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Kirua wins the February Battle of the Planets triple shootout

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

Champions of the Mercury, Mars, Venus, Earth, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter divisions all lined up again at the end of the month to face off for the a big chunk of the monthly Battle of the Planets SnG promotion. Having given away over $3 million to date for SnG players for simply playing and acquiring the most points on their given stakes planets. No SnG too low (except for play chips), and no SnG too high as all 442 qualifiers today started the triple shootout with 1,500 chips at each table regardless of their normal SnG buy-in. $12,000.00 potentially for the victor, and $195.00 to those places that mastered their first table but didn't quite sneak into the final nine for the big money.

delucabr could only get out a "lolololol" in the chat box as his dominating 9h-6h (yes, dominating) over the 9d-3d of GoldStar VIP level NL_Profit. His domination failed to even make it past the flop. 3h-3s-As rained down on the flop making trips for NL_Profit, no miracle flush or running sixes on the turn and river, and delucabr was the official bubble boy for today's contest finishing in 82nd place. NL_Profit however could not continue his stroke of luck, falling in 31st place.

In the round of 81, the players at table number 8 were apparently late for dinner or forgot the winner gets a shot at $12,000.00, bigtime4K and e4e5nf3nc6 were heads up at before any other table got down to five. Those two would slow down to lengthy heads-up game as it was BB_ShiNing taking the first seat at the final table, when his gutshot straight flush draw overcame the top pair-top kicker of anttoy1 and assured himself at least $775.00. bigtime4K would finally knock off e4e5nf3nc6 for the second final table seat, as the antes were finally introduced and the last seven tables came down quickly. With just shinng and previous Battle of the Planets final tablist (October 2008, fifth place, read the write up here) BakonJarser left to round out the field of nine, and BakonJarser starting with a sizable lead heads-up, they would start a drawn out battle for the final seat. A return to the final table was not in the cards for BakonJarser as in the space of two hands he lost his chip lead, then with a flop of 9h-Qs-Tc both players pushed with shinng showing Ac-Jh for an open-ended straight draw and an overcard to BakonJarser's Jd-Th for the same draw and a leading pair. 9s on the turn helped no one as BakonJarser looked good for a double up, but the Ah on the river set our final nine and BakonJarser will have to wait till next month for another final table shot:

(Click picture for larger image)

Seat 1: BB_ShiNing
Seat 2: shinng
Seat 3: mak10
Seat 4: Kirua
Seat 5: PokerGoat111
Seat 6: Boku87
Seat 7: hockey65
Seat 8: bigtime4k
Seat 9: vladimwd

Boku87's SnG chops were shown at the recent World Cup of Poker qualifying, while helping his Germany 1 team earn a free trip to the Bahamas (write up of the qualifier found here) and making this final table is another notch on his PokerStars tournament belt.

The final table started with no excitement from the neither 10/20 nor 15/30 blind levels as small pots were pushed from side to side as the players jockeyed for position. Only vladimwd found himself below the 1,000 chip mark from the beginning 1,500 chips when the 25/50 blind level started, but three hands into the level he flopped Aces Full against hockey65 and a nice value on the end snagged a 1,150 chip pot as he would get right back into the game.

Luck would reverse for vladimwd as the 50/100 blinds started. He got his money in good versus the short stacked hockey65 twice and things did not turn out for the ninth place finisher. First was re-raising the short stacked hockey65 for the rest of his chips preflop and finding himself well ahead with Ad-Kc versus hockey65's Kh-Js. Flopping top pair (4c-Tc-Ah) was huge and shifted the outs from a jack to a queen for hockey65. The 6h on the turn did nothing but the river Qd delivered the broadway straight and knocked vladimwd to the short stack. The very next hand, again vladimwd and hockey65 would tangle preflop, and again vladimwd found As-Ks and dominating hockey65's hand (Ad-Qh). The domination would last about two seconds as the Jh-Kh-Th flop left vladimwd looking for one of the two remaining queens for a chop. The flush never came, but neither did the queen on the turn and river, vladimwd took home $775.00 in ninth.

Unfortunately for bigtime4K, big slick finally pulled through in for someone. In back-to-back hands bigtime4K got his stack in the middle preflop. First against the short stacked BB_ShiNing then again against the chip leader shinng. After pushing on the button with Ah-5c, bigtime4K found himself up against the small blind BB_ShiNing's As-Kd, which held up on the 8s-4s-7d-9d-7s board and left him with 415 chips. Those remaining chips would go into the middle again preflop with Qc-8c where shinng was quietly waiting in the big blind with As-Ks. A small threat to shinng's lead emerged on turn of the Td-5d-7c-9d board, but the Kc sealed bigtime4K's eighth place finish. Not exactly 4K in winnings but a free $1,200.00 never hurt anyone.

Continuing the big slick theme, Boku87 found himself all-in preflop after re-raising UTG+2 to 1,050 chips. Folded around to BB_ShiNing in the cutoff who covered by 450 chips, made the easy push with pocket kings (Kc-Ks). The original raiser, PokerGoat111 went out to the pasture as Boku87 flipped up As-Kh. This time big slick was the underdog and found himself with two outs after the all club (9c-4c-Jc) flop. The ace on the turn was of the club variety, and instead of sucking out, Boku87 found himself drawing dead as the 2,725 chips had BB_ShiNing's name on it with the nut flush. $1,700.00 for the German rounder as Boku87 finished in seventh place.

