While most PokerStars fan's eyes today will be on Team PokerStars Pros Greg Raymer and Lex Veldhuis at the final table of the $40,000 NLHE WSOP Event #2, we have big things going down at home today with PokerStars' monthly promotions. First up was the final table of the monthly race for SnG kings and queens in the $50,000 Battle of the Planet triple shootout. 544 players cashed their weekly planet leaderboard tickets for a shot at multiple thousand dollar prizes waiting at the last leg. Everyone who won their first table received $195.00 but all their eyes were on the $12,000.00 first prize as the celestial monthly champion.

boahgerding got everyone into the money today, after taking down unfortunately bubble boy byron211 in 82nd place. A short-stacked byron211 called a push by boahgerding holding [3c][Kc], but the cards favored the aggressor as boahgerding flipped up [Ks][Jc] and the dominate hand held up on the [Ac] [6c] [9s] [9d] [4d] board to send 81 players into the second round of the triple shootout.

kenny05 wasted no time reaching the final table, claiming the first seat towards that $12,000.00 first prize today before any table was even three-handed. postpokerman stamped the second ticket to the final table after mailing home Timphan heads up. After sagitt50 secured the second to last seat, we were four-handed on Table 5 for the final chair to be filled and be assured $775.00 for making the final table.

In the final hand of Table 5, Supernova Jon9ball's short-stacked [9s][Qh] got caught by Ruthenia's slow played pocket aces [Ah][Ac] on the turn with the board showing [4d] [7d] [Ts] [Js]. Still holding an open-ended straight draw Jon9ball, had outs, but none materialized as the [Ad] on the river gave Ruthenia a set of aces and the last final table seat.

Seat 1: calmu1856
Seat 2: sonsonson33
Seat 3: sagitt50
Seat 4: kenny05
Seat 5: Ruthenia
Seat 6: solody
Seat 7: DNA2RNA
Seat 8: BornSurvivor
Seat 9: postpokerman

solody is back at the Battle of the Planets final table after snagging $2,735.00 for fifth place back in December 2007 (write up here) as all the players started off the final round with 1,500 chips and 10/20.

As the usual, the first round of blinds went by without incident, but in the 15/30 blind round sonsonson33 and postpokerman got their chips in the middle preflop in a KK vs. AA cooler with postpokerman's [Ad][Ac] holding up, crippling sonsonson33 down to 170 chips.

sonsonson33 looked to be assured the $775.00 prize for ninth place, but held on to those chips long enough to watch postpokerman take out sagitt50 instead. To start the hand, sagitt50 raised from middle position to 90 chips with [Kd][Jc], folding around to postpokerman in the big blind who elected to call. A flop of [8c] [Ks] [3s] got postpokerman to check as sagitt50 followed-through with a 210 chip bet. But, postpokerman wasn't done with the hand as an election to check-raise to 630 chips came out and sagitt50 decided to call. [6h] on the turn and postpokerman's chip leading stack went into the middle and again sagitt50 decided to call and see the bad news. The big slick [As][Kc] of postpokerman was well ahead with one to come, and with the [8d] on the river the $775.00 prize for ninth was sagitt50's.

sonsonson33 would survive ten more hands with a micro-stack, but became another postpokerman victim after having to put 1/3rd of that stack in the middle to pay the blinds. postpokerman would raise from the button to 150 chips with the blinds at 25/50 effectively putting sonsonson33 all-in and calling with [4s][9s]. sonsonson33 had two live cards against postpokerman's [Ts][Jc], sadly the board delivered no one even a pair as postpokerman's jack high was enough to ship sonsonson33 out in eighth place ($1,200.00).

During the same blind level, solody would grab a big chunk of postpokerman's chips when kings held up over postpokerman's queens shipping a 3,965 chip pot to solody as postpokerman slipped back to 2,825.

Supernova Elite kenny05 found some love on the river of this hand against BornSurvivor. Watch BornSurvivor lose the immunity challenge of crossing the river safely below:

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With the cracked aces BornSurvivor goes home today with seventh place ($1,700.00).

