$$ Cash 4 Seat $$

Each month our SnG grinders get a little added bonus to their play, and it comes in the form of the $50,000 Battle of the Planets triple shootout freeroll. For those who qualify, they have already picked up one or more of the weekly prizes from $1,500.00 for the Mercury division up to $5,000 for the high rolling Jupiter divison.

Tonight 422 of those players cashed their tickets for a shot at the $12,000.00 first place prize, but first each player would need to win two SnGs to get there. At the money bubble it came down to a heads-up match between Guerill@ and kylez04. Guerill@ held the chip lead 5,342 to 2,158 as the two got all of their chips in the middle after a [2c] [6h] [Kh] flop. kylez04 survived the flop with pocket fives [5d][5s] and was looking good for a double up. But, Guerill@’s [Ah][7s] would find the [As] on the turn and avoided a five on the [3s] to take down the 4,316 chip pot and join the other 80 players in the money (minimum of $195.00 each).

alex245 and kafelnikovz quickly took the first two seats at the final table, as they had time for a nice lunch or dinner while waiting for the remaining seven seats to fill up. And wait they did, as three tables of heads-up play made all the way to the 200/400 ante 50 blind levels. Jackycool finally took down Bonsy, ansuz found pocket aces, and two hands later a set of ducks to take down Teddy1211 to direct all eyes to table 9 for a match between skaand and JOEYL_123 for the final seat. Just after the five minute hourly break the two would throw it in preflop as skaand shoved from the button with [Ad][3d] and JOEYL_123 covered and snap called with [Ac][Td]. A diamond and three-less [4h] [Qh] [Qc] [6s] [Js] board came down and skaand was eliminated as the final table bubble boy in 10th place ($195.00).

Seat 1: marioboggi (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: kafelnikovz (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: ansuz (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: angelababy99 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: scott96dl (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Jackycool (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: alex245 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: cradshark_ (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: JOEYL_123 (1500 in chips)

There is no chip leader at the start of this final table, only one at the end, as the players each start off with 10/20 blinds and 1,500 chips. No all-in action for the first blind level but Jackycool took down a 1,020 chip pot off ansuz when a three-bet from Jackycool on a flop of [2d] [5c] [Tc] got ansuz to concede the pot.

Same for the 15/30 blind level as all nine survived and Jackycool continued to hold the chip lead, as ansuz continued to take the worst of it slipping to just 500 chips.

ansuz would get some temporary help while doubling up at the expense of VIP Supernova kafelnikovz in a blind versus blind battle during the 25/50 blind level. A little further into the level VIP Silverstar alex245 would also find a double-up as his pocket sevens [7d][7s] bested the [Ad][Qs] of scott96dl for a 1,720 chip pot. Three hands later alex245 would find even more good fortune in flopping a straight with [8d][9d] against the pocket jacks [Jh][Js] of JOEYL_123 after the two saw a flop of [Td] [6c] [7h]. Maybe flopped straights do get there once in a while and alex245 benefitted with the 3,515 chip pot. Down to just 135 chips JOEYL_123 would double up once but a few hands would run [Th][Ad] into the pocket kings [Ks][Kc] of Jackycool. After the board spilled out quads for Jackycool [3h] [Kd] [4d] [Kh] [7d] as JOEYL_123 became our first to leave the table in ninth place ($775.00) after being the last to arrive here.

Two hands later as the blinds moved up to 50/100 shortstacked scott96dl got the chance to open from middle position and shoved in 540 chips holding [Qh][3d]. Unfortunately, the steal was looked up by cradshark_ on the button with [Ah][Js]. The nearly all-heart board [7h] [Kh] [4d] [4h] [3h] gave both players a flush, but the nuts beat out the second nuts as scott96dl left with $1,200.00 in eighth place money.

After losing a big hand of TT vs. KK, angelababy99 was knocked down to just 10 chips. Chip and chair time? The first all-in angelababy99 would haul in 30 chips winning with just [9c][4c] when a nine spiked on the river. But the second all-in was not as successful. This time holding a respectful [Ah][3d] angelababy99 was up against [Js][Kh] held by kafelnikovz. A jack would hit the flop [6s] [Jh] [9h] and the rest of the board remained heart-less and free of aces [3c] [9d]. Seventh place and $1,700.00 was shipped to angelababy99 as the blinds moved up to 75/150.