With the blinds ramping up to 100/200, so did the action. After shinng doubled up Kirua, the very next hand saw a three way all-in.

hockey65 Jd-Qh
shinng Kd-Kh
PokerGoat111 Ad-Ah

shinng still covered the other two competitors by 415 chips as hockey65's and PokerGoat111's tournament lives were on the line. The flop of 8s-7h-Jc gave hockey65 an open five hole but the 3h and Ts on the turn and river stop his wrist shot in its tracks. PokerGoat111 took in the 4,570 chip pot and the chip lead, as hockey65 skated off the rink in sixth place ($2,200.00).

shinng would get a boost from the very next hand turning his 415 chips into 1,345 chips after big slick outraced the pocket eights of BB_ShiNing and 7d-5s of PokerGoat111. With those chips he dug himself out of the hole even further after catching running spades with Ks-7s against the pocket queens of mak10 to cripple the Michael Jordan fan. mak10 would survive the next hand with big slick (again), but his Jh-6h on the following hand would provide a little more fun (but alas, no chips). After pushing on the button for his remaining 810 chips, mak10 would get an insta-call from PokerGoat111 holding pocket rockets (Ad-Ac). After the turn the board showed 5c-5h-3s-4h giving mak10 an open ended straight and flush draws. The plethora of outs did not materialize for mak10 as the 8d on the river gave him $2,700.00 in fifth place.

BB_ShiNing's stack would take a huge hit against shinng when his Jc-8c shove on the button didn't get by shinng in the small blind with Ad-Td and after trip tens hit by the river for shinng, BB_ShiNing would be left with 745 chips. A few steals and a double up helped BB_ShiNing get back to around 2,000 chips but a race with Kirua ended with BB_ShiNing taking home $3,350.00 in fourth place. With the blinds at 125/250 ante 25, BB_ShiNing shoved from the button with Ah-Jd which was called by Kirua in the big blind with pocket nines (9c-9d). Kirua covered by 1,445 and couldn't have been happy with the 4h-8s-As flop. Firmly in the lead of the race, BB_ShiNing watched a 2c on the turn looking to take the 3,655 chip pot. But, the dirty river presented one of the two nines left in the deck as the 9s fell and BB_ShiNing was shot down by Kirua's rivered set of nines in fourth place.

"Ew"

My monosyllabic non-word, after watching shinng's bust out courtesy of the following hand:

150/300 ante 25 blinds, after a min-raise by shinng in the small blind and a call from Kirua in the big blind the board showed 4h-4d-Jd. Both players go nuts and get their chips into the middle with Kirua holding 2,200 behind. Both flip up QJo, shinng has Qc-Jh and Kirua's Jc-Qd for the only live card between the two. As you can see where this is going, the 3d on the turn cranked the music up for a possible flush and blew out the subwoofers on the 8d river for runner-runner flush sending home an unlucky shinng in third place ($4,500.00).

Heads-up play was of the blink and you missed it variety as Kirua took his 7,905 chips versus 5,595 for PokerGoat111 and turned it into a victory on the very first hand. A preflop raise of 900 from Kirua on the button was called by PokerGoat111 to see the flop of 9c-3d-4c. Kirua followed thru with a 1,200 chip continuation bet, which had PokerGoat111 pushing his remaining 4,670 into the middle. Kirua took a little time to make the correct call with pocket eights (8c-8s) which found himself ahead of PokerGoat111's Qs-Jc. 7c on the turn opened up even more outs for PokerGoat111, but the red 4d on the river shipped the $12,000 first prize to our February Battle of the Planets champion Kirua! For fighting through three tables and only one club away from extending the match, our runner-up PokerGoat111 is going home with $7,500.00 today.

February Battle of the Planets Results (02-22-09)

1. Kirua $12,000.00
2. PokerGoat111 $7,500.00
3. shinng $4,500.00
4. BB_ShiNing $3,350.00
5. mak10 $2,735.00
6. hockey65 $2,200.00
7. Boku87 $1,700.00
8. bigtime4K $1,200.00
9. vladimwd $775.00

Posted in PokerStars Battle of the Planets, Pokerstars, battleoftheplanets, promotions | Comments Off

ISANI Takes Home January Battle of the Planets Title to Holland

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

A new poker fiscal year, and a great way for a Sit and Go player to start off the year right with the PokerStars' Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout freeroll. 439 SnG specialists lined up today after qualifying during weekly point races, to take their shot at the $12,500.00 first place prize. 81 players went home with at least $195.00 for winning the first leg of the triple shootout.

In pre-final table action, Snake1928 was the unfortunate money bubble boy today as his flopped pair of sevens fell to the wayside when cristian10's had an open ended straight flush draw on the turn got there on the river. During the second leg of the triple shootout, JareemWeaver could only utter a "sick" in the chat box after he and OvBismarck got their nearly even stacked chips in the middle pre-flop with JareemWeaver holding AQo to OvBismarck's A7o. The Jh-7d-Jd flop that showed a third, unnecessary seven on the river for a boat locked up the first seat at the January Battle of the Planets final table while most tables still had five players left.

NickLeeson95 will certainly have the best looking railbirds today for the final table after defeating duvvard72 heads up, if his "Playboy Mansion" place of residence is to be believed. After Nick wrapped up his seat all eyes went to table three where the final seat was awarded to one of four players still in. ZipZottel and rikichipay knotted up for a lengthy heads-up battle nearly reaching the 400/800 ante 75 level to decide the final seat and a several hundred dollar difference between 9th and 10th. But, ZipZottel's big slick held up to rikichipay's A4o despite both players pairing their kickers to send rikichipay home with $195.00 in tenth place.

