Over 600 SnG players (602 to be exact) from all walks of bankrolls gathered here at PokerStars this Sunday for the monthly running of the Battle of the Planets $50,000 triple shootout freeroll. One such SnG player has been featured on the PokerStarsBlog page for his epic quest to turn $5 into $100,000 in just 12 months. Boku87 is playing today looking to add a couple of bucks to his $18,700 bankroll (last announced on August 19th) in his latest blog entry (click here for Boku's PokerStarsBlog update). My head was spinning on the sheer volume of SnGs this 2007 Supernova Elite plays after seeing this quote:

I'm sure that's normal for most of our competitors at the Battle of the Planets freeroll, but for this scribe racking up 100 SnGs played in a week would be an accomplishment, not to mention a likely destruction to my McDonald's happy meal sized bankroll.

On the path to our final nine today:

The Brain067 devised a scheme big enough to conquer unfortunate bubble boy nicosia2008 while all-in with Q8o against nicosia2008's pocket kings there was an eight on the flop and a queen on the turn to continue the battle. Over ten hands later it was The Brain067's turn to show the dominate hand as nicosia2008 was all-in preflop holding [Qd][9s] to The Brain067's [Ah][9c]. Both players would pair their top cards on the [8s] [Ad] [Qh] [2d] [Kd] board as The Brain067 advanced into the round of 81 assuring a $195.00 payday as nicosia2008 would head back to the SnG tab to work on a Battle of the Planets ticket for next month.

Boku87's run towards a leap in the $5 to $100,000 challenge with a final table finish ended in the second leg of the double shootout after getting his money in good twice in a row, it wasn't meant to be. The [Ts][8s] of sippin_criss found a pair on the [9d] [8h] [3c] [6h] [6d] board to overcome boku87's [Kd][Qd] all-in preflop to finish 6th at the table and 39th overall addding $195.00 for the bankroll challenge.

Down to the last seat, it was jersey716 versus patsaiyan out on table seven knotting up for a heads-up battle that would last well into the 150/300 ante 25 blind level. A few hands after patsaiyan regained the lead after slowplaying pocket queens and grinding down jersey716 with frequent preflop raises, patsaiyan would call jersey716's preflop shove for 2045 with [Th][Kd]. jersey716 was hoping for live cards with [Kh][4c] but was completed dominated going into the [5h] [8s] [3s] [3h] [7d] that saw nary a four and showed jersey716 to the door as the final table bubble boy earning $195.00 to set up the final table shown below:

VIP GoldStar neckbr4ke was the only one to crack the 2K mark in chips during the opening 10/20 blind level thanks to a position re-raise of patsaiyan's opening raise, and following through after patsaiyan called to see the [Js] [9h] [3d] flop but didn't care to call the 300 chip bet from neckbr4ke.

The NotoriousVic was not able to get off to a good start already down to 705 chips in the 15/30 blind level. After limping in UTG with pocket jacks [Jc][Jh] and seeing patsaiyan on the immediate raise to 150 chips a good decision to grab a much needed double-up with a three-bet shove was made. patsaiyan held a suited big slick [Kd][Ad] for the coin flip and both watched the spades rain down on the [2s][Qs][Ts] flop. NotoriousVic was looking good to take the 1,455 chip pot when the [9c] hit the turn, but the [As] on the river eeked out the win for patsaiyan as NotoriousVic would head back to the recording studio with $775.00 in ninth place.

The 25/50 blind level saw little to no action as no pots crested the 500 chip mark but VIP GoldStar starbob2 and Draughts sat with less than a thousand chips while neckbr4ke and patsaiyan enjoyed the top of the leaderboard with 2,710 and 2,290 chips respectively.

starbob2 would attempt to get back into the game in the 50/100 blind level by open shoving big slick [Ad][Kh] for 1,189 chips and getting called by Ako21 sitting in the big blind with pocket nines [9h][9d]. Unfortunately, starbob2 would not see a card over an eight on the [2s] [4c] [2h] [5c] [8s] board as Ako21's nine's were victorious for the 2,428 chip pot and $1,200.00 went out to starbob2 in eighth place.

Going into the five minute break before the 75/150 blind level here's how the chips stacked up:

Seat 2: Draughts (520 in chips)
Seat 3: Good Shuffle (1060 in chips)
Seat 4: Ako21 (2784 in chips)
Seat 5: A.Vaksman (1960 in chips)
Seat 7: patsaiyan (2560 in chips)
Seat 8: neckbr4ke (2135 in chips)
Seat 9: voodduu (2481 in chips)

Draughts would hang on to those 520 chips long enough to see two more eliminations at the hand of patsaiyan. First it was a coin flip between the short stacked Good Shuffle's pocket sevens against patsaiyan's [As][Qd]. The queen on the flop would hold up thru the [8d] [Qc] [6s] [4h] [3h] as Good Shuffle was riffled out of the tournament in seventh place ($1,700.00). Then three hands later Ako21 took aim at the hot patsaiyan after pushing for 2,034 from UTG, watch below for the results:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Bart Simpon's (Ako21) pocket eights [8c][8d] were no match for the pocket ladies [Qh][Qs] of patsaiyan as the chip leader's stack grew to 6,179 nearly triple the amount of second place A. Vaksman. Ako21 underachiever icon overachieved today earning $2,200.00 in sixth place.

