Gambling Today

PokerSavage1 and prezado are currently on a break to decide the final seat in PokerStars’ Battle of the Planets monthly Sit and Go tournament triple shootout freeroll. After a short break the final seat of the triple shootout was filled. Perzado made the final table with a couple of tough hands of two pair versus a flush and a straight against PokerSavage1 and ended the round of 81 with an AQo versus ATo battle. If you are new to this promotion kindly checkout the leaderboard on the PokerStars website for information on how to gain points and possibly sit at the final table next month with a shot at $25,000!

Here’s how our final table stacked up this week, as the winners of two tables to reach here are going home with no less then $1,550.00:

Alkaatch (Neptune)
Domerboy
Dutch-nOOb
JohanEll
Landsoflore7 (Venus)
Martin-king
Pebah
Windysufan (Mars)
Prezado (Neptune)

Chopping up the final table money was thrown back and forth across the table for the first thirty minutes, and after some negotiations that would rival international treaties being drawn up at the United Nations headquarters, the players decided to reward themselves with $6,000 a piece. Being the Sit and Go kings they are, tonight we are playing for 50%-30%-20% of the remaining $17,920 prize pool for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd which mirror the normal payouts for a nine player SnG.

1st = $8960.00
2nd = $5376.00
3rd = $3584.00

Still a lot of money on the table for these folks but we will see if the guaranteed $6,000 will have an effect on the speed of play. At least three orbits went by after the deal was struck and still our original nine have chips to battle with. No clear cut chip leader has emerged but windysufan has been the short stack for the majority of this final table.

Dutch-nOOb certainly did not play to his namesake as he was one of the more aggressive players who clamped down on any preflop limping with timely raises but sadly exited first today. With blinds at $50/$100 and an opening pre-flop min-raise coming out of dutch-nOOb’s stack, landsoflore7 came over the top holding an unsuited big slick. Dutch-nOOb made the call with the remainder of his $1,300 stack with pocket tens. Two pair on the flop of Ah 2c Kd, left dutch-nOOb shaking his luckbox icon for all its worth, but blanks on the turn and river left him in ninth place.

Landsoflore7 was not done gathering chips as just four hands later his pocket Queens saw yet another race begin preflop, except this time he was facing the unsuited big slick of JohanEll. Little cards tapped the across the board, and a Jack on the river sent landsoflore7 up the chip ladder to a significant lead and sent JohanEll in eighth place with the chopped $6,000.

With the tight play at the beginning, the next dozen hands at the $75/$150 blind levels were a plethora of all-in aggression and bust outs. The short stacks of windysufan and alkaatch decided to all their battling pre-flop and in the blinds, both holding decent heads-up hands for short stacks. Alkaatch was in great shape to double up and knock out the resilient windysufan when his Ad9c dominated windysufan’s Kc9s. The 4s 5s 7h flop looked safe enough and only a runner-runner straight, flush, or a King would help out windysufan’s hand. The King of diamonds on the turn turned the tide and blank on the river left alkaatch with just 160 chips which were donated on the next hand with an unimproved hammer (that’s seven-deuce offsuit) versus domerboy’s QTo that paired the turn and left alkaatch in seventh place.

Pebah did not give up despite the rising blinds for everyone, and made a great play for the blinds while left with just $1,050 in checks and the blinds at $75/$150 with a middle connecting hand of 7s8c. But windysufan has been riding the wave as he called with Ac6d leaving just $230 behind. The flop made no connections, the turn gave no answers, and the river hung up the phone on pebah’s Battle of the Planets run. Windysufan’s Ace high got him one step closer to the extra chopped cash and left pebah out in sixth place.

