Exhibit 31.1

Porter Bancorp, Inc.

Rule 13a-14(a) Certification

of Chief Executive Officer

I, Maria L. Bouvette, Chief Executive Officer of Porter Bancorp, Inc. (the Company), certify that:



|1. | I have reviewed this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q of the Company;
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|2. | Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the
circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;
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|3. | Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of
operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;
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|4. | The registrants other certifying officer(s) and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules
13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) for the registrant and have:
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| | (a) | Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information
relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared; and
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| | (b) | Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrants disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure
controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation.
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|                         |  |  |  |  |  |                       |  |                                          
|------------------------ |  |  |  |  |  | --------------------- |  | -----------------------------------------
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|Dated: November 13, 2006 |  |  |  |  |  | /s/ Maria L. Bouvette
|                         |  |  |  |  |  |                       |  | Maria L. Bouvette Chief Executive Officer