The cards continued their fast and furious pace as the micro-stacked Draughts finally met the end two hands after Ako21's departure. With only 295 chips, Draughts would raise all-in on the button with [Ks][Td] and was looking good against the mega stacked patsaiyan's [7h][5d]. A five on the door of the flop said this is not your day to Draughts (who's name made this author very thirsty with every mention) as the board ran out [5s] [Js] [8h] [Ad] [8d] awarding the short stack ninja an extra thousand after finishing in fifth place ($2,735.00) instead of seventh.

voodduu said, "run good one time"

I'd say after watching the below hand is the definition of running good.

RSS readers click through to see replay

With the rivered quad twos against the pocket queens of A. Vaksman, voodduu took the 4,287 chip pot. Then on the very hand with those 4,287 chips, voodduu was able to eliminate both neckbr4ke and A. Vaksman in the same hand. A. Vaksman down to a little over a thousand chips raised to 1,050 from UTG as neckbr4ke went over the top all-in for 2,060 and voodduu made the call in the big blind covering both of their bets:

A. Vaksman [Ac][Tc]
neckbr4ke [Qc][Qh]
voodduu [As][Kh]

Again voodduu went up against pocket queens and won as the first card out of the chute paired the king and held up on the [Kd] [6d] [7h] [5d] [2d] board to eliminate A. Vaksman in fourth place (due to chip count at the beginning of the hand) who earned $3,350.00 and neckbr4ke was awarded third place ($4,500.00) as the 5,249 chip pot slid voodduu's way to set up the heads-up battle with patsaiyan.

Seat 7: patsaiyan (6024 in chips)
Seat 9: voodduu (7476 in chips)

voodduu enjoyed a slight chip lead on patsaiyan as the two would start off with 75/150 blinds but after just ten hands of heads-up play they would get their chips into the middle preflop in the hand below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

This time voodduu had the big pocket pair, but the kings [Kc] [Kh] did not hold up against the [7c][As] of patsaiyan after the flopped ace on the [3d] [Ac] [4h] [3h] [7d] board.

voodduu was left with just 1,774 chips and blinds at 100/200 after the 11,726 chip pot went to patsaiyan. The new leader would muscle with those chips taking the next three pots preflop. voodduu left with just 1,374 chips would shove holding after seeing a flop of [8s][Td][9h] exposing a gutshot straight draw to patsaiyan looking down at [Jc][8d] making the easy call considering the chip position with a pair and an open ended straight draw. The straight would fill in on the [Qs] turn, but no two outer jack came on the river for the split as the [6s] fell instead giving voodduu second place ($7,500.00).

After avoiding the evil spells of voodduu, patsaiyan took the perch on top of this month's Battle of the Planets $50,000 triple shootout earning the full $12,000.00 in the process!

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Freeroll Results (08-30-09)
1. patsaiyan (Ridderkerk) $12,000.00
2. voodduu (wien) $7,500.00
3. neckbr4ke (Greifswald) $4,500.00
4. A.Vaksman (Brooklyn) $3,350.00
5. Draughts (Goleta) $2,735.00
6. Ako21 (wehr (baden)) $2,200.00
7. Good Shuffle (Harbour Breton) $1,700.00
8. starbob2 (SURESNES) $1,200.00
9. NotoriousVic (Pomona) $775.00

SnG kings, queens, princes, princesses, and court jesters found their way into this month's $50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout freeroll. 572 SnG royalty grabbed their tickets to the freeroll ball in attempt to make way with the $12,000 sitting on the throne for one lucky player.

The 81 survivors of the first table duels would walk away with at least $195.00 as the money progressively got larger for the final table shown below:

1. $12,000.00
2. $7,500.00
3. $4,500.00
4. $3,350.00
5. $2,735.00
6. $2,200.00
7. $1,700.00
8. $1,200.00
9. $775.00

MBacke and Rush_Clasic were holding onto the last ticket for the third leg of the triple shootout with MBacke holding a 3:1 lead while heads-up. MBacke would raise from the button to 900 with 150/300 ante 25 blinds, as Rush_Clasic came back with a stack committing 3-bet to 2,100 total leaving only 1,641 chips behind. After a short deliberation, MBacke forced Rush_Clasic into putting in the other 1,641 after shoving with [Ac][Jd]. Rush_Clasic made the call finding [Ad][4c] well behind and nearly drawing dead when the flop came out [5d] [Jc] [Ts]. Some life came on the turned [2h] giving Rush_Clasic an inside straight draw, but the [9h] on the river awarded the 9th ticket to the final table to MBacke as Rush_Clasic was forced to bow out as today's bubble boy in 10th place ($195.00).