As in any SnG once the blinds get high so does the speed of the bust outs as prezado and martin-king were left with just a few big blinds they shoved their hands in preflop looking for a little light in a dark tournament place. Unfortunately, they both ran into dominated hands preflop, prezado took his A5o up against windysufan’s ATo and after the river ten appeared with no straights, flushes, or trips for prezado, he exited in fifth place just short of the extra pay scale. Martin-king made the right decision and pressed his chips for all they were worth from the small blind with only 926 chips left and blinds at $125/$250 Ante $25 but domerboy in the big blind found a call and saw his K7o well ahead of martin-king’s 74o after no love on the flop, and turn, the big King on the river cemented our final three players to play for the remaining prize pool.

In an amazing turn of events, the heads-up play began with the former long term short stack windysufan in the lead over domerboy. Landsoflore7 played a great aggressive game with his chip lead but winning coin flips is essential to every tournament win and his final hand was a classic race of his AKo versus domerboy’s pocket Jacks. As I already gave away the ending of the race in the first sentence, landsoflore7 took home the chopped $6,000 plus 3rd place money of $3,584!

With a couple of pushes, Domerboy stole the heads-up lead from windysufan and pressed continuously with raises and re-raises preflop while taking a 5:1 chip lead with blinds at $150/$300 ante $25 and leaving windysufan with under ten big blinds in his stack. But, windysufan caught domerboy with a well-placed trap after turning a straight, domerboy complied by diving into the net turning the game into an even-up affair after a few more blind steals by windysufan.

$1,470 was the chip lead windysufan held over domerboy as the game turning hand began with domerboy limping from the button and windysufan checking his option. 8c 8h 6d on the flop got domerboy to lead out for $600 and a quick flat call by windysufan. The ten of hearts on the turn got domerboy to lead out for $900 and was met by a quick all-in from windysufan. Flopped trips for windysufan was a yet another trap laid by the Syracuse University fan holding 8s4h, but domerboy caught up on the turn as he quickly called with TdTc for the turned boat which avoided the one-outer on the river for a dominating 12,030 to 1,470 chip lead.

Two hands later both players got their remaining chips into the pot:

Domerboy: AsQs
Windysufan: 5dQh

Domerboy’s preflop advantage was never questioned, never in danger, and finally gave him the biggest slice of the chopped pie as he was awarded $6,000 plus $8,960 while becoming this month’s Battle of the Planets champion! Windysufan made the most of his cards and perseverance in rallying from a huge chip deficit at the beginning of the final table and was rewarded with an extra $5,376 for second place on top of the $6,000 all the final table players received. Congrats to all of all winners today, and be sure to start your qualifying runs for next month’s Battle of the Planets competition tomorrow!

July Battle of the Planets results:
(based on nine-way chop leaving prizes awarded for the final three players)

1. Domerboy (bryan) $6,000.00 + $8,960.00
2. windysufan (Endwell) $6,000.00 + $5,376.00
3. landsoflore7 (Heerlen) $6,000.00 + $3,584.00
4. martin-king (france) $6,000.00
5. prezado (Babylonia) $6,000.00
6. pebah (san rafael) $6,000.00
7. alkaatch (Praha) $6,000.00
8. JoahnEll (Torshavn) $6,000.00
9. dutch-nOOb (Papendrecht) $6,000.00

454 Sit and Go champs lined up a few hours ago to break off the biggest piece of the Battle of the Planets promotion pie. A $50,000 Triple Shootout freeroll for those who qualified through their respective celestial body division for an additional payday on top of the weekly prizes they have already won. 81 players will take home at least $195.00 for winning the first leg of the triple shootout with a $12,500 prize going to first place.

Since this is a shootout, the final table will all players will start with the same chipstack regardless of bankroll or shoe size; here are your final nine:

Stainley88 (Kingston) – first winner of the second shootout leg and had to wait a fortnight for the remaining players
LinoeeR (Kearney)
highR (roma)
SWENS1AGAIN (Minneapolis)
Schroeder72 (Thomasville)
Domingo32 (Las Vegas)
Kenny05 (Philadephia)
2D!E4 (Fresno)
Rhcp2006 (San Jose)

Will the Philly Phanatic Kenny05 over take the final table? Or Man U’s fan rhcp2006 acquire enough money here to hop across the pond for a match? With the blinds and chip counts at their starting amounts of $10/$20 with $1,500 in chips the level playing field leaves no clear cut favorite. No blood was drawn for the first two blind levels, with the high chip to blinds ratio, only small pots are being pushed around.