Race for the win. Necessary in any poker tournament, watch alex245 and ansuz both put nearly all of their chips in preflop for a 2,025 chip pot:

RSS readers click through to see replay

alex245’s big slick took the victory on a rivered ace, as ansuz’s pocket nines were one card away from continuing but will have to settle for $2,200.00 in sixth place. Don’t feel bad for ansuz though as he was one player away from claiming a WCOOP bracelet back in 2007 in Event #10 and got $65K for the runner-up finish (check here for the recap)

kafelnikovz was running low on chips as the blinds moved up to 100/200 but had the button and shoved a stack of 1,510 chips with [7h][Tc]. But, Jackycool with plenty of chips and in the small blind made the call with [Qc][Ah]. Two live cards for kafelnikovz and one of them hit the [4h] [8d] [Td] flop. But before the VIP Supernova could do a victory dance, the [Ac] hit the turn and [8c] shipped the 3,220 chip pot to Jackycool eliminating kafelnikovz in fifth place ($2,735.00).

We’re sure cradshark_ could only muster a sigh after this below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Pocket queens [Qc][Qd] looking good against the [Js][Kc] of alex245 as they combined chips preflop for a 3,240 chip pot. The ladies held by cradshark_ however got ran over by the couple of kings that decided to make an appearance on the [2d] [6s] [Ks] [4c] [Kd] board. cradshark_ was left to search other waters for chum after taking $3,350.00 off this pond in fourth place.

Yeah, that’s not very nice. First, to take most of someone’s chips like Jackycool did against marioboggi when [Ah][3h] held for Jackycool over the [9s][Kh] of marioboggi for a 3,815 chip pot. Then, two hands later, Jackycool would scoop up the rest of marioboggi’s chips when pocket aces [Ah][Ad] held up over [As][6c] sending marioboggi to the rail with $4,500.00 and third place.

Despite having the chip lead for most of the tournament Jackycool would need to come from behind to win this one as the players started off with the below chip counts:

Seat 6: Jackycool (4400 in chips)
Seat 7: alex245 (9100 in chips)

Also, with blinds already at 125/250 ante 25, Jackycool would need to keep up the aggression seen earlier to stay ahead of the blinds. Jackycool would start out nicely taking down a 1,550 chip pot, but alex245 turned up the heat by taking down the next five pots. alex245 would keep the foot on the gas, knocking Jackycool down to just 2,325 chips before the final hand.

With blinds still at 125/250 ante 25, Jackycool decided to run with an ace [5d][Ah] on the button and shoved all-in. Having a huge chip lead made the decision to call easier for alex245 holding [Td][Qc]. The chip leader would promptly hit a ten on the flop and a ten on the river for good measure [8c] [Tc] [6h] [3s] [Th] taking down the April edition of the $50,000 Battle of the Planets triple shootout with trip tens!

Congrats to all 422 players who cashed in those weekly freeroll tickets and join us again next month as $50,000 will be laid across three tables again for the taking.

Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout Results (04-25-10)
1. alex245 (MIAMI BEACH) $12,000.00
2. Jackycool (Siegen) $7,500.00
3. marioboggi (borås) $4,500.00
4. cradshark_ (las vegas) $3,350.00
5. kafelnikovz (Belo Horizonte) $2,735.00
6. ansuz (Karrby) $2,200.00
7. angelababy99 (ningbo) $1,700.00
8. scott96dl (Co. Donegal) $1,200.00
9. JOEYL_123 (Woodstock) $775.00

With springtime here, SnG players in the north are happily knocking off the ice and snow from their laptops to earn their ways into today’s Battle of the Planet $50,000 Triple Shootout Freeroll. 493 cashed in their tickets earned weekly for a shot at winning three consecutive SnGs and the hefty sum of $12,000.00 supplied by PokerStars.

Team PokerStars Pro Joep van den “Pappe_Ruk” Bijgaart would crack the money line today by winning his first table. But, in the early goings of the second table with blinds at 50/100 and only holding 868 chips, Bijgaart would open push [Kh][Qh] and get called by UPGRAYEDD420’s pocket jacks [Jh][Jc] in the cutoff. No hearts and nary royalty for Joep on the [6s][8c][3c][8d][Ac] board and the Team Holland respresentative was out in 54th place ($195.00).