Seat 1: gabo2584 (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: Monio81 (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: Latuz (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: rob456 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: Gazki (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: mdk2all (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: TdyKGB2 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: MBacke (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: GOLDSMITH (1500 in chips)

As with all triple shootouts, the final table starts with a clean slate as players line up their 1,500 newly minted chips against the rolled back 10/20 blinds in search for the magical 13,500 chip total to become this month's Battle of the Planets champion.

The starting blinds had no incident or causalities but two hands into the 15/30 level GOLDSMITH found pocket queens [Qs][Qh] in the small blind and opened for three times the big blind. gabo2584 had been very active winning the last three of pots made the call to see an all-black (or all green if you enjoy the 4-suit color option) flop of [7c] [9c] [5c]. GOLDSMITH followed thru with a 120 chip bet as gabo2584 made the call. [3d] on the turn and GOLDSMITH again led out, this time for 150 but gabo2584 bounced on that bet by re-raising all-in for 1,645 chips. GOLDSMITH would call and find the ladies looking very limp as gabo2584 rolled over [6s][8h] for the flopped straight. Lacking a club, GOLDSMITH was assured $775.00 in ninth place regardless of the river.

After losing an all-in preflop battle to mdk2all, Gazki used the 245 chips left over to build back up to over one thousand chips by the end of the 15/30 level thanks to winning four out of five hands in a row as the blinds increased to 25/50 with eight players still remaining.

gabo2584 retained the chip lead with Latuz and mdk2all hovering slightly above the starting chip stacks.

As we moved into the 50/100 blind level Gazki felt the crunch of the blinds against the micro stack but was fortunate enough to find a pocket pair of eights [8s][8d] on the button and pushed for 340 chips. TdyKGB2 would make the call from the big blind as would a limping gabo2584 from early position. Neither player bet the [Td] [Js] [Qd] flop, but when gabo2584 led out for the minimum on the [2c] turn TdyKGB2 got out of the way and exposed a flopped pair of queens [Kd][Qh]. Gazki needed one of two eights since a nine would give gabo2584 a higher straight, and the [Ts] river did not deliver as Gazki took home eight place ($1,200.00).

mdk2all took a big hit when pocket aces [Ah][Ad] got cracked by MBacke's pocket queens [Qh][Qd] when MBacke would find a third lady sitting in the middle of the [Jh] [Qc] [Td]. The re-suck did not produce through the [5d] turn nor [3d] river and mdk2all was left with 215 chips after the 2,860 chip pot went to MBacke's set of queens. mdk2all would survive one all-in the next hand, but pocket treys [3c][3d] in the following hand would not hold up against TdyKGB2's [Ks][Jh] that flopped trip kings to send the skull and crossbones $1,700.00 in seventh place.

Latuz would drive into the magical run of big stacked gabo2584 in the following hand:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The rivered flush of gabo2584 coolered the rivered straight of Latuz as 3,210 chips found their way into the chip leader's stack and Latuz took leave in sixth place ($2,200.00).

With the blinds at 75/150, TdyKGB2 would take down shortstacked rob456 in fifth place when a button shove by rob456 holding a suited ace [2s][As] missed all flushes/straights/aces against TdyKGB2 holding pocket tens [Ts][Td] in the small blind. It would be TdyKGB2 taking the 1,700 chip pot while hitting the four card straight on the [6s] [8d] [9h] [Jc] [Qd] board as rob456 would have to settle for fifth place ($2,735.00) today.

"Quiet" Monio81 would wake up in the following hand as TdyKGB2 took pocket nines [9h][9s] all-in preflop and the snoozing Monio81 would make the call. Watch the coin flip play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

A safe flop, but a disappointing turn for TdyKGB2's nines on the [2d] [3c] [Tc] [Qd] [Ts] board as Monio81 took down the 2,950 chip pot with the pair of queens showing Mike McD's nemesis to the door in fourth place ($3,350.00).

MBacke and Monio81 would change chip positions in the 100/200 blind level when MBacke found pocket aces [Ah][Ac] to use against Monio81's [As][Js] in a 3,190 chip pot that doubled up MBacke and left Monio81 with 1,795 chips. Five hands later it was Monio81 finding his chip stack in the middle preflop dominated once again, this time against gabo2584. [Ac][5c] for Monio81 was well behind the [8h][As] of gabo2584 but was looking good for a chop when the flop came out [9s] [Kd] [9d]. Chop dreams were dashed on the [8s] turn leaving Monio81 drawing dead and counting the $4,500.00 third place money.

Blinds holding at 100/200 for the start of the heads-up battle for the $12,000.00 first prize it was gabo2584 enjoying a sizable lead over Mbacke:

Seat 1: gabo2584 (10710 in chips)
Seat 8: MBacke (2790 in chips)

The two would entwine into a back and forth spreading of the chips as Mbacke would double up in the third hand up heads-up play catching a flopped king with [4d][Kc] to outrun the [5d][As] of gabo2584 for a big 6,180 chip pot. gabo2584 would grab the lead back four hands later skillfully value betting a turned full house and making off with a 5,200 chip pot pushing the chip position back to the start of heads-up play.