With blinds at $25/$50 Stainley88 and LioneeR got into a pre-flop shoving match with Stainley88 going all-in on a four-bet leaving LioneeR a decision for his remaining 750 chips. After a pause and maybe a swig of beer, LioneeR made the call only to find his Jacks well behind Stainley88’s pair of ladies. After a board that that improved neither player, LioneeR will have an extra $775.00 to spend on a Barry Sanders throwback jersey for his ninth place finish. With the extra chips, Stainley88 has started to bully a bit pre and post flop as his chip lead was twice the amount of second place highR.

Another preflop raising war resulted in a man down. This time it was domingo32 raising from the button and 2D!E4 taking offense to the blind steal with a shove for his remaining 1175 chips. Unfortunately as the cards turned over 2D!E4’s A9o was looking up at domingo32’s big slick. The board ran out with no excitement or reasons to curse the poker gods and 2D!E4 will receive $1,200.00 for his efforts in eighth place.

Two hands later saw another button versus big blind battle as rhcp2006 raised over the top of the under the gun raise of Stainley88 and a call by schroeder72 on the button. Stainley88 found some cover and folded, while schroeder72 tried to squeeze rhcp2006 off his hand with a push. But, the Man U supporter found himself shooting for an empty net goal as his jacks were ahead of schroeder72’s pocket tens. The jack of clubs and full house on the turn elevated rhcp2006’s hand to unbeatable status and schroeder72 headed back to Thomasville with $1,700.00 extra with his seventh place finish.

With six left Stainley88 has not let off the gas, taking many chips preflop and extending his lead over rhcp2006 and with blinds at $75/$150 the smaller stacks are starting to feel the pinch and taking their battles preflop with shoves and positional re-raises. Over 40 hands have gone by with no eliminations as the short stacks continued to push their chips and hang on to their stacks while grabbing some much needed blinds.

Three way action preflop found SWENS1AGAIN and domingo32 all in against highR who left $285 behind while flipping AKo to SWENS1AGAIN’S pocket fours and dominating domingo32’s AJo. Not all hands are built to last, as a Jack appeared on the flop giving domingo32 the lead. But with three diamonds on a Jd 6c 2d Td board and highR holding the Ace of diamonds gave highR a little hope of knocking out two opponents. Instead the board paired the last Ten and crippled the hooded chipmunk. SWENS1AGAIN took home $2,200.00 for his efforts in sixth place.

highR managed to survive a three way pot while all-in against Stainley88 and domingo32 and with preflop aggression has found his stack creeping back into contention. Unfortunately for kenny05, he was also low in chips with just 6.5 big blinds and facing a button raise from the now sizable second place stack of domingo32. KQo must of looked huge in that spot hoping to pick off a bluff but instead kenny05 found himself slightly behind the suited A7 of domingo32. A wheel missing a spoke was laid out on the board, unfortunately for kenny05, domingo32 had the missing bike part and the Phillies fan left with $2,735.00 in fifth place.

Ah, the cruel mistress of the river can hurt anyone. With blinds at $100/$200 and facing a button raise with a short stack, rhcp2006 found A3s in the small blind and pushed into the resurgent stack of highR and his KQo. A jack with two fives on the flop looked great for rhcp2006 to get back into contention, seven on the turn looked even better, but the queen on the river gave rhcp2006 $3,350.00 in fourth place. Probably enough for a plane ticket from San Jose to the UK to watch his favorite football club.

highR continued his late night rally with a dominate all-in versus the chip leader Stainley88 and with the antes kicking in he has taken the lead from once bully of the table. Talks of a chop went no place as Stainley88 did not have chat on, or feels confident in taking out the two Italian speakers left at the table as pre flop raises and re-raises have the chips orbiting the PokerStars Tournament Table logo in the middle without any cards appearing there.

