This Thursday marks week number 3 for the Twitter Poker Tour, and the month is already shaping up to give us quite the battle on the leaderboard.  Bob “myttazz” Buttrey (@myttazz on twitter) came away with the victory in week 1 defeating “GregAndAimee” heads up, and then finished in 7th place in week 2 and remains the player to catch at the top of the leaderboard.  In second place is “PokerVixen73″ (@pokervixen on twitter) who emerged victorious in week 2 with a heads up victory over “4get 2 4bet me” (@4get24betme on twitter).

On the TPT Live Show, we rang in the new year with Scott “chiwawa” Diamond (@deputySD on twitter) and Matt “runtcake” Waldron (@mattcwaldron on twitter) co-hosting along with Paul “fleapid” Ellis (@coolwhipflea on twitter) as DeepStacks Live Instructor Alex Outhred (@alexouthred on twitter) joined in as a special guest to chat about Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke’s departure from UB.com, and the Prahlad Friedman signing.

This week on the TPT Live Show, we will be joined by the latest Full Tilt Poker Red Pro, Peter Jetten (@PeterJetten on twitter) as we discuss his 2010 Main Event, the PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure at the Atlantis, and some prop betting that really put Peter on the map.  Make sure to join us on Thursday Nights at 9pm EST for the Tournament, and at 9:30pm EST for the TPT Live Show.

Here’s a look at the top 10 in the January 2011 leaderboard standings:

With just 2 weeks remaining in 2010, there are still two opportunities to win your share of thousands in prizes with the Twitter Poker Tour.  The TPT is a poker league open to everyone that hosts its games on Full Tilt Poker.  With the 3 events for the month in December already in the bag, the top 13 spots are separated by just 70 leaderboard points.  Here’s a look at the top 10:

The TPT Live show will be dark for the last two weeks of the year, but resume in January with a brand new format, all new guests, and some incredible surprises for everyone.  Recent guests have included November Niners Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, John Dolan, and Matt Jarvis, as well as two time WPT Champion Randall Flowers, Deepstacks Pro’s like Tristan Wade and Adam “Roothlus” Levy, and UB.com pro’s Joe Sebok and Bryan Devonshire.  Check out the schedule of events on the TPT website here.

Make sure to get in on the last couple of events to win things like training from DeepStacks Live, DeucesCracked, and GrinderSchool, Poker Items from Cardzshoppe.com, and Magazine Subscriptions from Bluff Magazine, and Poker Pro Magazine.  All you need to do to enter is follow the Twitter Poker Tour on Twitter (@tptpoker) and on Facebook, as well as join us on Thursday Nights for a $5 buy in online poker tournament on Full Tilt Poker.

Best of luck at the tables, and Happy Holidays from the TPT.

1. When and how did you get started playing poker?

I was having some significant health problems in late 2005 and was not able to get out much. I was basically on bed rest for about six months. So my husband bought a laptop to help me pass the long days. In early 2006 after I got bored with hacking around on the internet, I found my way to the free games on Full Tilt Poker. The rest is history, so to speak. As my health improved, my first outings were to play live poker.

2. What would you consider to be the defining moment in your poker career thus far? The defining moment in my poker career was when I finally learned the hand rankings. I remember being in a live tournament trying to decide if a full house beat a straight or not. It’s humbling to admit I played video poker for years without knowing what comprised a flush. Who knows how much money I gave away by not recognizing the need to save cards of the same suit? 3. With 4 children how do you effectively balance poker and life? Since all of our children have graduated high school and moved out of the house balancing life with the kids really isn’t much of an issue anymore.

6. If you were asked to give a room full of young poker hopefuls one piece of advice what would it be? Know yourself and act on that knowledge to protect your game and bankroll. Identify anything that adversely affects your game and take steps to minimize its effects. It is a great sign of maturity to know and act on physical, mental, and emotional limits. If you are feeling angry, don’t play. If you are sick, don’t play. Listen to yourself and take care of your body.