(Click for larger image)

Seat 1: 3Shells
Seat 2: csabes
Seat 3: ZipZottel
Seat 4: NickLeeson95
Seat 5: KK-DOG4
Seat 6: kindaichi10
Seat 7: matt2120
Seat 8: ISANI (
Seat 9: OvBismarck

Everyone starts over during the third leg of this triple shootout with 1,500 in chips and blinds at a plentiful 10/20 level. OvBismarck shook off the rust of waiting nearly an hour for the final table to start and took the first significant pot off KK-DOG4 when his nines turned a set and rivered a boat as he raked in the 944 chip pot. ISANI also showed some early round spunk by winning five hands in a row, and seven of nine to move into the early chip lead with 2,350 and blinds at 15/30.

kindaichi10 would become the first victim of the final table as the blinds moved up to 25/50. After raising to 400 from the cutoff, kindaichi10 got called by matt2120 on the button as the blinds folded to see a flop of 7s-6d-4c. With a stop-and-go play, kindaichi10 immediately pushed his remaining 625 chips into middle and was called by the similarly stacked matt2120. As-Qd for kindaichi10 and matt2120's pocket nines were in the lead. That lead would extend into a lock, making his set on the turn with the 9h and sent kindaichi10 home in ninth place with $775.00

At the break here's how the stacks sized up with blinds at 50/100:

Seat 1: 3Shells (1320 in chips)
Seat 2: csabes (1140 in chips)
Seat 3: ZipZottel (1200 in chips)
Seat 4: NickLeeson95 (875 in chips)
Seat 5: KK-DOG4 (2053 in chips)
Seat 7: matt2120 (2520 in chips)
Seat 8: ISANI (1725 in chips)
Seat 9: OvBismarck (2667 in chips)

A back and forth hand would cripple NickLesson95 as he took a chance to improve on his small stack when he pushed for 725 chips after it folded around to his small blind. But KK-DOG4, who took a couple of hits and had only 703 chips, insta-called with Ac-Td. NickLesson95 would turn over Kd-7d for the steal but the Kh-7c-Ad flop shifted the lead in Nick's favor with bottom two pair. The turn Qd seemed to improve Nick's lead further by shutting out some diamond outs for KK-DOG4, but the Ah on the river provided the re-suck and KK-DOG4 was awarded the 1,406 chip pot, leaving NickLesson95 with a hammer-tastic 72 chips. He would take those chips and build them back to over 1,000 in the next two hands perhaps setting up a comeback story?

Sadly, no, today was not that day.

Several hands later, NickLesson95 would make the call for his remaining 814 chips with the blinds at 100/200 in the big blind facing a button raise from csabes. Ks-Qh for Nick, As-7c for csabes and the board ran out with nary a broadway card as csabes paired his kicker on the 8c-9s-2d-7s-4h board to send NickLesson95 home in eighth place and $1,200.00 for the bunnies on the rail.

KK-DOG4 climbed the chip ladder quickly after nearly busting NickLesson95, he doubled up off OvBismarck squeaking his AJo past Ov's AQo with a flopped Jack. Then he sent matt2120 home in seventh place when matt2120 shoved his remaining 1,300 in chips UTG with the blinds at 125/250 ante 25 and KK-DOG4 made the call with Ac-Js in the big blind. Two live cards in Ts-9s for matt2120, but the 3h-Kh-Ks-Kd-8d board gave no improvement to either player as matt2120 had to settle for the $1,700.00 in seventh place.

In rapid succession our sixth and fifth place players exited as four hands later OvBismarch, 3Shells, and csabes would get their small stacks into the middle in a three-way all-in preflop.

OvBismarck: 6d-9c
3Shells: 8s-Kd
csabes: Qd-Ac

csabes would retain his lead through the Qh-3h-Jc-7h-9d board and cripple OvBismarck down to 198 chips while sending 3Shells home $2,200.00 richer in sixth place. The very next hand OvBismarck would throw his crumbs into the middle against ISANI's UTG raise with Ac-7s. ISANI's suited connector of 9s-8s would need the entire board of 4d-Qh-7h-Tc-Jd to shutdown any comeback with a straight. OvBismarck picked up $2,735.00 for the fifth place finish.

ZipZottel had a fairly quiet final table but managed to take away $3,350.00 in fourth place after becoming severely short stacked in the small blind holding just 850 chips and blinds at 125/250 ante 25. He called off his remaining chips with Kc-9c against the aggressive csabes' button raise. Once again csabes had the goods showing two black jacks and promptly flopping a boat on the Ac-Jh-Ad board. Running kings did not come down the 5s turn and 8h river, and four became three.

After several all-ins by all three players ISANI retained a commanding lead and he applied the pressure on csabes with a push while covering from the small blind. csbaes decided to take a gamble with 2h-Qs on his remaining 1,800 chips. ISANI covering by over 8,000 chips turned over a decent pocket pair of sevens which held up on the 3d-Ac-8c-9h-Jh board to ship $4,500.00 to csabes in third place and set up the heads-up battle with KK-DOG4.

Here's how the brief heads-up play started:

Seat 5: KK-DOG4 (3087 in chips)
Seat 8: ISANI (10413 in chips)

A three to one chip lead survived one double up by KK-DOG4, and fifteen hands into the proceedings; ISANI would be crowned this month's Battle of the Planets champion. Starting the hand with just 2,374 in chips and blinds at 150/300 ante 25 and facing the raise to 900 from ISANI, KK-DOG4 would push his stack with 2d-Ah. ISANI insta-called with pocket nines (9h-9c). KK-DOG4 would improve to a pair of twos on the flop but no further on the 2c-3d-Qs-Js-8d board and left the tournament as the runner-up earning $7,000.00 for his effort.

ISANI exchanged the 13,500 in tournament chips for a very real $12,500.00 and the title of January's Battle of the Planets champion!