Domingo crippled Stainley88 getting all his chips in the middle with pocket Tens versus Stainley88’s A9. The flop gave Stainley88 a pair of nines which did not improve further and the chip count was flip-flopped with domingo32 now holding the driver’s seat. highR’s aggression was caught after a few preflop raises, as Stainley88 called one of highR’s pushes with two live cards, K5o, and found himself ahead of highR’s Q2s and knocked highR down to less then four big blinds after the board paired his king. With the shortened stack King-Jack offsuit looked to be good against big stack bullying from the button, but highR found himself staring down a very legitimate raising hand of red aces from domingo32. The board got a little exciting on the turn showing with three spades matching the King’s suit for highR. But despite pairing his jack on the river highR was out in third place leaving $4,500.00 to the good.

With a 5:1 chip deficit Stainley88 found his chat and asked for an even chop which domingo32 never responded to. Stainley88 proceeded to win a series of coin flips including a big one with an ace appearing on the turn after a preflop raising war put the tournament on the line for Stainley88 holding ATo versus the pocket sevens of domingo32. No trips on the river gave Stainley88 the 5:1 chip lead which he would not relinquish.

His K3o was ahead of domingo32’s JTo for the final 5800 preflop chip pot that would either dent Stainley88’s lead or give him the Battle of Planets championship (Orion’s?) belt. A pair of aces appeared on the turn helping neither player, and the nine of spades awarded $12,500.00 to Stainley88 for winning the monthly Battle of the Planets freeroll!

Domingo32’s hard fought second place finish netted him $7000.00 and perhaps a wider smile than the one found on his Cheshire Cat’s avatar. Congrats to our finalists and all participants in this freeroll; be sure to gear up for next month’s Battle of the Planets contest!

1. Stainley88 - $12,500.00
2. domingo32 - $7,000.00
3. highR - $4,500.00
4. rhcp2006 - $3,350.00
5. kenny05 - $2735.00
6. SWENS1AGAIN - $2,200.00
7. schroeder72 - $1,700.00
8. 2D!E4 - $1,200.00
9. LioneeR - $775.00

After a one week break from Battle of the Planets updates, we have plenty to tell you about this week. Starting from the smallest buy-in division and working our way up, this is how the last two weeks have played out:

Mercury:

If we were to save the best to last, then the Mercury report would belong at the bottom of this article. But it’s the division for the lowest buy-ins ($1-$2.99), so here goes.

Last week the Low Orbit saw two players break the 600 point barrier; one of whom did so by enough to set a new record for the division. ‘trsmojo’ posted a score of 624 to earn the $150 prize money. Not content with that, he went on to post a 1953 score at High Orbit. That earned a further $110 for 2nd place.

The person that beat him to first place at High Orbit was ‘dobieatwar’. The achievement was notable for two reasons.

1. He won it with an all-division record score of 2037 points.
2. It was his third Mercury High Orbit win in the last seven weeks, including back-to-back wins in the last two weeks.

That’s a record that’s going to take some serious effort to beat.

Mars

The $3-$4.99 division had a hard act to follow, but managed to come up with some heroes of its own.

Two weeks back, ‘earnhardt8#1’ became the first player to win both Leader Boards of the Mars Division in the same week. The scores of 579 (Low Orbit) and 1800 (High Orbit) were worth $300 each.

Last week’s star was ‘BR241992’ who managed the rare feat of a 1900 point score (only the second time it’s been done in the Mars Division). The mammoth total meant a comfortable winning margin of 110 points and a well-deserved $300.

Venus

The Venus Division also saw one of its records fall last week, when ‘Birdie7777’ produced a monster High Orbit total of 1854 points. He picked up $500 to go with his division record.

Second place finisher ‘Keates19’ can consider himself unlucky as his own total of 1838 would have been good enough to win the Leader Board on any other week. The $300 prize will be some consolation.