A brief discussion of chopping came about during the 150/300 ante 25 level, and as the chips swung back to an even score the players agreed to a 50-50 chop of the remaining prize pool

gabo2584: $9,750.00
MBacke: $9,750.00

But since the game needs an absolute winner, the two players shoved their chips gleefully into the middle knowing they could not earn another free cent, and it was gabo2584 winning two all-ins in a row to take home this month's Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout victory!

Be sure to get a head start on qualifying for next month's freeroll by playing your favorite SnG's today!

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Freeroll (07-26-09)
(* part of two-way chop)
1. gabo2584 (san pedro de jujuy) $9,750.00
2. MBacke (Drammen) $9,750.00
3. Monio81 (Plovdiv) $4,500.00
4. TdyKGB2 (Atlanta) $3,350.00
5. rob456 (Sydney) $2,735.00
6. Latuz (Torshälla) $2,200.00
7. mdk2all (Gainesville) $1,700.00
8. Gazki (OSLO) $1,200.00
9. GOLDSMITH (clay) $775.00

No man or woman left their freeroll tickets behind today as 673 players cashed in their freeroll tickets for today's Battle of the Planets $50,000 triple shootout. As compared to last month's much smaller 466 player field, these players today still had the same walls of two sit and go's to reach the final table in the quest for the $12,000.00 first place prize.

With three tables left the players got a quick five minute break, themisas, PlayaPlz, MG2003, benchballa17, Shankar825, and jabon1 sat quietly at the final table awaiting the arrival of the final three. Supernova Remko26 was the first to claim one of those seats by outkicking 1kim1 with [Qh][9d] versus [8h][9h] and the board was gracious enough to hold. Next, DaveDiscount eeked out a river blue light special hitting trips on the river with [Ks][6d] versus En3migo's pocket sevens [7d][7s] for the second to last seat.

All eyes moves to Table 6 for the heads-up battle between two GoldStars: futuring88 and Emilbbs. Pocket ladies for Emilbbs [Qd][Qh] would take out futuring88 as they both got their remaining chips in preflop and the board ran out [2h] [3c] [Kd] [As] [5d] to knock out futuring88 as tonight's official bubble boy in 10th place ($195.00) and set up the final table below:

Seat 1: themisas (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: PlayaPlz (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: MG2003 (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: Remko26 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: benchballa17 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Emilbbs (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: Shankar825 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: jabon1 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: DaveDiscount (1500 in chips)

As the last leg of the triple shootout, everyone started off with 1,500 chips and blinds rolled back to 10/20.

Normally it takes a few rounds to see our first elimination, but not today as the fifth hand played between jabon1 and benchballa17 saw our ninth player finisher hit the road. benchballa17 would come in for 80 chips from the cutoff as both Shankar825 and jabon1 would call the raise from the blinds. Both blinds checked the [5d] [8c] [7h] flop as benchballa17 followed-through for a 150 chip bet. Shankar825 folded by jabon1 check-raised to 400. benchballa17 wasn't detoured by the raise and three-bet all-in to 1,390 as jabon1 quickly called with [7s][8s] for top two. benchballa17 rolled over [6d][8d] for top pair and an open ended straight draw. [4c] on the turn nailed the straight draw leaving jabon1 with four outs to a boat or a board straight for a chop. The [Ac] river did not provide and jabon1's final table experience ended quickly in ninth place ($775.00).

No other eliminations took place in the 10/20 blind level as benchballa17 retained the chip lead into the 15/30 blinds level with over 3,000 chips as no one was over the 2,000 mark.

Ditto for the 15/30 blind level, as no one was eliminated yet benchballa17 increased the chip lead to 3,800 chips while only MG2003 enjoyed a stack higher than the 1,500 everyone started with, holding 1,800 chips.

benchballa17's run would stutter a bit while doubling up DaveDiscount who slowplayed a flopped set to perfection and collected a 2,337 chip pot while doubling up against the chip leader in the 25/50 blind level. This was the only major action from the blind level as we moved into the 50/100 level with eight remaining players with benchballa17, DaveDiscount, and themisas holding the only stacks above the starting clip.

Supernova Remko26 made a move early in the 50/100 level holding just 435 chips and doubling up off MG2003 as the big slick [Ks][Ah] for Remko26 turned a pair of kings against MG2003's pocket treys [3h][3c] on the [Js] [Jh] [6c] [Kh] [Tc] board. The 1,020 chip pot for Remko26 knocked MG2003 down to 780 chips. The comeback would be cut short several hands later by benchballa17 as Remko26 pushed all in for 720 chips from the button with pocket nines [9c][9s] and couldn't get past the [Ah][Tc] of benchballa17 in the small blind when benchballa17 flopped a pair of tens on the [6h] [Th] [Jd] [Jh] [7c] board. $1,200.00 was shipped to the VIP Supernova in eighth place.