7. How did you feel the day you won the New Orleans Bayou Poker Challenge? There were 269 entrants in this WSOP ladies event called the “Cajun Queen Classic”. In addition to the prize money and circuit title; I got my first piece of poker jewelry! The day started happily as I chatted it up with my table mates.I really enjoy the social side of the ladies events.Many of the less seasoned ladies will tell you how and why they played a particular way, if you have been friendly and ask. I struggled the first half of the day with no good spots or significant luck to build a stack. I headed to dinner break feeling somewhat defeated and short on chips. My friend Jack gives me a pep talk of a lifetime over dinner.I returned from dinner refreshed with a sense of determination. I doubled up on my first hand after dinner when I flopped a set of eights against an aggressive lady, who overplayed her top pair, good kicker.From there I literally did not lose a hand I selected to play.I was catching cards like I never had before in my short poker career. Talk about being a LuckBox! I knocked players out so fast that I did not have time to get my chips stacked between hands. It was so surreal.

10. I like to leave this open to you, is there anything you would like to say to those reading today? I am developing a relationship with Poker Pros Network. While we are in the early stages of development, I feel comfortable inviting you to check out my poker room on The Poker Pros Network. Just click on this link and choose “RUN” and Install. This will load your connection to the Jena Delk players lobby and my private offerings and games. Come Play with Me! Private games and educational opportunities are being developed. Please visit my website at www.jenadelk.com to keep up to date on my current happenings

I played in the Battle of the Bloggers Invitational tournament tonight.  The Invitational Series is a special event for poker’s writers. It is not available to the general public, shocking, I know, for something named “Invitational” .  Somehow I was able to score an invite at the last minute and got to play.  This double stack freeroll tournament drew 111 players.  NYRambler took first place and TexansBaby placed second.  I went out 29th (pout).

There are two other Battle of the Blogger Tournament series: the Mookie and the Poker from the Rail.  The Mookie is played on Wednesday nights at 22:00 EST.  The entry to this event is $10 +$.  This series runs through May 26 with radio commentary at Buddy Dank Radio.  The Poker from the Rail series runs on Mondays through May 24th.  Entry into this event is $24 + $2 at 22:00 EST.

It was a lot of fun to play with so many of my poker friends.  I look forward to playing more of the BBT events offered at Full Tilt Poker. Check out more details here: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/battle-of-the-bloggers

LEVEL 6

OMg!  I just folded my queens when I timed out trying to type a 2.5X BB bet.  And why do I insist on simply calling from the blinds with speculative hands.  I need to be raising or folding here. I suck at this.

Wow! They just let me steal the blinds twice this round.  I called a standard raise that was called by one other player from the button.  I am trying to play more hands in position.  When the flop is checked around to me, I bet two thirds of the pot.  Everybody folds.   I am really good at this.  

Two hands later, I open for 3xBB and get three bet by the button. I fold because this bet represents 30% of the button’s stack.  I can only continue with this hand if I am willing to play for the buttons entire stack.  Since I have 9 10 off suit, I fold, intended to find a better spot later.  I suck at this.

The better spot comes three hands later.  I am able to get heads up with a good player. My bluff was successful because I created a believable story.  And the fact they missed on the wet board really help.  I am good at this.

We are nearing the end of level 10.  Here are my current vital stats:  11K chips; average 9k, 302 players remain; 90 earn some money.

LEVEL 12 150/300/25

I just overplayed the last two hands and my stack has eroded to 4K.  I suck at this. 

I shove with 10 J suited after a nit opens.  The nit calls with AK.  I flop a pair and the AK does not improve.  I double up and think I am good at this.

I fold the next two hands. The next hand I play is [Ac, 5c] from the big blind.  The button opens with a bet of  1,065 (obv. steal), so because I suck at this, I flat call.  The flop is  [9d, 5d,8s].  Excited to hit bottom pair, I shove my remaining $7K.  The button calls with [Qd, 6d].  The turn is [Qs].  The river [Jh]. 

I am prepared to shove my 282 remaining chips immediately if not sooner, because I am good at this.

I win the next two hands by luck and luck alone because I suck at this.

I finish in 215th place when my third hand is not able to hold up. 

The time is 3:42 am. Time for bed. 