The Low Orbit Leader Board saw its biggest score for almost two months, with ‘bridgey321’ putting in a 674. That’s the third best Low Orbit score for Venus, and fourth best across all divisions.

Earth

Last week was a quiet one for the Earth Division, though the week before ‘Cap1theNinja’ set the division’s Low Orbit record with 680 points. This smashed the previous best (set way back in Week 1) by a whopping 43 points.

Unsurprisingly, ‘Cap1theNinja’ also claimed the Leader Board’s biggest winning margin, with a 121 point gap between first and second. He received $700 for his week’s work.

Neptune

The Neptune Division again showed how strong it is, with no one player able to stamp their authority over the proceedings.

There were noteworthy performances from ‘FancyBazil’ and ‘Dany1984’, who both managed top 10 spots on both Leader Boards. They boosted their bankrolls by $310 and $200 respectively.

Uranus

The events of Uranus closely matched those of Neptune. There were lots of new names making their marks on the Battle of the Planets Leader Boards, and no virtuoso performances.

The biggest win over the last two week’s came from a regular of the Saturn Division – ‘DutchSlugger’. His second and third places earned a payday of $1125.

A name unfamiliar to many, but significant in the history of Battle of the Planets, is ‘Matt238’. Matt was the man that came up with the idea of the ‘block’ system that is used in the promotion. He took 10th place on the High Orbit Leader Board for $100. He also earned the all-important ticket to the Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout.

Saturn

There were a couple of star performers in Saturn over the last two weeks. The first of which was ‘Bonsy’ who claimed his second Low Orbit title. Back in Week 3, ‘Bonsy’ claimed both Leader Boards, but had been absent from the top 10 since. He’s now proven that it was no fluke, as he went on to claim second place at High Orbit also. The double cash was worth $2,000 altogether.

The second player to gain special mention was ‘azntracker’. He took down the High Orbit title last week and is a previous Low Orbit winner. So this was his second $1200 win in the division.

Jupiter

As usual, Jupiter threw up some familiar names.

After multiple cashes, Supernova Elite ‘Jorj95’ earned his maiden Leader Board win with a first at High Orbit. His score of 1449 is the second best High Orbit mark for the division.

‘rivermanl’ was another player who has made numerous appearances in the top 5 without gaining a win, but put that to rights with a Low Orbit victory last week.

It was a new name however that came to the fore in the last two weeks. ‘santinocrack’ picked up the Low Orbit title two weeks ago, and followed that up with a High Orbit win last week. When you add in an additional fifth place finish, his winnings for the last two weeks total $3500.

That wraps up this week’s bumper edition of the Battle of the Planets update. Be sure to check back next week with all the stories from week 10.

This week’s Battle of the Planets begins with another congratulations to ‘Gr8DSip‘ for taking down the Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout this Sunday. ‘Gr8DSip’ earned his ticket for the event by placing in 5th on the Low Orbit Division of the Venus Division with 503 points. That single 20 game block of $5 tournaments paved the way to $12,620 in winnings.

With the fairy tale story duly noted, here are the happenings from around the Leader Boards:

The top Low Orbit score for the week came in the Earth Division, where ‘GG3o’ posted a score of 580, an honor made all the sweeter by the $700 that came with it.

Mercury saw the biggest High Orbit score for the week as ‘Sparky73′ recorded a tally of 1838 points. He also made the top 100 of the Low Orbit, taking his weekly earnings to $170.

In the Mars Division ‘msEvsiNdreAd’ earned a total of $351 from a double top ten finish. He took 6th in the Low Orbit and a won the High Orbit, the latter with a fine score of 1810 points. There were also double top ten finishes for ‘pgcannonball’ and ‘d-jarl’ (Uranus) and ‘MarkPhilip’ (Venus).

