Jena Delk’s Blog

ClubWPT PPI Elite Bounty Series

Featuring a $1,000 prize pool, the PPI Elite Bounty Series pits ClubWPT 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 their head – so when you knock ‘em out, you walk away with an extra $50 bucks!

PPI Elite Bounty Series is scheduled for March 24th 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 & I play to win. Here’s a link to ClubWPT.

The following pros are scheduled to play:

Ralph ”RP-Law” Pecorale
Tony “TonyLayPPI” Lay
Joey ”JoeyTheB_PPI” Brooks
Jonathan ”J_Tamayo_PPI” Tamayo
Frank “frankyfuneral” Cieri
Jena ”JenaDelk” Delk

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 was well prepared for today’s event. I had a great table draw.  It was a very late breaking table and I was in the one seat.  I know lots of people do not like this seat because it is hard to see everyone.  But I find the lack of players on both sides to be calming.  Plus this particular seat one provided me with a clear view of the entire room.  I was able to people watch to my heart’s content. 

I just had to take this picture of Thomas Gardner.  He is the dealer in this photo. Tom was very brave to volunteer to deal to the ladies event at the Beau Rivage in January 2009. It turns out he is an amazing good sport and able to take some good hearted ribbing. 

The table of ladies were rather rambunctious and engaged in conversations with Tom that was highly suggestive.  The flirting was laid on strong.  So much so that Tom actually blushed!  When this occurred, I just had to take his picture to memorialize this event.

I am not at liberty to share what specificially caused this blushing phenomenon.  But I assure you it will long be remembered by Tom and my table mates!

Aces cracked. 

 I try to make a few more hands, but had to abandon them due to heavy action.  My stack bleeds down to a M of 6.  I am looking for any unopened pot to get my tiny stack in with.  I am in late position with a j, 10 suited and the pot has been unopened.  I bet half of my stack, planning to shove on any flop.  I have one caller.  I hit a jack on the flop and my opponent checks to me.  I shove the rest of my chips.  My opponent goes into the tank and makes what appears a crying call.  She has AJ.  She lets out a huge sigh and exclaims, “I was convinced you had pocket jacks.”  I do not improve and make an early exit from the tournament.

Unfortunately, the poker gods did not shine on me for long today.  I started off very well.  I won many pots, most without a showdown.  Those that were shown down were monsters.  My image was very strong.   I overheard one of the ladies saying to her neighbor that she had to take a break because she was intimated playing with me.  This gal has a wonderful rail bird in her life; evidently he told her that she knew how to play, to get back in there and just to play her game.  Whenever you are on tilt or intimated on the felt, you should just go back to basics.  Play YOUR basics, your game, whatever style that may be.  The familiarity of this regimented play will center you.  Once settled, you can expand your game.

Jack is driving me  I’m laying down in the back seat  We are on our way to play poker on the Suncruz casino.

The Suncruz is where I first played live poker in 2006.  This was before the Pari-Mutuel facilities in Florida were allowed to spread no limit. These casino boats were the only place to play. The boat heads out to international waters for about 4 hours of play. And there were a lot of people who wanted to play.  The games were rich and pockets were deep.

When Fl changed their law in July of 2006, the boat was adversely affected. While the card rooms had a max buy in of $100, people were drawn away from the casino boat for various reasons. Some people no longer had to travel far to find a game. Others enjoyed being able to come and go at will.  No sea sickness  was a plus as well.

The numbers on the boat dwindled as players scattered about the state. 

This caused me to seek alternative venues to play tournament poker.  I hit the WSOP and WPT circuit events to get my fix.

So three years later I am going to go see what’s happening in my old stomping grounds.

It takes about 30 minutes to reach the three mile line. Everyone waits to hear the captain say the casino is now open for gaming. As cards get in the air, I look around the table. Our table is comprised of all players known to me.  They are older gentlemen– “Rocks” with weathered skin from years of Florida sun.  I am not in a talkative mood.

Mark and Jack both just had aces. The four aces get felted without money entering the pot. Mark says, “I don’t want to get a flush on you.”  These two will go out of their way to avoid playing pots together for the rest of the cruise.

A new player with bourbon on his breath strolls over to take the empty seat next to me. He starts splashing money around the table. He just stole a pot and showed the table his queen ten off suit for top pair. And says, “I had you, right?” to the player who had just folded.  Bourbon continues to drink and push the Rocks around.  I wonder how long the table will let him continue?

One of Bourbon’s buddies joins the table.  As Buddy sits down, Bourbon leans over to me and slurs, “Do you think he’s hot?  I flash Bourbon my best “don’t fuck with me” look and he responds with, “You’d do him, right?”.  Buddy chimes in, “Dude, shut up, she’s married”  Luckily, the cocktail waitress shows up just in time to distract Bourbon from further inappropriateness.   A couple of hands later, Bourbon is busted from the game.  

I ended up down $93 when gaming ended for the night.   

I am reclining in my favorite spot.  I cancelled my trip to the Borgata yesterday.  It always a difficult decision to cancel a trip.  Sometime I wish I was a teenager again then I would have to still gone off to play poker, gamble, and someone else would clean up my mess when I crashed.  Unfortunately we can’t go back to our wild years.  So now you are stuck listening to me yearn for the old days.

Addyson came over yesterday. She will be two year old in one week.  She recognized our house when they pulled into the driveway. ”Gwam maw!”  She says and does such fun things.  I took at nap while Addyson, Erin and Adam played in the pool.  Grandpa and Adam did lots of yard work.  They cleaned out the gutters and trimmed the plants in the yard.  Everything around here looks really nice. 

Jenny came with them.  That black lab sure does love the water.  Everyone got tired of throwing the tennis ball for her to retrieve, so Jenny was nosing the ball into the water and then running to the shallow in to swim across the pool and “save” the ball. 

After Addy was done swimming.  She took a nap along with her momma.  After she woke up, we read one of Adam’s favorite childhood books:  The monster at the end of this book.  This book is the charming tale of Grover (think Sesame Street) who is afraid of the title.  Grover does his best to keep you from turning the pages, but you do it anyway.  When we get to the end of the book we discover that the monster was Grover himself.   Fun times!!

Tonight is the bi-weekly ClubWPT Poker Players International Bounty Tournament I’ll be one of the players with a price on my head! This site is the subscription-based online site of the World Poker Tour and only costs $19.95 per month. You can sign up for a free two week trial and come take on the PPI pros. Knock one of us out of the tournament and you win $50! I hope to see many of you there.

Be sure to sign on and take your best shot at me! The other players with bounties include:

Eric “Rizen” Lynch

Lee Childs

Kelly Armentrout

Tony Salerno

Mike Borchetta