Battle of the Planets results (01-25-09)

1. ISANI $12,500.00
2. KK-DOG4 $7,000.00
3. csabes $4,500.00
4. ZipZottel $3,350.00
5. OvBismarck $2,735.00
6. 3Shells $2,200.00
7. matt2120 $1,700.00
8. NickLeeson95 $1,200.00
9. kindaichi10 $775.00

Posted in PokerStars Battle of the Planets, Pokerstars, battleoftheplanets, promotions | Comments Off

eL cuCut carves out a win in the December Battle of the Planets

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

What better way to end a successful year (or slide back into the black) with a nice four to five-figure score from a freeroll? PokerStars rewards its players in many ways, but for the serious SnG players the biggest perk is a free entry into the Battle of the Planets race each month. Even if you were not one of the lucky nine to make it to the final table today, there are weekly prizes to be won regardless of the size of your bankroll. From the $1-$2.99 buy-in Mercury division to the high-rolling $300+ buy-in Jupiter division, size doesn't matter for the below final nine as they played for bulk of the $50,000 month-end triple shootout freeroll.

klop0007 went out for a six-course meal as he was the first to nail down his seat at a final table (and waited nearly 45 minutes to play) awarding $12,500 to the winner. solody, a former 2006 WCOOP final tablist in Razz got to play Hold'Em with hopes of adding on to the $22,827.20 he won two years ago. doucheburger returned to the final table as he trapped potlogic with pocket aces versus pocket queens. He managed a 6th place finish back in September (link here), and one month later nearly took down the $1 million Turbo Takedown (link here) with a runner-up finish for $52,000.

The last final table seat was decided between Vegas_Matt78 and levaitom, sadly 10th place pays the same as 81st in the triple shootout and it was after a well spirited heads-up match that levaitom fell for the $195 consolation prize in 10th place to set our final table.

(Click picture for larger image)

Despite two victories to get here, all players started off with the same $1,500 chip stacks and the blinds at an easy going 10/20. Any chance at an early deal was taken off the board by doucheburger:

AdamDay342: do they do table deals at this table?
doucheburger: they do
doucheburger: but i don't

He may not do deals, but PokerStars does, by now if you have been playing this weekend there are several World Record Week promotions going on. Check out the promo page (link here) for reload bonuses, 10,000 player SnGs, and Milestone hands which can make you a winner just for sitting down and playing cash games!

No blood was drawn early, as AdamDay342 was the first to reach 2,000 chips followed closely by eL cuCut whose connection problems got the table grumbling, but none of the players felt the hurt from the blinds escalating from 10/20 to 15/30. Patient play shown by all the players as 3x big blind preflop raises took the blinds as very little post flop play was seen.

The first push came after a 3X big blind raise from the shortstacked klop0007 from Sleven11 with the blinds at 25/50. But, klop0007 decided to fight another day with his $775 in chips and folded. doucheburger jumped on a raise from Deurdy on his immediate right with a push but much like the prior hand, Deurdy took his $1,600 in chips and passed $150 of them quietly to doucheburger while mucking.

Steal attempt gone wrong, but chips shipped regardless. As the blinds moved up to 50/100, it folded around to doucheburger on the button who pushed with $1,310 chips remaining hoping to snag the $150 in the middle. But, AdamDay342 woke up with pocket nines in the big blind as doucheburger had to show the Qd7d busted steal attempt. The flop Kd-Jh-Ah provided some love for doucheburger for straight outs, the turn 6d added on the flush outs which hit on the cruel 9d river. Despite hitting his set, AdamDay342 fell to doucheburger's flush and had to settle for $775 in ninth place.

The blinds at 50/100 now represented some problems for the shorter stacks as Vegas_Matt78 and klop0007 managed to double up off doucheburger and eL cuCut respectively to go from short stack to average stack.

At the break here's how the stacks looked as the players came back to 75/150 blinds:

Seat 1: Sleven11 (1,180 in chips)
Seat 2: eL cuCut (2,465 in chips)
Seat 3: Fosca1 (2,170 in chips)
Seat 4: Vegas_Matt78 (1,580 in chips)
Seat 5: solody (1,300 in chips)
Seat 6: Deurdy (1,600 in chips)
Seat 7: doucheburger (1,655 in chips)
Seat 8: klop0007 (1,550 in chips)

Many all-ins but no one all out as the 75/150 blind level went thru without incident. But, as soon as the blinds bumped up to 100/200, solody and Sleven11 started the rain on all-ins and a call. Leaving $445 in chips behind, solody called the all-in push of Sleven11 from middle position with pocket jacks. Sleven11 was short on chips and short on luck as his Tc-9c never had a chance on the 5d-2d-Qc-Ah-8s board. solody collected the $2,410 chip pot and Sleven11 collected $1,200 in eighth place.

Two hands later, with only $605 left, Vegas_Matt78 open-pushed two off the button and Deurdy followed in suit on the button with a push of his own while holding $1,225 in chips. No "Deurdy" river needed in this race of Deurdy's Ac-Qc versus Vegas_Matt78's pocket deuces. The flop hit Deurdy's ace showing 9d-4d-As and held up through the Td turn and 9c river. Vegas_Matt78 was chatting about $1 SnG and will now be able to play a little higher thanks to the $1,700 he won in seventh place.

Another two hands later, another all-in and a call preflop. This time klop0007's button push with Ac-7d found himself well behind the big blind Fosca1's Ad-Ks. No suspense in the outcome as the flop showed Kc-7h-Kh giving Fosca1 flopped trips and leaving klop0007 searching for the remaining sevens in the deck. Td and Qh on the turn and river sent the double agent home for the holidays with an extra $2,200 in his PokerStars account in sixth place.

Most hands this late in the tournament with the blinds at 125/250 ante 25 begin with a push and end with either a fold or call preflop. eL cuCut raised from the button with Ah-Qd to $600 and was facing a push from solody in the big blind for most of his chips saving $1,010 behind. He made the correct call and found himself racing with the pocket deuces on solody. The 3c-Jd-Ks flop added four more outs to the race for eL cuCut, the 8d on the turn did nothing, but the Ts on the river danced eL cuCut to his winning broadway straight and sent solody home with $2,735 in fifth place.

