+50 NLH tournament.  This tournament features a 10K starting stack and 45 minute blinds.  The blinds start at 25/50.
To view the event schedule or for more information visit www.theborgata.com.

Featuring a $1,000 prize pool, the PPI Elite Bounty Series pits members against some of the biggest names in professional poker. To sweeten the pot, each of the PPI Elite players has a $50 bonus bounty on his head – so when you knock ‘em out, you walk away with an extra $50 bucks!

PPI Elite Bounty Series is scheduled for January 20th at 9PM ET and the tournament will appear in the game lobby as ‘PPI Bounty $1K.’ So keep an eye out as this event returns and be sure to bring your “A game” because the PPI Elite crew plays to win.

Poker Players International is a full service agency for poker players. PPI and its clients also serve to further the poker community, both on and off the felt, through educational and charitable efforts.

I am in the third level of my favorite Tilt tournament, the $17K guarantee that starts at 1 am.  My stack in the third level is dismal (2,355).  I played several hands poorly, so now I have to be extra careful.  I decided to just limp in with [Ad, 9s] a few hands ago.  There were five players to the flop.  I flopped top pair on a very wet board.   The first player to act bets the pot and the next player flats.  My only choice here should be fold or shove.  But, do I do either of those things?  No! I simply call and allow the button to shove.  Everyone folds to the shove including me.  Very bad play by me.  Thank goodness, I get moved to another table several hands later, giving me a fresh start.

Utg+1 makes a 3bb bet and everyone folds.  The next hand is blind against blind.  I have KQ off suit.  Since the small blind limped in, I bet pot and am called.  The flop carries an ace to which the small blind checks.  I bet pot, representing the ace and the small blind folds.

I wish I had a larger stack.  My fourth table of the tournament is very passive. Its 40/80 and I just doubled up with ace high.

Woot! ~

Next hand of interest is a multi-way pot, which involved several limpers.  After an innocuous flop, it is checked around. Turn was equally bland.  In poker, generally the first one to bet wins the pot and it wasn’t me. Should have bet the flop.  I let the hand go to a marginal bet on the river. Middle pair lost its appeal.

Now I am starting to wonder why I entered this tournament.  I spent too much time sitting around the dinner table enjoying the friendly banter of close friends.  My discomfort has risen to an in tolerable level.  So am shoving my short stack in with marginal hands and I don’t even seem to care.  I go out with 11 bb.