Low on chips while still in the 50/100 blind level, MG2003 tried collect the blinds with a 600 chip raise holding [Kh][Jh] in middle position but found a caller in Shankar825 in the cutoff. After the flop came down [6h] [Td] [Ad], MG2003 would push in the 110 chips and Shankar825 made the easy call holding [Qc][Ac]. Shankar825's pair of aces would hold thru the [6s] turn and [3s] river to send MG2003 $1,700.00 in seventh place.

As the players took a break after level 5 with 75/150 blinds here's how the remaining six stacked up:

Seat 1: themisas (2115 in chips)
Seat 2: PlayaPlz (1141 in chips)
Seat 5: benchballa17 (3259 in chips)
Seat 6: Emilbbs (1690 in chips)
Seat 7: Shankar825 (2283 in chips)
Seat 9: DaveDiscount (3012 in chips)

Shortly after the break with blinds still at 75/150, PlayaPlz would shove for 1,366 chips UTG+1 with [Jc][Ah]. But, Emillbbs made the second easiest call in no limit hold em holding pocket kings [Kc][Kh] on the button. The [4s] [Qs] [Jh] [6c] [4c] board couldn't produce an ace nor a straight as PlayPlz added $2,200.00 to the $47,250.00 won in the $1,575 buy-in 2009 SCOOP NLHE heads-up Event #10 tourney making it to the semifinals (see PokerStarsBlog's SCOOP write-up here).

Once PlayaPlz exited the tournament table, the remaining five players sat down to discuss a deal to divvy up the remaining five spots in the prize pool. After some technical difficulties Shankar825 turned down the chip chop deal and play resumed with 100/200 blinds...

... for about three hands then Shankar825 had a change of heart and all the players accepted the following deal:

Shankar825: $4,871.95
benchballa17: $6,240.66
themisas: $5,579.40
DaveDiscount: $6,122.75
Emilbbs: $7,270.24

With the deal in place for all the money, everyone hopped into the pool and shoved until DaveDiscount walked away victorious as the official June $50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout champion.

Congratulations to all our players and their five way chop for first!

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Results (06-28-09)
(*based on five way chop)
1. DaveDiscount (Graham) $6,122.75
2. Shankar825 (Commack) $4,871.95
3. Emilbbs (Vanløse) $7,270.24
4. themisas (Ourem) $5,579.40
5. benchballa17 (Dublin) $6,240.66
6. PlayaPlz (Chicago) $2,200.00
7. MG2003 (Northridge) $1,700.00
8. Remko26 (Almere) $1,200.00
9. jabon1 (sydney) $775.00

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

Before the 466 players lined up for this month's $50,000 PokerStars Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout freeroll, many of them snacked on the weekly prizes for this promotion that has awarded over three million dollars to our Sit and Go regulars over the past year. For example: the top weekly score in the Mercury ($1-$2.99 buy-in) division received $150.00 as the low orbit leader (block of 20 SnGs) and the high orbit (block of 100 SnG) received the same. In fact, all you had to do was finish in the top 100 of either division for a monetary award. But, to get a ticket to this tourney and a shot at the $12,000.00 first prize you had to finish in the top ten of the planet's weekly leaderboard.

Here's how we arrived at the third leg of the triple shootout with our final nine:

The "Black See" parted ways as the official bubble boy in 82nd place when his short stacked [Ad] [Jc] couldn't quite pass by the [6c] [Qc] of zivbaryosef on the [2d] [Ts] [7c] [Qd] [4h] board. The remaining 81 players spread out onto nine new tables and lined their pockets with at least $195.00 as the quest towards our final nine continued on.

Supernova Elite rivermanl was the first to stake a claim at a final table seat when his [3d] [Ks] managed to slide by the [Kc] [Td] of Mudex Veg when a timely [3h] hit the river. rivermanl was followed closely by PrettayGood who won his table when Table 8 still had seven players left!

BigUnit2 and BUAITEOIR1 locked up into heads-up battle out on Table number four for the last seat to the final table getting up to the 150/300 ante 25 blind level. It would take a rivered set of sevens, but BUAITEOIR1 was victorious in sending home BigUnit2 with $195.00 setting up our final nine below:

Seat 1: PrettayGood (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: rivermanl (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: duvvard72 (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: BUAITEOIR1 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: gametymer (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: LuckyladyO (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: nederen_dk (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: AA_$mokin (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: MrBIond (1500 in chips)

The players traded some small pots during the 10/20 and 15/30 blind level as everyone started off with 1,500 chips, but no one took an early ticket home. nederen_dk and PrettayGood took a minor chip lead on the field, but the table lacked a clear chip bully as no one cracked the 2,000 chip mark during the starting two rounds.