The very next hand produced a very "Deurdy" river. Again it was eL cuCut mixing it up leaving $1,560 in chips behind this time as he called the three-bet push of Deurdy with a suited big slick (Ac-Kc) and Deurdy found himself well behind with Ad-Td. The flop 3h-Tc-3c hit Deurdy hard he now he was dodging clubs and three kings to take the $7,620 chip pot. Js on the turn opened up three more queens for outs, and the "Deurdy" river 6c flushed Deurdy out of the last 2008 Battle of the Planets final table in fourth place earning $3,350.

doucheburger decided to go on the offensive pushing the next three out of four hands but losing most of his chips to Fosca1 when his Ac-3s missed the board, and Fosca1's Jc-7s connected for a winning pair of sevens. Down but not out, doucheburger with only $730 left won the blinds the next hand but lost the following hand when his 6d-2d could not make up for lost ground against Fosca1's Ad-2h on the 9c-3c-9h-8h-Ks board. doucheburger did add another impressive finish to his mantle with a third-place finish worth $4,500.

Even with doucheburger out, talks of chopping up the final two places only materialized after the following hands: eL cuCut's 8,430 to Fosca1's $5,070 heads up lead would evaporate after 18 hands when Fosca1's pocket eights overcame the overcard and flush draw of eL cuCut's Kd-5d on the 2d-4h-Qd-4c-7c board leaving eL cuCut with just $1,460 in chips. But, eL cuCut would battle back to even thanks to a few steals and pocket aces versus Fosca1's pocket nines brought to gap into deal making range.

After a short wait for the trusty PokerStars Host, our remaining contestants divvied up the $19,500 left in the prize pool. Chip-chop it up!

Fosca1: $10,273.52
eL cuCut: $9,226.48

The players pushed the next two hands and with pocket Tens, eL cuCut held off the Qs-8c of Fosca1 to become the December Battle of the Planets champion!

Here's how the final table's share of the prize pool was given out:

December Battle of the Planets
(Based on two-way deal)

1. eL cuCut $9,226.82
2. Fosca1 $10,273.52
3. doucheburger $4,500.00
4. Deurdy $3,350.00
5. solody $2,735.00
6. klop0007 $2,200.00
7. Vegas_Matt78 $1,700.00
8. Sleven11 $1,200.00
9. AdamDay342 $775.00

Posted in PokerStars Battle of the Planets, Pokerstars, pokerstarsbatleoftheplanets, promotions | Comments Off

No Swiping Today, GB2005 Defeats young_jedi76 for Battle of Planets Title

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

PokerXFactr was cruising along towards today’s Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout final table as he was the first to get the second leg of the shootout heads-up. But, GB2005 had other ideas as flipped a 3:1 deficit into a victory over PokerXFactr and became the fourth person to claim a seat for a shot at the $12,500 first prize. Today’s contest brought out 506 Sit and Go kings and queens to the tables as everyone who won their first leg won $195.00, and the final tablists are assured $775.00, no matter if they qualified through the high rolling Jupiter division or the dollar stakes in the Mercury division.

BrandonB11 was the first to claim his seat and could have afforded a sizable snooze until the final table of nine was decided. Betgo, who took runner-up in last year’s Event #13 of the WCOOP (final table report here) for $64,473.50, nearly made another final table tonight finishing 12th. Juice It Up and eagle_ke both fell as the co-bubble boys as TwistedEcho out kicked Juice It Up when both got it in after flopping top pair and young_jedi76 flopped trip deuces with A2o versus the 8c-9c for eagle_ke that never caught up.

Here’s how the celestial champions lined up tonight:

Click for larger image

Seat 1: quaid745
Seat 2: zelotalot
Seat 3: young_jedi76
Seat 4: TwistedEcho
Seat 5: BrandonB11
Seat 6: Ennessem
Seat 7: Mortenlan
Seat 8: GB2005
Seat 9: dreamgirl3

BrandonB11 got caught in a mosh of a hand when Mortenlan min raised UTG with the blinds at the starting 10/20, found a call from GB2005 to his left, zelotalot went along for the ride in middle position. Folded to BrandonB11 in the small blind who made it 200 to go. Mortenlan abandoned his 40 chips but GB2005 3-bet for his remaining 1,470 chips. After a short discussion with his cards, BrandonB11 made the call with a suited big slick (Ad-Kd) only to find himself facing the pocket rockets of GB2005. The flop did not bring any flush outs when 4c-Qh-Ks came down but did present two outs for trip kings. No suckout tonight for BrandonB11, as the Qs and 4h came on the turn and river to leave him with 160 chips. Two hands later Ennessem acquired those 160 chips in a big ace versus smaller ace battle and $775.00 for ninth place was shipped to the SilverStar BrandonB11 as he was first in, first out.

After BrandonB11’s demise, the action quelled for a bit with the large stacks to the blinds ratio, twenty hands later the only all-in found was Ennessem and quaid745 getting all of their chips into the middle preflop with big slick to split the pot. Add on another twenty hands and the table still resembled the same chip stacks as the previous twenty, GB2005 still holding a double stack, zelotalot acquired a double stack (3,000 chips) through steals and the rest of the table holding steady with stacks around 1,000 to 1,500 as the blinds moved up to 50/100.

Needing a 989 to 1 shot isn’t the most fun to exit a tournament but Mortenlan found himself in that predicament after shoving all-in for his remaining 833 chips UTG+2 with Js-Ts and blinds still at 50/100. The table folded around to TwistedEcho who made the call in the big blind while leaving about 1,500 in chips behind showing Ad-Qc. The flop came down a near perfect Qd-Ac-As for Twisted Echo and left Mortenlan gasping for the Ks and Qs for the runner-runner Royal Flush. Alas, the 5s and 4c came instead and SuperNova Mortenlan found $1,200.00 in eighth place.