In the higher divisions, it’s not uncommon to see multiple cashes and the past week was no different. In the Saturn Division, ‘kenos03′ deserves a mention for finishing 2nd on both leader boards, an effort worth $1600.

The performance of the week came from Jupiter’s most consistent competitor ‘woosewoo’ who took 1st place on both boards. On the High Orbit Leader Board, he set a new division record with a score of 1479 points. That’s another $3000 of Battle of the Planets prize money for the ‘woosewoo’ collection.

It’s becoming very clear there is a lot of money to be made from Battle of the Planets. Drop by next week to find out who is taking the lion’s share!

This week’s Battle of the Planets begins with another congratulations to ‘Gr8DSip‘ for taking down the Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout this Sunday. ‘Gr8DSip’ earned his ticket for the event by placing in 5th on the Low Orbit Division of the Venus Division with 503 points. That single 20 game block of $5 tournaments paved the way to $12,620 in winnings.

With the fairy tale story duly noted, here are the happenings from around the Leader Boards:

The top Low Orbit score for the week came in the Earth Division, where ‘GG3o’ posted a score of 580, an honor made all the sweeter by the $700 that came with it.

Mercury saw the biggest High Orbit score for the week as ‘Sparky73′ recorded a tally of 1838 points. He also made the top 100 of the Low Orbit, taking his weekly earnings to $170.

In the Mars Division ‘msEvsiNdreAd’ earned a total of $351 from a double top ten finish. He took 6th in the Low Orbit and a won the High Orbit, the latter with a fine score of 1810 points. There were also double top ten finishes for ‘pgcannonball’ and ‘d-jarl’ (Uranus) and ‘MarkPhilip’ (Venus).

In the higher divisions, it’s not uncommon to see multiple cashes and the past week was no different. In the Saturn Division, ‘kenos03′ deserves a mention for finishing 2nd on both leader boards, an effort worth $1600.

The performance of the week came from Jupiter’s most consistent competitor ‘woosewoo’ who took 1st place on both boards. On the High Orbit Leader Board, he set a new division record with a score of 1479 points. That’s another $3000 of Battle of the Planets prize money for the ‘woosewoo’ collection.

It’s becoming very clear there is a lot of money to be made from Battle of the Planets. Drop by next week to find out who is taking the lion’s share!

The Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout is not something for nothing, although it might feel like it to the people who win thousands of dollars for doing what they’d normally be doing anyway.

Everyone knows, there are tons of people out there who do little else but play SNGs all day long. There are others who play SNGs as often as their other lives allow them. These are the people who fight in the PokerStars Battle of the Planets SNG Leader Board competition and stand to make a lot more money by finishing at the top of their buy-in divisions.

Once a month, PokerStars throws these players a really big bone…a $50,000 freeroll Triple Shootout. The top ten players from each of the Battle of the Planets divisions get a seat. The top 81 players get paid. The winner takes in more than $12,000. As I said, it’s not something for nothing, but it’s a whole lot of something for something the SNG warriors would be doing already.

This month’s competition, not surprisingly, saw some big SNG names in the field. The final table looked like this.

Out of the 407 players who competed in this month’s Triple Shootout, the top nine were in line for some big money after winning two consecutive SNGs. The man who came out on top, though, was the United States’ Gr8DSip. For his effort, he picked up $12,500.

PokerStars’ HostBob is my man when it comes to the details and intricacies of the Battle of the Planets. Over the next couple of days, he’ll bring us the nitty gritty and down and dirty of the latest Battle of the Planets scrum. In the meantime, here are the final table results from this month’s Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout.

PokerStars Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Final table Results

1. Gr8DSip (United States) $12,500.00
2. BIGMICKG (Ireland) $7,000.00
3. Rafael_bahia (Brazil) $4,500.00
4. basbo (Netherlands) $3,350.00
5. david400 (United Kingdom) $2,735.00
6. ulmi_diem (Germany) $2,200.00
7. jansen222 (Netherlands) $1,700.00
8. Kevin_2384 (United States) $1,200.00
9. SnM61185 (United States) $775.00

The intersteller dust has settled on Week 6 of Battle of the Planets. Here are the stories from around the divisions.

