Recently in PokerStars Battle of the Planets Category

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:

maccamona broke the 600 barrier while winning the Mars ($3-$4.99) division for the $300 prize money.

zarfan posted the second highest all-time block for the Neptune division with a 538. The score was good for a $900 reward.

DDBeast and rivermanl recorded the first tie for first place in the Jupiter Division, both registering scores of 414. They split the prize money for first and second, which was worth $1375 each.

The big stories of the week, though, were found in the High Orbit Leader Boards.

The master of Mercury, AKTexaspoker, again showed his success has been no fluke. He recorded another top ten finishm this past week. His 1665 total was good enough for fifth in the rankings and another $60. Not bad considering the buy-ins at that level do not exceed $2.99.

Both the Neptune and Uranus Divisions saw record winning scores this past week. JimPanse54 comfortably won the Neptune division and its $900 prize . His score of 1737 was 144 points ahead of the nearest rival. BongBob earned $1000 for his new benchmark of 1663 points, squeezing just three points ahead of the previous Uranus High Orbit record.

The real star of the week, though, was in the Earth Division. This week, cappla011 managed the incredible feat of retaining the High Orbit crown with his second consecutive week of achieving an 1800+ score. So for two weeks in a row, cappla011 has received $700 and a ticket to the Battle of the Planets for his efforts.

With another two weeks to go, the May Battle of the Planets contest still has a long way to go. Check back next week for another update on how the interplanetary fight is going.

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+) 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.

The stars of the Sit & Go community aligned for the inaugural Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout on Sunday.

To gain entry to this prestigious tournament, a player had to finish in the top ten of one of the Battle of the Planets Leader Boards. That’s no easy feat when you consider the number of players competing for places.

With so much on the line, no additional incentives were needed to make a run for the finish. Nonetheless, there was one. With only two weeks of qualifiers in April’s Battle of the Planets, there were half as many participants as might normally be expected. So each player had only a handful of players between them and a share of the $50,000.

This past weekend, 220 worthy Sit & Go warriors took their seats. The last player standing could justifiably claim, if just for one month, to be the finest online single-table tournament player in the world.

The low number of players meant that this tournament would play out a little differently than a regular triple shootout. The players were split out over 81 tables for the first round of play, with only 2 or 3 players per table. It was a test of the competitors' ability in a short-handed format.

Once the 81 tables had each played to a winner, the remaining players were re-seated at nine nine-handed tables. Only the winner of each table would continue to the final and a shot at the big money. The rest would receive $195 and a place on the rail.

Once the final nine combatants were decided, it lined up like this:

AngryFish (Neptune Division)
BighandLeo (Mercury Division)
ienjoymoney (Saturn Division)
QofPoker86 (Saturn Division)
ryanghall (Saturn Division)
The Kapper (Neptune Division)
throwinphins (Saturn Division)
VR4Poker (Mercury Division)
woosewoo (Jupiter Division)

The nine players represented just four of the eight planet divisions. Saturn provided the bulk with four of the players. There were two each from Neptune and Mercury, and the final player had come from the biggest division--Jupiter.

The stage was set for the low stakes players to cause an upset, but it wasn’t to be. Bighandleo and VR4Poker, the Mercury contingent, managed 9th and 6th respectively.

Likewise, Jupiter and Neptune were swept aside by the torrent of talent representing the Saturn division, which accounted for four of the final five players.

When AngryFish was eliminated in 3rd place, it came down to ‘ryanghall’ and ‘throwinphins’ to decide who would be crowned champion.

After a deal was quickly agreed between the two players, they set about the fight for pride and glory. After short heads-up skirmish, it was ‘ryanghall’ who would claim them. The full final table results were as follows:

1. ryanghall $10,139*
2. throwinphins $9,360*
3. AngryFish $4,500
4. QofPoker86 $3,350
5. ienjoymoney $2,735
6. VR4Poker $2,200
7. The Kapper $1,700
8. woosewoo $1,200
9. BighandLeo $775

*Based on a two-way deal.

PokerStars players have decided they love Battle of the Planets. That seems pretty clear based on the fact people were playing in the high orbit by the time I woke up Sunday morning. Now, PokerStars is giving its players even more incentive to get in the game.

To celebrate the launch of the Battle of the Planets SNG Leader Boards, PokerStars is offering a 20% reload bonus. If you make a deposit between 12:00 pm ET, April 8, and 23:59 pm ET, April 16, with the bonus code 'BOP', the bonus will be applied to your account.

The Battle of the Planets awards more than $50,000 in prize money every week. Your share is out there. Now you have more money to work toward your claim.

PokerStars players have always controlled the stars. Now it's time for a Battle of the Planets.

PokerStars has just introduced its first SNG Tournament Leader Board. Battle of the Planets is a weekly competition that promises to pay out more than $3 million a year to SNG players.

Whether you play $2 games or $500 tournaments, the Battle of the Planets has a competition for you. All PokerStars players will be able to compete in eight different planetary divisions from Mercury to Jupiter (sorry, Pluto!) for SNG tournament leader board prize pools ranging from $3,000 to $10,000.

One of the greatest things about the new SNG TLB is that it gives both casual and high-volume players a shot at winning. PokerStars has divised Low Orbit and High Orbit comeptitions. Low Orbit competitors will compete in blocks of 20 SNGs at a time, while High Orbit players will fight it out in 100-game blocks. The monthly prize pools are divided equally between the two Orbits.

If you do well in the Battle, you will have a chance to fight in the war. Players who finish in the top ten spots of any of the planetary divisions will move on to the monthly $50,000 triple shootout.

The competition runs from Sunday to Saturday. For complete information, visit the PokerStars Battle of the Planets web page.