Eight hands later, short-stacked quaid745 found himself looking for chips in all the right places, as he called the all-in of dreamgirl3 who had his 1,060 chips covered, with Ad-Qd. dreamgirl3 flipped over Kh-Th which promptly paired up on the flop of 6h-6c-Ts. The Jc turn opened up a few more outs, but the 3s sent quaid745 home with $1,700.00 in seventh place. This woke up young_jedi76 who pushed the next hand with his remaining 605 chips and doubled up off GB2005, and doubled again the next hand against dreamgirl3 who’s pocket jacks could not hold down the Ad-Ts of young_jedi76 when he flopped top two and improved to a boat by the turn.

At the break here’s how the chips stacked up:

zelotalot (2540 in chips)
young_jedi76 (1750 in chips)
TwistedEcho (2943 in chips)
Ennessem (1175 in chips)
GB2005 (3090 in chips)
dreamgirl3 (2002 in chips)

First hand after the break GB2005 found a pair of aces in his lap and raised them up to 400 from the cutoff with the blinds still at 75/150. Normally dreamgirl3’s AQo is a decent re-steal hand as she pushed her hammer-rific 2,227 chips into the middle from the button but GB2005 made the easy call and after the 4d-Tc-2c-6s-Ks provided the excitement of a 2 a.m.infomercial, the 4,679 chip pot went to GB2005. dreamgirl3 will rest easier with the $2,200.00 PokerStars just added to her account for sixth place.

Five hands later Ennessem found himself getting very short with only 875 chips and sitting on the button with Kh-Qh. An easy push with the blinds increasing the very next hand to 100/200, but it was GB2005 finding a calling hand as he pushed from the small blind with pocket sevens (7d-7s). A flopped set for GB2005 on the Td-7h-5c left Ennessem gasping for a runner-runner straight or flush, neither came as he was drawing dead by the 2s on the turn. $2,735.00 newly minted dollars will be finding their way to Ennessem account after his fifth place finish.

zelotalot couldn’t find much to play since his high water mark at the previous break, with only 1,190 left he made a stand with two face cards (Qc-Js) but TwistedEcho was waiting in the small blind with Ad-9c and made the call for the coin flip. The Kh-2c-9h did not change the pre-flop advantage but did open up some straight outs for zelotalot. No ten, queen, or jack came on the turn nor river as the Kd and 7s came down instead and zelotalot travelled back to Wellington with an extra $3,350.00 in fourth place.

SWIPER NO SWIPING! young_jedi76’s sly fox tried to take TwistedEcho’s chips on the very next hand and succeed as he doubled through TwistedEcho when TwistedEcho’s flopped two pair (Ks-Tc) found a cooler on the board of 4s-Th-Kh-3s-8h. young_jedi76 pushed his remaining 1,575 chips on the river and flipped over Ah-2h for the nut flush and took the 5,350 chip pot when TwistedEcho made the call. With only 1,533 chips remaining and in the small blind, TwistedEcho pushed preflop with Qs-8h and GB2005 made the call in the big blind leaving 4,884 behind with Ac-9d. A gutshot straight draw on the 6s-Jh-Th flop added some outs, but this was not TwistedEcho’s night as the 6d and 2h on the turn and river sent him home in third place. The tournament leader board regular added another $4,500.00 to his bankroll.

Heads-up play started with a bang as young_jedi76 doubled through GB2005 when both players flopped two pair on the Tc-8s-3h-Qs-Kh board but young_jedi76’s Th-8h bested GB2005’s 8d-3d and Swiper err... young_jedi76 took a 10,700 to 2,800 lead. Five hands later, it was GB2005’s turn to connect as he won a preflop race with Kc-Qs versus the Ac-Jc of young_jedi76 for a 7,300 chip pot and took a small lead as the blinds moved up to 125/250 ante 25.

GB2005’s persistence shown from making the final table paid off again. He managed to wait out Dora the Explorer’s nemesis when the blinds hit 200/400 ante 50 and both players pushed all-in preflop while GB2005 left 4,980 behind and showed:

GB2005 Ac-Qc
young_jedi76 Ks-Qs

The big preflop advantage held up over the board of 3s-4c-7h-Jd-6c shipping the remaining 8,520 chips to GB2005 with his high card ace. For the runner-up, Supernova young_jedi76 snagged $7,000.00 to run away from Boots and Dora’s pleas to stop swiping their blinds. As for our new monthly Battle of the Planets Champion, GB2005 took home the full $12,500.00 with his victory!

Final table results below:

November Battle of the Planets 11-30-08
1. GB2005 $12,500.00
2. young_jedi76 $7,000.00
3. TwistedEcho $4,500.00
4. zelotalot $3,350.00
5. Ennessem $2,735.00
6. dreamgirl3 $2,200.00
7. quaid745 $1,700.00
8. Mortenlan $1,200.00
9. BrandonB11 $775.00

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Battle of the Planets October: Don’t Forget Paris, bparis Takes Top Prize

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

The October edition of the Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout saw 426 SnG specialists drop by the special tournament tab on your PokerStars interface after qualifying for the event through the weekly points race in which additional prize pools of $3,000 for the Mercury division up to $10,000 for the high rolling Jupiter division. For those still unfamiliar with this lucrative monthly freeroll that is giving away over $3,000,000 a year for high volume SnG players, check out the Battle of the Planets promo page here.

da ItchY 84 knows all about the final table for the Battle of the Planets triple shootout, as he took third place in August (final table write up, follow the link) for a $4,500 score. He was waiting for some time, as was JCrosby for the remaining seven seats to fill up.