The Mercury Division saw two of the week’s four 1800+ High Orbit scores for the week. ‘Milasha1′ took the top spot with 1845, with ‘Meth0dMan86′ trailing in second with exactly 1800 points.

The third 1800 point score–also 1800 points, exactly–was achieved by ‘clingin4life’, who improved on a previous best of seventh place back in Week 2. The fourth and final 1800 point score was posted in the Venus Division by ‘Gene Watson’ with 1827. This marked the first time anyone has topped the 1800 mark in the Venus Division. The accomplishment earned ‘Gene Watson’ $500.

The highest Low Orbit score of the week was an impressive 595 in the Earth Division. The score was produced by ‘gfjets77′, worth $700 and a ticket to next week’s Battle of the Planets.

At the higher buy-in levels, ‘neil_rick’ went one better than his second place finish in the Uranus Division in Week 1 by posting a division record High Orbit score of 1665. No doubt the satisfaction of the win was enhanced by the extra $1,000 added to his bankroll.

At the Saturn level, ‘rockets23′ put in a double Top 5 finish with fourth place in the Low Orbit and first place in the High Orbit, for a combined win of $1,700.

Finally, in the Jupiter Division, it was a week dominated by the regulars. ‘woosewoo’ returned to form to claim the top spot at Low Orbit and third at High Orbit for a $2,500 week. That was enough to put him back to the top of the Battle of the Planets money-winners list with $7,000.

The High Orbit was won by ‘woltas’, who achieved the feat of back-to-back wins on a Leader Board. Coupled with a fourth place on the Low Orbit Leader Board, ‘woltas’ won $2,250 for the week.

There’s less than a week to go before the Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout. Reigning champ ‘ryanghall’ has been unable to secure a ticket for the tournamet, so next week PokerStars will be crowning a new Sit & Go champion.

The PokerStars Battle of the Planets is obviously getting tougher. The Low Orbit fights are getting harder to post high scores and the High Orbit battle is seeing repeatt winners.

It was a somewhat quiet week for the Low Orbit section of Battle of the Planets. Several of the divisions saw their lowest winning scores so far, and no major records were broken during the week.

That’s not to say there weren’t many excellent performances:

In the heat of battle, it’s sometimes hard to track down the victors. This week, PokerStars’ Battle of the Planets guru HostBob caught up with the April Battle of the Planets winner ryanghall.

PokerStars (PS):So you’re the first ever winner of the monthly Battle of the Planets tournament. How does it feel? Can you talk us through how the event went for you?

ryanghall (RH): The event went really well for me. I had two major suckouts including a one-outer on the turn, but I guess to win a big tournament you’re usually going to have to get lucky. It feels good because I was on a pretty bad downswing which was totally erased by the win.

PS: What are your thoughts on the Battle of the Planets promo?

RH: I have mixed feeling about the BOP promo. Unfortunately, it, combined with the Supernova Elite promo, has made the high stakes sit and go events quite filled with regulars lately and extremely difficult. However, it is more money available to SNG players who really deserve it, as promotions are usually targeted at MTT players.

PS: Do you have any plans for the prize money or will it form part of your poker bankroll?

RH: I’ll just be adding the money to the pile. I don’t generally spend much money. I keep real life money and poker money essentially separate. Although when I have enough money to pay off my mortgage it will be just too tempting not to

PS: Back when we first met you on the EPT, you were working as a teacher, trying to fit live events into the school vacations. Are you still working full time or are you now playing poker for a living?

RH: I’m still working as a teacher and probably always will. It’s a very gratifying job and I’ve met a lot of really wonderful people doing it, both staff and students. My school, Sir Winston Churchill in Hamilton, Canada, rocks too! If I ever had to teach anywhere else (or another subject than geography for that matter) I’d probably quit and go pro but it’s not in the cards for me right now. So Supernova Elite will have to wait for me until I retire. The biggest drawback is that I can’t really qualify for many live events because the vast majority of them are during school and I don’t think adminstration would let me wander off for a week in the middle of the school year to play poker. Then again, I haven’t asked - maybe I should.