Bumbleman from the UK rattled the hive by taking the first final table seat and sat back for some poker theater as the other seats were filled. Down to the last heads-up match between Ota_SolGryn and eatyourstac on Table 6 both were evenly matched until the 125/250 ante 25 blind level when both would get their stacks in the middle preflop with Ota_SolGryn covering. Pocket ladies [Qc][Qh] for Ota_SolGryn and [Kc][Jh] for eatyourstac with five cards to come for the final seat. [Ac] [5s] [Ts] [4d] [4s] was laid out and eatyourstac was left hungry as the bubble boy earning $195.00 in tenth place.

The triumphant queens set up the final table below:

Seat 1: slick_20_vic (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: RiverBard$ (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: Kedrila (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: 123ME321 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: JMX29 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Ota_SolGryn (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: Carloss86 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: Bumbleman (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: xxxxBomba (1500 in chips)

“Chop?” asked Kedrila

Barely after the new stacks of 1,500 tournament chips were laid out and blinds rolled back to 10/20, discussions of a 9-way chop were being thrown around the table with hopes of everyone taking home a few thousand a piece. A few of the players would chime in with interest, but without a consensus we were playing out a poker tournament the old-fashioned way, until one has all the chips.

No blood drawn during the first blind level, as the largest pot of 270 chips was won by xxxxBomba. VIP SilverStar Carloss86 would be the first to break the 2,000 chip mark as the players still had plenty of game ahead of them moving into the 15/30 blind level.

Similar conservative play was found during the 15/30 level as all nine would move on to the 25/50 level with the following tight chip counts and no commanding leader:

Seat 1: slick_20_vic (1100 in chips)
Seat 2: RiverBard$ (1395 in chips)
Seat 3: Kedrila (1615 in chips)
Seat 4: 123ME321 (1755 in chips)
Seat 5: JMX29 (1350 in chips)
Seat 6: Ota_SolGryn (1125 in chips)
Seat 7: Carloss86 (1900 in chips)
Seat 8: Bumbleman (1820 in chips)
Seat 9: xxxxBomba (1440 in chips)

Near the end of the 25/50 blinds level we had our first all-in and a call preflop also resulting in the first elimation. Ota_SolGryn would start the betting with a raise to 150 from middle position as it folded around to xxxxBomba in the big blind. Holding pocket tens [Td][Th] xxxxBomba would push the short-stacked Ota_SolGryn all-in. With only 712 chips left, Ota_SolGryn made the call with [As][Jd] for the coin flip. [3h] [Qd] [9d] [7d] after the turn gave Ota_SolGryn some additional flush outs, but the board would pair with the [3s] and Ota_SolGryn’s tournament sunset was complete in ninth place ($775.00).

Carloss86 would get knocked down to just 135 chips after a rough bad beat at the hands of 123ME321 in the same blind level. On an all-diamond flop, the chips went into the middle with 123ME321 holding [Ad][Kh] for the nut flush draw and a slow-played pair of aces [As][Ah] for Carloss86. The flush would hit on the [3d] turn and Carloss86 was left with scraps. Those scraps would make their way back into the game with a few double ups, reaching 1,040 chips in the 50/100 blind level.

Just as the comeback for Carloss86 happened quickly so was the demise. Down to 890 chips, Carloss86 would shove from early position with [Th][As] as Kedrila was more than happy to call and covered from the big blind holding [Qs][Ad]. No short-stack love this time for Carloss86 as the [Js] [Qc] [Qd] flop gave Kedrila trips leaving Carloss86 four outs for a straight. Nary a king was found on the turn [2h] or river [8d] and potential comeback story Carloss86 was gone in eighth place ($1,200.00).

Six hands later with the blinds up to 75/150 slick_20_vic held just 690 in the small blind holding pocket threes [3s][3h] and facing a raise to put him all-in from very aggressive Bumbleman. The call was made and off to the race the two competitors went as Bumbleman showed [8s][Ad]. The board would wait till the turn to give 1,530 chip pot to Bumbleman as an eight hit on the [Td] [Jc] [Kc] [8c] [Jd] board was enough to ship slick_20_vic home in seventh place ($1,700.00).

Bumbleman went on the prowl for even more chips as shown below after facing an all-in raise from RiverBard$. Check out the action below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

No flip this time as pocket queens [Qc][Qh] dominated RiverBard$ [As][6d] and would hold on the [Th] [4c] [3d] [Jc] [9c] board. Alas, poor RiverBard$ perished in sixth position ($2,200.00).