BUAITEOIR1 and AA_$mokin would get their smaller stacks into the middle in the last hand of the 25/50 blind level. Pocket jacks [Jc] [Jd] for AA_$mokin and pocket kings [Ks][Kd] for BUAITEOIR1, an all-under board of [9d] [8d] [3h] [Td] [6s] gave BUAITEOIR1 a near starting stack with the 1,495 chip pot and AA_$mokin dipped to 830 chips.

The start of the 50/100 blind level woke up the players as we had four all-ins in the first seven hands. One of those involved rivermanl would was proudly displaying his Supernova Elite stars, but he was short stacked with 995 chips holding [9s] [9h] on the button facing a 300 chip raise from nederen_dk. "All-in" was the response and a call from nederen_dk holding [Qs][Ah] gathered up the 2,140 chip pot. A flopped queen [4s] [Qd] [5s] put nederen_dk in position to strengthen his chip lead. [4c] on the turn left rivermanl looking for another lucky river, but instead got the [8d] and the $775.00 that comes with ninth place.

The next hand AA_$mokin and PrettayGood would chop up their all-in hand with both holding big slick to no avail.

After duvvard72 took down the blinds on the very next hand, AA_$mokin was back at it getting his 1,055 chips into the middle preflop with pocket fives [5h][5d] from UTG. Folded around to gametymer who also pushed a similar stack holding a suited Mrs. slick [Qs][As] on the button. Unfortunately for AA_$mokin AA hit the flop as the final board had nothing but broadway cards [Ad] [Ah] [Kc] [Jc] [Jd] as AA_$mokin flamed out in eighth place ($1,200.00).

gametymer wasn't done there as on the very next hand, watch his pocket rockets go to work against duuvard72 below:

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The aces would hold and duvvard72 would receive $1,700.00 for his seventh place effort.

gametymer would give the table a ten hand reprieve but went back to work holding pocket tens [Th] [Ts] in the small blind while still in the 50/100 blind level and open-raising it to 300. LuckyladyO perhaps thought it was a blind steal but with only 1,130 chips left it was a decent risk to push with [Jd] [9d]. gametymer would make the call and only when gametymer turned a set on the [7c] [3s] [Qd] [Td] board did it get interesting. Holding an open-ended straight flush draw, LuckyladyO still needed to get lucky on the river. Instead the tepid [2c] hit, and LuckyladyO acquired $2,200.00 for a sixth place finish.

BUAITEOIR1 would double up off MrBlond, and get up to a double stack. But MrBlond would fight back taking down four of the next five hands preflop. His streak would end a few hands later when he flipped his [Kc] [Jc] against similarly stacked PrettayGood's [4d] [Ac] for a 1,855 chip pot. The flip favored the New Yorker PrettayGood, as the board showed [5d] [6d] [6h] [Qc] [As] leaving MrBlond with just 420 chips. With blinds at 75/150 the scraps would go in against gametymer and BUIAITEOIR1. MrBlond couldn't connect with [Ks] [4s] as gametymer would claim the small pot and another player at the final table sending fifth place money ($2,735.00) to MrBlond.

nederen_dk got really quiet after starting off hot on this final table, but was eventually extinguished by PrettayGood. A blind versus blind battle started with nederen_dk attempting to snag the blinds, shoving [7c] [Qc] into PrettayGood. Big slick [Ac] [Kh] is a prettay good hand and on a [Tc] [As] [5h] [8h] [2c] board its worth 3,850 prettay good chips. nederen_dk was left with zero tournament chips but immediately got $3,350.00 real cash for his fourth place finish.

gametymer would run into some hard luck as he would double up BUAITEOIR1 who turned a straight. Then, gametymer called PrettayGood's push and gave up another 2,405 chips when the pocket aces [Ac] [Ad] of PrettayGood held up versus gametymer's [3d] [Ah]. Four hands later gametymer would give up the majority of chips on this hand against BUAITEOIR1:

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Now short-stacked, gametymer would last just three hands further as his [Jc] [4c] couldn't beat out PrettayGood's [6s] [As]. Third place probably wasn't gametymer's thoughts holding that big chip lead, but $4,500.00 can help people forget.

We would start heads-up play with 100/200 blinds and the chip counts fairly even:

Seat 1: PrettayGood (5900 in chips)
Seat 4: BUAITEOIR1 (7600 in chips)

BUAITEOIR1 would take a good sized lead after showing down two pair and value betting his way to a 5,350 chip pot to take a nearly 5:1 chip lead.

PrettayGood would battle back however catching a little luck on this hand to knot things up:

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After see-saw battle between the two that would get them all the way to the 200/400 ante 50 blind level we had our champion. PrettayGood would come into the hand with a 8,975 to 4,525 chip lead and after calling from the button the two remaining players would see a flop of [3h] [Td] [3c]. BUAITEOIR1 would lead off betting 650 chips and getting a quick call from PrettayGood. [8c] on the turn and BUAITEOIR1 slowed down to check, as PrettayGood set out a 1,640 chip bet. So much for slowing down, as BUAITEOIR1 check-raised to 3,425 total. Holding the flopped trips [3s] [Qc] PrettayGood made the call and BUAITEOIR1's top pair [Th] [5c] was down to two tens on the river.