I am playing the $17K guaranteed tournament on FTP.  The buy in for this tournament is $24+2 and drew 907 players, giving us a prize pool of $21.8K.  This tournament features 12 minute levels and 3,000 starting chips.  The play has been as expected –bad.  We have lost 132 during the first level of play.

On-line play is not my strong suit.  It is difficult to keep my mind from wondering.  So I am writing this blog while playing.  It is my hope that my writing here will help to keep me in touch with the action on the table.  Unfortunately I type way to slow to provide commentary on every hand, so this experiment seems to be a failure thus far. 

Dag open limped from utg+1. Mr. R rose to pot and it is folded around to Dag.  Dag ends up taking the pot on the river with a large bet.  No show down.  He is UTG now and open limps again.  Mr. R pot raises and I fold my 4 7 off-suit from the cutoff.  The blinds fold and they are heads up.  Each street is checked down.  Board shows 2 K J K 10.  Dag wins the 900 pot after calling a river bet from Mr. R with pocket eights.

Just folded my K6 suited.  The same two players are in this hand with .  A turn bet gets Hia to fold. 4 4 A A J on the board and a river bet gets Dag to release his hand.

Mr. R limped and I raised to 4 bb with KQ off-suit and Mr. R calls.  Mr. R leads out on the flop and I reraise. Mr. R folds.

Mr. limps again with 800 chips and gets reraised for his trny life by Dag.  Mr. folds! Dag shows AJ suited and looses to AK suited . Mr. R has played 23/24 hands.  He just doubled up with the 78 suited vs. QQ, staying in with a gut shot draw after the flop.

The next hand Mr. R is moved to a new table.  It’s folded around to me in the small blind, and I raise pot with A8.  The big blind insta-folds.

It’s amazing how long two minutes is when you have to pee….

At the first break I have 5390 in chips.  The average is 4748.  There are 573 players remaining.

I am at the Borgata to play their $1,500+150 deep stack tournament. This 3 day event features the best structure in the eastern United States. Blinds for day 1 are 50 min.  Day 2 is 60 with the final day featuring 75 min levels.

Borgata’s guarantee of a minimum prize pool of $500k brought out 607 runners.  Nearly doubling their guaranteed prize pool. First place will bring a commanding $252K!!!

I had a good table draw with a nice mix of players.  We had them all: donkey, rock, flush chaser, over defenders, under defenders, chauvinist, weak, tough, bad and good players.  There was lots of action preflop with a high percentage of hands going all the way to the river.  These guys were relentless.  I was feeling very good about my steadily growing chip stack.  I was above average as we entered the sixth level (200/400 with 50 antes).

I had not played many hands all tournament long.  My hand selection was tight.  I was only playing top 10% of hands.  The tournament cannot be won on day one, so I was taking it easy, not risking much.

Then comes THE hand that ended my tournament.  I was dealt pocket jacks. Since there were a couple of limpers, I raised to 5x the big blind.  I got one caller and the two of us went to the flop.  The flop came with one over card, a queen.  For some reason I failed to base my continued actions in this hand upon the type of player my villain was…by the time we got to the river I pushed the remainder of my stack into the middle.  The villain tanks and asks how much…it is almost ten thousand more…villain tanks for a while and finally shrugs his shoulders and says, “What the heck” and calls.  Level one players cannot be moved of a pair.  My fault plain and simple.  I needed to remember who I was playing.

I arrived in Reno yesterday after a rather bumpy airplane ride.  I am here to play with the LIPS team in the Jennifer Harmon Charity Poker tournament.  This tournament benefits the National Kidney Foundation and is being held at the Grand Sierra Resort.  There are a truckload of top notch sponsors, such as Full Tilt Poker,  DreamTeam Poker, CardPlayer, Curtis & Co. Watches (and many more). We are anticipating a great turnout!

My sis is joining me for this trip, so I anticipate less poker than usual.  Lisa does not play poker, nor does she have any interest in learning.  However, as the best Sis in the world, she supports me in whatever I do—so she came along.  Love you!  Let’s hope she finds the Throw Down cocktail party more to her liking.