All 81 players who won the first leg of the triple shootout took home $195.00 while the final nine squared off for the $12,500.00 first prize. After V-X-DRAGON and BakonJarser finished up their heads up battle with BakonJarser coming out on top, here’s how the final table shaped-up this evening:

(Click for a larger image)

Seat 1: slipperily
Seat 2: slidinshadow
Seat 3: SmartFAB
Seat 4: BakonJarser
Seat 5: bparis
Seat 6: Tysic
Seat 7: JCrosby
Seat 8: da ItchY 84
Seat 9: teamhonda1

Ouch! Just six hands into the final table with most of the players still sitting in front of their 1500 starting chips with blinds at 10/20, slidinshadow found himself severely crippled after getting tangled up with SmartFAB post flop. The hand started out with slidinshadow raising it up to 60 chips from UTG + 2 and SmartFAB making the flat call to his left and the blinds folded to see a flop of 2c-8d-9c. slidinshadow led out for 80, as SmartFAB raised it up to 220, slidinshadow wasn’t getting out of the way as he 3-bet to 1,360 leaving just 110 chips behind. SmartFAB raised all-in as slidinshadow had just 30 chips behind to see the bad news.

slidinshadow: Ad-As
SmartFAB: 9s-9h

Top set for SmartFAB as slidinshadow watched the Qd and Tc fall helplessly on the turn and river. Two hands later the scraps was eaten up da ItchY 84 and slidinshadow went back into the dark in ninth place picking up $775.00 in the process.

At the first break SmartFAB steadily gained chips since knocking out slidinshadow and held first place with 3,989 chips. Only teamhonda1 and slipperily had more then the starting 1,500 chip rack and five minutes after the break the blinds went up to 50/100 and short stacks da ItchY 84 and Tysic with under a thousand chips needed to dig out of the early hole. Shortly after the break SmartFAB got served a cooler as his pocket kings (Kh-Ks) got all-in preflop against bparis’ pocket aces (Ac-As) with the board showing nothing to change the advantage, SmartFAB handed over the temporary chip lead to bparis.

Play sped up significally after the blinds went up to 50/100 as the short stacks were shoving preflop to grab those 150 chips in the middle off the blinds. da ItchY 84 was sitting on the button facing a shove by JCrosby, calling meant his remaining stack of 565 from the small blind. Pocket jacks (Jd-Js) was his choice of weapon as JCrosby flipped up Ad-Qs for the race. The flop of Th-4c-Ac left the two-time Battle of Planets final tablist needing a king or jack on the turn or river. Neither came as the board ran out 3c and Qh to give JCrosby the 1,280 chip pot with top two pair and da ItchY 84 did not improve on his third place finish, but showed his poker chops by finishing eighth today for $1,200.

Tysic, while displaying the five stars of a Supernova player, sat on the short stack for quite some time managed one small double up, then pushed the very next hand for his remaining 357 chips on the button with blinds at 75/150. JCrosby made the call from the small blind with Ac-Jd. Tysic held As-4s and neither player improved on the board of Kh-5d-8c-Kd-2d. The Supernova did earn $1,700.00 for his time today while finishing in seventh place.

Which way is up? After slipping and sliding through the board slipperily found himself out in sixth place after a wild ride. UTG and only 330 chips to his name, he pushed as BakonJarser made the call in the cutoff but JCrosby in the small blind had other ideas as he over-shoved getting BakonJarser out of the way. slipperily’s Jc-5c was way behind the pocket queens of JCrosby (Qc-Qs)…

… that was until the flopped flush appeared. Kc-Tc-3c spelled jackpot for slipperily but the board paired on the turn Ks giving JCrosby some more outs to a boat along with the higher flush…

… that hit on the river Ac and slipperily slid home with $2,200.00 in sixth place.

Four hands later BakonJarser found himself on the short stack and open shoving on the button with Ah-2s with 1,150 chips remaining. But, the JCrosby's terminator-mode was on full throttle as he called with pocket sevens (7s-7h). No ace, no wheel, no more chips for BakonJarser as he earned $2,735.00 and fifth place on the board of Kc-9d-8h-4h-3s .

bparis got back into the picture after winning an all-in preflop race with big slick versis against JCrosby’s pocket queens. A few hands later he would use those chips as he defended his big blind against the small blind shove of SmartFAB. bparis turned over pocket threes while “The Brain” held Ks-9d. Inky’s partner could not find a pair on the board of Jc-8d-5c-6d-Tc and SmartFAB went back to his laboratory for world domination with an extra $3,350.00 in fourth place.

bparis crippled teamhonda1 on a preflop all-in by both players when bparis’ pocket fours found a set on the flop and teamhonda1’s Kh-Qd found an open ended straight draw on the turn of Td-3d-4h-Jc but no love on the river and teamhonda1 was left with 960 chips and forced to play the severe short stack with blinds at 125/250 ante 25. Undeterred, he managed two double ups, one off bparis and another off JCrosby as the chips began to slowly even out with bparis still holding out to the lead.

Seat 5: bparis (6635 in chips)
Seat 7: JCrosby (3123 in chips)
Seat 9: teamhonda1 (3742 in chips)

teamhonda1 eventually chipped up enough to overtake bparis’ chip lead by 167 chips as the two got it all-in preflop again. This time bparis’ pocket kings Kc-Kh would hold up against teamhonda1’s As-Qh on the board of 7c-Qc-3d-4c-Tc. The reliable car maker would triple up on the next hand but bparis would send the popular Civic home in third place on the next hand dominating teamhonda1’s Ks-9d with his Kh-Tc and the flopped pair of tens was plenty for the 1,092 chip pot. teamhonda1 earned $4,500.00 for the bronze medal.