[9h] was not the two-outer BUAITEOIR1 was looking for as the runner-up money of $7,500.00 was his. To our April 2009 Battle of the Planets champion, PrettayGood, got a prettay good bankroll jump as the full $12,000.00 was shipped for winning tonight.

Congratulations to all of our participants and see you next month!

April 2009 Battle of the Planets Results
1. PrettayGood (New York) $12,000.00
2. BUAITEOIR1 (Letterkenny) $7,500.00
3. gametymer (Miami) $4,500.00
4. nederen_dk (Aarhus C) $3,350.00
5. MrBlond (Sheffield) $2,735.00
6. LuckyladyO (St. Petersburg) $2,200.00
7. duvvard72 (Duluth) $1,700.00
8. AA_$mokin (Kitchener) $1,200.00
9. rivermanl (Amsterdam) $775.00

Word must have gotten out to qualifiers of the monthly Battle of the Planets freeroll. Last month saw 442 qualifiers cash in their freeroll tickets for a chance at the $12,000.00 first prize. This month 536 players started the day at the first table of this triple shootout with the 1,500 chips in front them with hopes on collecting all of the table's chips and 81 players to reached the money ($195.00).

After about three hours of play (or less if you're savvy enough to eliminate all of your table's opponents before dinner time) the nine remaining SnG rounders competed for the biggest slice of the Battle of Planets $50,000 total prize pool. Eight players walked away today with at least four figures, and one will get the aforementioned twelve grand to help boost their buy-in level while they multi-table SnGs like Boku87 (story from Pokerstarsblog with video here) who took $100 and turned it into $10,000 by 51 tabling low level SnGs here at PokerStars.

Ok, maybe only 20 or 30 at a time, as I tried 15 tabling yesterday and needed some Dramamine and a nap afterwards.

Action before the final table:

Money bubble boy waterwolves watched his [Ac] [6c] go down to Bloomer's [4s] [Ks] on the [Jh] [Kd] [8d] [4c] [5c] board and everyone left was assured the $195.00 for 10th thru 81st.

Phil9 got a well earned rest before the final table as he locked up the first seat after his pocket sevens [7h] [7d] defeated yuenjai24's big slick [Kd] [As] on a decisive pre-flop coin flip with both players nearly even in chips. jeanette_33 took down FlapBink in eleventh, then it was down to the final seat decided by the heads up match between jonny2jabs and Guillaumel21. With back-to-back hands jonny2jabs put forth a right cross for most of Guillaumel21's stack and finished him off with an uppercut of [9h] [Kc] versus Guillaumel21's [8h] [7c], two pair on the flop, faded the open ended straight draw on the turn, and we had our final nine shooting for the March Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout title:

Seat 1: Catch You AA (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: jeanette_33 (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: CoolAsAFan (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: jonny2jabs (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: tdh61 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: kennenny (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: Acesupper (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: Phil9 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: daveyjh (1500 in chips)

For the last leg of the triple shootout everyone had their stacks reset to 1,500 chips and 10/20 blinds. Unless my search is broken on the PokerStarsBlog, none of the players tonight have made the final table of the Battle of the Planets before, so we'll have nine players getting their biggest payday of this monthly tournament series.

As with most of these final tables, the 10/20 and 15/30 blind levels went by without players dropping out as the chip count looked like this:

Seat 1: Catch You AA (1100 in chips)
Seat 2: jeanette_33 (1645 in chips)
Seat 3: CoolAsAFan (1860 in chips)
Seat 4: jonny2jabs (1560 in chips)
Seat 5: tdh61 (1780 in chips)
Seat 6: kennenny (2055 in chips)
Seat 7: Acesupper (1265 in chips)
Seat 8: Phil9 (900 in chips)
Seat 9: daveyjh (1335 in chips)

Acesupper would claim the first double up at the table a cooler of a hand versus CoolAsAFan when both players claimed a flush on the [7h] [2h] [4h] flop but Acesupper [Kh] [Ah] would beat CoolAsAFan's [9h] [Th] for the 2,405 chip pot, leaving CoolAsAFan with 950 chips.

We would wait until the 50/100 blind level for the first elimination, and it was CoolAsAFan bowing out. Seeing a chance to improve on his shortstack of 950 chips he would open push [9d] [As] from the button. jonny2jabs would fold his small blind, but tdh61 took a couple of seconds to correctly call with [Qs] [Ad]. Trip sevens on the board of [7c] [Td] [4d] [7s] [7h] would help neither player as tdh61's queen kicker played and CoolAsAFan was iced in ninth place ($775.00).