Action calmed down long enough for the blinds to raise to 50/100 as we saw off our sixth place finisher. calmu1856 was short-stacked with only 425 chips left in the small blind and tried to get a cheap flop by calling after folding around. Instead, kenny05 elected to put calmu1856 in for the rest of the small stack preflop by raising to 400. calmu1856 would call off the remainder of that small stack hoping for two live cards with [8s][Tc]. kenny05 however held a couple of pips higher showing [Jd][Ts] for the dominating hand. The flop of [Td] [Jc] [3c] would nearly seal calmu1856's fate, but the [4c] on the turn gave a little bit of life. Sadly, a black card that was not a club [4s] fell on the river and $2,200.00 was sent to calmu1856 in sixth place.

Another twenty or so hands went by without a subtraction until Ruthenia attempted to steal the blinds from the small blind with an open shove for 1,005 chips. But, solody was going nowhere with the ability to cover and holding [7d][Ac]. Ruthenia turned up a suited [Qc][3c] and watched the board rain down sevens like a Vegas slot machine. Two of them on the flop and one more on the river [8h] [7s] [7c] [3d] [7h] to give solody unnecessary quads and Ruthenia earned a well-deserved $2,735.00 in fifth place.

Flip and a flop. Sometimes you need wait until the turn for something to happen and luckily for kenny05, the turn card favored his [Qd][Ah] against the all-in preflop bet of DNA2RNA's pocket tens [Th][Td]. Watch DNA2RNA's final hand play out below:

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With the turned pair of aces, kenny05 eliminated DNA2RNA in fourth place ($3,350.00).

kenny05 would pick up a few more big pots and led at the only break of the final table. Here's how our remaining three stood:

Seat 4: kenny05 (7245 in chips)
Seat 6: solody (4225 in chips)
Seat 9: postpokerman (2030 in chips)

As the blinds moved up to 75/150, solody however would double thru kenny05 when both of them flopped two pair on the [Jd] [Kh] [Qs] [9h] [3h]. solody's [Kc][Jh] proved to be the winner over kenny05's [Qd][Js] as 9,050 was shipped away from kenny05's Philly's World Series championship ring. They would play on with preflop pushes being the norm as solody and kenny05 would tangle again in a blind vs. blind battle for kenny05's tournament life. [Ad][Jc] is a well-above average hand for a blind steal and kenny05 should have felt good about solody's call. But, after solody flipped up [As][Qs] and there was nothing to do but watch the [7c] [3h] [2d] [Th] [9c] board play out in solody's favor as the Supernova Elite left the ring with $4,500.00 and third place.

solody would start out heads-up play with the commanding chip lead shown below:

solody (11395 in chips)
postpokerman (2105 in chips)

But, seven hands into the match postpokerman would find a double up when [2s][As] held up over solody's [6d][7s] all-in preflop for a 3,860 chip pot. The two would continue battling it out with SilverStar postpokerman having to play defensively against the aggressive solody's chip lead.

postpokerman would try a 1st class bluff in the last hand of the tourney, and watch as solody takes the time to make the correct call below:

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Top pair so-so kicker for solody's [Tc][7h] held up against the middle pair [4d][Qd] on the board of [2c] [4s] [7s] [5c] [Js] and this month's champion improved on that December 5th place finish as much as you could with a victory here tonight earning $12,000.00 for the win.

For the runner-up, postpokerman, takes home $7,500.00 for a job well-done during this month's $50,000 Battle of the Planets SnG promotion run.

May 2009 $50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout (05-31-09)
1. solody (Rennes) $12,000.00
2. postpokerman (Sheboygan) $7,500.00
3. kenny05 (Philadelphia) $4,500.00
4. DNA2RNA (Las Vegas) $3,350.00
5. Ruthenia (Severodvinsk) $2,735.00
6. calmu1856 (yucaipa) $2,200.00
7. BornSurvivor (Belfast) $1,700.00
8. sonsonson33 (Lauterbourg) $1,200.00
9. sagitt50 (New Cumberland) $775.00