Just two hands later, JCrosby faced over a 3:1 chip deficit and was facing a button raise from bparis for his remaining 2,784 chips. It was the right call as JCrosby’s Ad-3d was slightly ahead of bparis’ Jh-Kh but the 8h-9s-Ts flop gave bparis several more outs, one of which hit the turn as the Qc fell giving bparis the unbeatable nut straight and this month’s Battle of the Planets victory!

JCrosby earned $7,000.00 for his runner-up effort as the Battle of the Planets champ, bparis, took home the mother lode of $12,500.00 for first place. Congrats to all of our qualifiers and participants today. Be sure to start earning those seats for next month!

Battle of the Planets Results (10-26-08)

1. bparis $12,500.00
2. JCrosby $7,000.00
3. teamhonda1 $4,500.00
4. SmartFAB $3,350.00
5. BakonJarser $2,735.00
6. slipperily $2,200.00
7. Tysic $1,700.00
8. da ItchY 84 $1,200.00
9. slidinshadow $775.00

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Battle of the Planets Results for September 2008

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

This month’s Battle of the Planets triple shootout concluded a little over four hours after it began. This is the freeroll tourney in which every player who finishes in the top 10 of any weekly Sit & Go Leader Board receives an entry and a shot at some of the $50,000 prize pool. There are eight different divisions (corresponding to the eight planets -- sorry, Pluto), segregating the SNGs by buy-ins. Thus players who play and do well in the lowest buy-in SNGs ($1.00-$2.99) have a shot at an entry, as do those who play in the highest stakes games ($300 and above). Read more about how the Battle of the Planets works here.

As mentioned at the outset, this month’s triple shootout only took a little over four hours. Round 1 took about an hour and 45 minutes to complete. Then Round 2 took about two hours.

The final table? That’s right, about 15 minutes or so. Allow me to explain.

A total of 445 players qualified for today’s event, and Round 1 began with all of them being seated at 81 tables, thus making the first table either five- or six-handed. Winners of those tables were all guaranteed $195 for their efforts. Player _maarten_436 was the first one through to Round 2, taking just a little over half an hour to take care of his five-handed table. Then cdbr3799 and barrybab333 moved on shortly afterwards as well.

The longest-lasting table of Round 1 was won by CJSaunders after a lengthy heads up battle with Triple X1. The chip lead went back and forth for awhile, until finally CJSaunders took the advantage and built up to a better than 3-to-1 chip advantage. At that point, Triple X1 shoved all in with 9c-Kh, and CJSaunders made the call with Qh-Td. A ten flopped, and Triple X1 couldn’t catch up. We were onto Round 2.

AHANDY was the first to secure a spot at the nine-handed final table, taking just under an hour to get down to heads up with jeffv8x_-_16 and knock him out to move on. A couple of minutes later, Akumila finished off azakas10 over on Table 9. Those two would get to wait about an hour before the rest of their competitors joined them at the final table. Once again, CJSaunders was the very last to make it through, winning his table just a few seconds after the eighth winner, Dijkstraight.

The players were all back to 1,500 chips. Here was the scene as the first hand of the final table was dealt.

As that first hand was being dealt, T. Cadet immediately proposed a nine-way chop of the remaining prize pool (almost $36,000). Several players agreed to the idea, but a couple of orbits would pass before support could be summoned. The tournament was paused after 18 hands, with most players still close to their starting stacks. Player shawnden had taken a couple of pots to take the early lead with 1,850, while Akumila had slipped to 1,250.

Most players seemed interested in a straight nine-way deal, which would result in each receiving $3,995.56. However, shawnden -- a supernova elite player -- preferred a chip chop. Otherwise, as he explained, “Ill take my chances at 12 gs... Im the favorite most likely against the field.”

Numbers for chopping up the prize pool according to the current chip stacks were provided, and Akumila -- sitting on the short stack -- wasn’t pleased. T. Cadet, who had made it through to today’s freeroll via the Mercury ($1.00-$2.99) division, immediately offered an extra hundred to Akumila, and that was deemed satisfactory.

A deal having been reached, the event had to be resumed so support could adjust the amounts afterwards. There had been some talk of leaving $500 on the table to play for, but no unanimity. Unlike other major tournaments at PokerStars, there’s no requirement to leave money on the table for the Battle of the Planets. So play resumed.

Wonder how a final table looks when there’s nothing left to play for? Click below.

That was the second hand after the deal had been struck, in which Akumila knocked out four opponents at once. He’d knock out another on the next hand. “I'm running goooood,” he typed facetiously.

It would take seven hands altogether before everyone had finally delivered all of their chips into Akumila’s stack.

Here is the order of finish, then, although it should be understood all nine spots were filled after a deal had been struck and there was no money left to play for. Note those payouts -- not too shabby a rate for four hours of work on a Sunday afternoon!

September Battle of the Planets results:
(amounts listed reflect nine-way chop)

1. Akumila - $3,558.80
2. CJSaunders - $4,027.76
3. giveitatri - $3,630.56
4. AHANDY - $3,802.32
5. Dijkstraight - $4,027.76
6. Kreuznagel - $4,253.20
7. low18is63 - $4,145.85
8. shawnden - $4,747.02
9. T. Cadet - $3,766.73

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Battle of the Planets Results 07-27-2008

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

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 $6,000.00 + $8,960.00
2. windysufan $6,000.00 + $5,376.00
3. landsoflore7 $6,000.00 + $3,584.00
4. martin-king $6,000.00
5. prezado $6,000.00
6. pebah $6,000.00
7. alkaatch $6,000.00
8. JoahnEll $6,000.00
9. dutch-nOOb $6,000.00

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Battle of the Planets Results 06-29-2008

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

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

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