PS: Rumour has it that you got engaged at an EPT event, would you care to tell us the story?

RH: I did get engaged at the EPT Warsaw event. It was nothing too romantic; I just took Stephanie out into the forest in Lazienki Park and asked her there. We’re going to get married in the summer of 2009, so that will obviously be something to look forward to.

PS: Thanks for speaking to us and best of luck with the wedding!

Previously:

Battle of the Planets awards first Triple Shootout winner

We’ve now had four weeks of Battle of the Planets competition, so it seems like a good time to re-cap on some of the big performers from the weekly leader boards. So here’s a summary of the action so far:

The Big Winners

As you might expect, the biggest individual money winners in the Battle of the Planets promotion can be found in the high buy-in divisions. The top ten earners all come from Saturn ($100-$299.99) and Jupiter ($300+) divisisions.

woosewoo $4500 (Jupiter)
Bonsy $3650 (Saturn & Jupiter)
messier111 $3250 (Saturn & Jupiter)
tinytim3434 $3250 (Jupiter)
amlove $3125 (Jupiter)
BIGMICKG $3000 (Jupiter)
poker_in_pb $3000 (Saturn & Jupiter)
DCJ311 $2250 (Saturn & Jupiter)
DDBeast $2250 (Jupiter)
bluffp $2050 (Saturn & Jupiter)

The leader, ‘woosewoo’, has been remarkably consistent in the Jupiter Division claiming seven top-ten places of the eight possible so far. Three of those finishes were in the top 2 places, including a first place on the High Orbit Leader Board.

Biggest Return on Investment

The high buy-in divisions may have the biggest winners, but when it comes to return on investment, the lower buy-in divisions reign supreme.

From the Mercury Division ($1-$2.99), ‘AKTexaspoker’ has managed to turn his $1 Sit & Go entries into $295 in prize money, courtesy of three top-ten finishes (one at Low Orbit, two at High Orbit).

In the Venus Division ($5-$9.99) the star performer has been ‘gcDanno’, who has clocked up two second place finishes and a first place and has picked up $1,220 in Battle of the Planets prize money.

Big Weeks

In the first four weeks of play, we have seen two players achieve the remarkable feat of winning the Low Orbit and High Orbit Leader Boards for a division in the same week.

IWeek 3 saw ‘Bonsy’ take down both boards of the Saturn Division. His scores of 480 (Low Orbit) and 1,611 (High Orbit) were good for $2,400.

Also in week 3, ‘BIGMICKG’ put up scores good enough for both top spots in the Jupiter Division. He earned $1500 apiece for his totals of 423 (Low Orbit) and 1,281 (High Orbit).

Big Scores

The top Low Orbit score posted so far was a monstrous 701. The score was set in Week 1 in the Venus Division by ‘shopskin8’. This huge total was achieved through a strict regime of regular (i.e. non-turbo) 18-man tournaments.

He remains the only player to post a score of 700 or higher. There are eleven players who have registered scores in excess of 600 points in a single week. In the last week, ‘jlewis10748’ became the first player to break the 600 barrier in a division over $20, when he scored 609 in the Uranus Division ($50-$99.99).

The High Orbit record is held by the master of Mercury ‘AKTexasholdem’ with a phenomenal 2001 points. This total was achieved in 6-max Sit & Go tournaments.

Only two others have passed the 1900-point mark in the opening four weeks. They are ‘Coole Rick’ (1944 in Mars) and ‘dobieatwar’ (1989 in Mercury). Eight players have exceeded 1800 points in a High Orbit week.

Be sure to keep coming back to the PokerStars blog. We’ll be keeping you up to date with all of the latest winners and record-breakers in the Battle of the Planets.