The PokerStars Battle of the Planets is obviously getting tougher. In the Low Orbit fights, it's getting harder to post high scores. The High Orbit battle is already seeing repeat 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

No doubt you've stepped into an elevator and seen those floors you can only access with a special card. If you're at all like me, you've wondered just what happens on those inaccessible levels.

The PokerStars VIP Club operates much like a penthouse. Few people get to the very top, but those who do live the high life. Just ask George Lind III, the first Supernova Eliite of 2008. He's one of two people so far in 2008 who achieved the highest rung of the PokerStars VIP Club. Those folks get five Frequent Player Points for every VIP Player Point they earn. They get hundreds of thouands of dollars worth of freerolls every month. They also get free entries to two big time events like the World Championship of Online Poker main event, the EPT Grand Final, and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, the World Series Main Event, and APPT Final.

This time last year, PokerStars had around 25 players on pace to hit Supernova Elite. Apparently, word got around. The folks at PokerStars say there are 60 players on track to make it to Supernova Elite in 2008.

In 2007, Team PokerStars Pro Betrand "ElkY" Grospellier became the first person to ever make it to Supernova Elite. Today he's nearly collected enough FPPs to put a down payment on a very nice house. No word yet on whether he intends to buy a penthouse.

The great thing about the VIP Club's Supernova Elite program is you don't have to have a special card to get in. You have a long ride to the top, but when you get there you'll discover it's been worth the wait.

It was a weekend of familiar names at final tables in the major Sunday tournaments. From HelmetSky in Israel to FU_15 the United States, online poker players around the world had some big name players for whom to root. Perhaps the most well-known name was shaundeeb. Deeb, fresh off his strong PokerStars EPT Grand Final showing in Monte Carlo, took down this weekend's PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up, winning more than $100,000. You might remember, Deeb won last year's PokerStars Tournament Leader Board competition. The big winner of the weekend, however, was Austalia's PKerBL who won nearly $200,000 in the Sunday Million.

Full final table results are below. Congratulations to all the winners.

PokerStars Sunday Million Final Table Results

1. PKerBL (Australia) $193,339.20
2. AQUA RAIDER (Canada) $97,355.20
3. Snitch24 (Netherlands) $68,560.00
4. FeFranco (Brazil) $54,848.00
5. Ollowain (Germany) $41,136.00
6. jp4est (United States) $30,166.40
7. roniirani (New Zealand) $21,253.60
8. Talgamer13 (United States) $12,340.80
9. HelmetSky (Israel) $8,090.08

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up Final Table Results

1. shaundeeb (United States) $102,542.64
2. milldollbaby (Norway0 $52,135.60
3. Barlor (Germany) $34,515.44
4. PokerfaceJac (United Kingdom) $28,437.60
5. achenhausen (Norway) $22,861.60
6. MyHomeSVegaS (Hungary) $17,285.60
7. skanky980 (United States) $12,155.68
8. klask (Thailand) $7,694.88
9. REUVENG (United States) $4,460.80

PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand Final Table Results
1. Kurt_Jara (Austria) $18,474.39
2. phins1013 (United States) $9,237.20
3. oop64AA (Denmark) $6,401.22
4. BUDFU (United States) $4,578.09
5. HeadwoundHal (United States) $2,754.96
6. river_jackq (Spain) $1,843.39
7. *kAzz*_01 (Belgium) $1,478.77
8. ScooterPie01 (Germany) $1,195.17
9. Batera (United States) $911.57

PokerStars Sunday Second Chance Final Table Results
1. adamyor125 (United Kingdom) $46,823.40
2. pl4n-G (Germany) $34,684.00
3. Karma4477 (United States) $26,680.00
4. idolaf (Netherlands) $20,010.00
5. bambinus (Brazil) $14,007.00
6. SKUNK1xHAZE (United States) $11,339.00
7. grapedrink07 (United States) $8,671.00
8. Cre8ive (United States) $6,003.00


PokerStars Sunday $5,200 Freezeout Results

1. steamraise (United States) $100,000.00


PokerStars $215+R NLHE Final Table Results

1. FU_15 (United States) $48,400.00
2. FastEddie267 (United States) $33,220.00
3. firas71 (Brazil) $22,660.00
4. JOEYTHEB (United States) $17,600.00
5. LUHMAN (United States $13,200.00
6. manfred dahm (Germany) $10,340.00
7. AMAK316 (United States) $7,920.00
8. stevetAA (United States) $5,720.00
9. Dr Vanostrom (United States) $3,520.00

Playing poker takes more than a leather backside. Just about every square inch of your body and psyche needs to be tough as cow hide. Heck, sometimes we'd all take a suit of armor.

Iron Henry is not a PokerStars name anyone would have recognized a week ago. There was no real reason to. He hadn't been around for very long. He'd just recently moved to PokerStars.

"I wished to improve my game," he confided. "I usually play six-handed games because I rarely have the time to play big tournaments."

The 21-year old English major from the UK has dreams of being a writer. When he's not honing that craft or going to class, he plays poker. He likes tournaments, though, and plays when he can. It just so happened, he had some time last weekend.

And so, this past Sunday, Iron Henry decided to enter what amounted to a last chance satellite into the PokerStars Sunday Million. He won his seat and went to work. As morning broke on the UK, Iron Henry was sitting at the final table. What's more, he wasn't into a chop at first.

And then came the chorus of, "What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?"

The changing world of online poker allowed the world's virtual rail to note Iron Henry barely had an online tournament record of which to speak. Conspiracy theories abounded. Who was this masked man?

Turns out, he wasn't an evil genius. He wasn't a reincarnation of a former evil genius. He was just a guy who had recently moved to PokerStars, recently won a satellite into the Sunday Million, and now is $163,421.20 richer. After a heads-up deal, he won the big end of the prize pool.

Now, he plans to finish up his college career, move to Vegas, and use his winnings to help pay for the beginnings of a writing career.

So, for all the doubters out there: Iron Henry may not have been around long-enough to have a leather tail, but he's the real deal. Whether he is actually made of iron is something we'll have to determine at a later date.

No matter who you are, if you're a poker player, you're always looking for that big score. Everybody has different ways of finding it. Some players grind out their cash over a period of many years. Some players get it all in one big tournament.

PokerStars is now offering its players a chance to hit the big score in just a matter of hours.

After a successful trial in February, the PokerStars Turbo Takedown is returning as a permanent monthly fixture in the tournament schedule.

PokerStars players will only have to put up 5,000 Frequent Player Points for a shot at a first prize of $100,000 and a total prize pool of $1,000,000. If the last Turbo Takedown is any indication, it won’t take long to get to the money. Last time, the bubble burst less than two hours after the start of the tournament.

In February, top honors went to German PokerStars player mombasi, who won $200,000.

One interesting feeature of the Turbo Takedown is that it’s not all about the big win. It's also about making it a lot easier to win some real cash. PokerStars is paying out 4000 places and limiting the tournament to a maximum of 12,000 players. So, a minimum of one in every three players will cash.

The Turbo Takedown will take place on the last Sunday of every month at 14:30 ET, starting on May 25th. Satellites start from as little as 10 Frequent Player Points and are running around the clock.

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+) divisions.

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.

Week 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.