Oof. No amount of adjectives here could describe those fateful turn cards that take the life out of someone's tournament. kennenny got his money in good as he pushed 1280 chip stack in the middle and well... watch the carnage below:

Just like that Acesupper was the chip leader with 4,560 chips and no one over 2,000 and kennenny was out in eighth place ($1,200.00).

Two hands later the end cards on the board did the duty once again. daveyjh was sitting on the shortstack with 735 and open pushed his stack holding [5d] [As] in the small blind into Catch You AA who's pocket sixes [6s] [6c] were enough to make the call. An ace on the flop of [3d] [Ac] [8d] gave daveyjh a commanding lead on the hand, but as soon as his Borat avatar could say "fun sexy time doubling up!" the [Ts] and dagger-worthy [6h] fell on the river giving Catch You AA a set of sixes and sent Borat/daveyjh back to Kazakhstan with many American Dollars, $1,700.00 to be exact, for seventh place.

With the blinds rounding the 100/200 level everyone got into the pool and splashed their clips. Starting with jonny2jabs who pushed his [Kd] [5s] from UTG+2 for 1,510 chips but chipleader Acesupper was waiting on the button and called with [Ad] [9c]. An ace on the flop, and jonny2jabs was punchless by the turn of the [4h] [Ah] [4c] [Jc] [Tc] board. For the $2,200.00 jonny2jabs won tonight, I'm sure many Whoppers could be purchased by his Burger King avatar.

Another three hands and another shortstack had to make a play. jeanette_33 tried to get her 1,240 chips and pocket treys [3d] [3h] past the [Qd] [Jc] of Catch You AA but unfortunately could not fade the flopped queen on the [Tc] [4h] [Qh] [9h] [Ad] board despite catching a four-flush draw on the turn. Treys down as jeanette_33 headed back to Stavanger with an extra $2,735.00 in her pocket in fifth place.

Not one to let anyone breath, Acesupper got hungry on the very next hand and ate Phil9's chips for dessert. After Acesupper completed the small blind, Phil9 shoved his remaining 1,175 chips into the middle from the big blind. Acesupper would give him action with [Th] [Kc], Phil9 welcomed the action holding [As] [Qc] and was in great shape thru the turn on the [5h] [6s] [9h] [5s] board. But, as with some other bust-outs this evening the river was not kind to the favorite, and the [Ks] gave Acesupper a pair of kings defeating the ace-high of Phil9. Fourth place ($3,350.00) would shuttle across to Phil9 after the hand played out as Acesupper enjoyed an even larger chip lead over Catch You AA and tdh61:

Seat 1: Catch You AA (3875 in chips)
Seat 5: tdh61 (2605 in chips)
Seat 7: Acesupper (7020 in chips)

The trend tonight was to wait till the turn or river for the gut-turning cards, and once again held true as Catch You AA was given his departure ticket in third place ($4,500.00). Just watch below as the turn and insulting river come in to give Acesupper a big lead going into heads-up play against tdh61:

Two hands into heads up play tdh61 would get his much needed double up as his [Js] [9s] out-flopped the [Td] [Ac] of Acesupper and with two pair on the board of [Td] [Jc] [9h] [4h] [8d] he would continue the race for the $12,000.00 first prize. Another ten or so hands and tdh61 would catch some more lightening in a bottle as his [Td] [Qs] would crack the rockets [Ac As] of Acesupper on the [Jc] [Qc] [8d] [3c] [9h] board for a straight and the 6,320 chip pot. Acesupper's lead was chopped to under 1,000 chips.

Four hands later, tdh61 would strike luck once again as his [Kc] [Jc] beat out the big slick [Ks] [As] of Acesupper as both players got it in preflop and Acesupper couldn't stomach the jack on the flop of [8h] [Js] [3c]. No ace on the turn [7c] or river [8s] and tdh61 was sitting on 9,990 chips while Acesupper was still in with 3,510 chips as the blinds increased to the 125/250 blind level.

The players would swap chips back and forth but neither gained much and after twenty hands and a five minute break, the final deal was broken:

tdh61: $10,000.00
Acesupper: $9,500.00

With all the money off the table, the official title of the March Battle of the Planets champion was yet to be decided.

Neither player gave up that distinction without a fight as the two would battle for over twenty hands after the money swap. Acesupper was the victor when he would call tdh61's [Qs] [5h] bluff on the flop of [2d] [3s] [Js] holding just a flush draw, but a higher card [9s] [Ks]. The call was the right one, as the board ran out [7c] [6c]. Granted he took less money in the chop, but Acesupper is the only one who can claim to be this month's Battle of the Planets champion.

Congratulations to all our players tonight, see you back next month!

March Battle of the Planets (03-29-09)
*(based on two-way chop)
1. Acesupper $9,500.00*
2. tdh61 $10,000.00*
3. Catch You AA $4,500.00
4. Phil9 $3,350.00
5. Jeanette_23 $2,735.00
6. jonny2jabs $2,200.00
7. kennenny $1,700.00
8. CoolAsAFan $1,200.00
9. Guillaumel21 $775.00