As the smoke rose from my fingers with the quick timings of the recent bust-outs, another final table player was let go. Early chip leader xxxxBomba was whittled down to 1,415 chips and blinds still at 75/150, tried to nab the blinds with a shove from UTG holding [Qs][Jd]. But, Kedrila on the immediate left snap called with big slick [Kc][As]. Neither player would connect with the [2c] [Ts] [8c] [5d] [6s] board and we were down to four after xxxxBomba imploded in fifth place ($2,735.00).

JMX29 would start to make some moves to get to the top of the chip pile just eight hands after xxxxBomba’s smoke cleared as JMX29 would take on a similarly short-stacked 123ME321 all-in preflop. Watch JMX29’s rise and 123ME321’s demise below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

[Qd][Js] was gold for JMX29 against the pocket fives [5c][5h] of 123ME321 for the 2,435 chip pot as the jack on the flop [6s] [Jd] [3d] [7d] [2c] was enough to send 123ME321 out in fourth place ($3,350.00).

As stated, JMX29 went on a tear, winning the very next 1,430 chip pot and a huge 7,270 chip pot off the chip leader Bumbleman when both of them got it in preflop and JMX’s [Ac][Th] would hold against the [Qs][Kh] of Bumbleman on the [3d] [7h] [5d] [Ts] [4s] board as blinds moved up to 75/150.

Bumbleman would go all-in several times without getting looked up, until the blinds rose to 100/200 and another push came from the aggressive button. This time JMX29 holding [Ac][Qh] in the big blind would make the call creating a 3,420 chip pot. Bumbleman turned over two live cards [Jc][6h] and found some more outs after the [8h] [4c] [5d] flop. [Qs] on the turn and those straight out were the only ones left. The [5c] on the river stung Bumbleman for the rest of his chips, sending the poker bee flying off in third place ($4,500.00).

JMX29 would take a decent chip into heads-up play (as shown below) but Kedrila was still looking to make a deal. Those requests was denied for the final time as the two would play for the entire $12,000.00 first place prize.

Seat 3: Kedrila (3270 in chips)
Seat 5: JMX29 (10230 in chips)

On the third hand of heads-up play Kedrila would strike for a double up after flopping a set of a jacks and slowly luring JMX29 into paying off with a pair of fives and a flush draw. No flush came on the river and the 6,540 chip pot evened up the chips and still did not sway JMX29 into making a deal.

The two would spar for a bit with no major pots but JMX29 opened up a 7,825 to 5,675 chip lead. Watch the final hand below as both players get their stacks in the middle preflop:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Kedrila would shout for a nine many many times but the nine would not hit the [Ac] [4d] [Kh] [Qs] [3h] board as JMX29’s [Ah][Qc] would hold against the [Ad][9d] of Kedrila. The final 11,350 chips slid to JMX29 along with the first place prize of $12,000 for this month’s Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout freeroll champion!

The runner-up actually made quite a bit more by not dealing at the beginning, walking away today with $7,500.00 in second place.

Congrats to all our cashers today, the clock starts now to win tickets for April’s shootout!

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout results (03-28-09)
1. JMX29 (West Lafayette) $12,000.00
2. Kedrila (St.-Petersburg) $7,500.00
3. Bumbleman (London) $4,500.00
4. 123ME321 (Blairgowrie) $3,350.00
5. xxxxBomba (Würzburg) $2,735.00
6. RiverBard$ (birmingham) $2,200.00
7. slick_20_vic (Amsterdam) $1,700.00
8. Carloss86 (Asuncion) $1,200.00
9. Ota_SolGryn (Stepville) $775.00

Three SnG victories mean $12,000 for one lucky player this afternoon as the Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout continues today with this long running daily promotion for Sit and Go players (read how to get your ticket into today’s event here). If you’re from the United State or Canada most likely your eyes were glued to the final event of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics as Team USA and Team Canada battled for the Men’s Hockey gold. However, if any of the 641 players in today’s Triple Shootout freeroll were dancing their eyes back and forth from the Canada Hockey Place they were treated exciting puck slinging and poker at the same time.

At the bubble of the first leg of the triple shootout, teacuppoker came back from just 470 chips with blinds at 150/300 ante 25 to knot up the match with Pocket2Chris several hands later. But, the final hand found both players looking at a [9h] [5c] [3s] board, Pocket2Chris elected to check as teacuppoker led out for the minimum. With 7,090 chips behind Pocket2Chris check-raised and set teacuppoker all-in holding top pair [7s][9s] as teacuppoker called off the remainder of his stack with middle pair of fives [5d][8d]. The board ran out dry for both players [4h] and [Qh] as Pocket2Chris took down the final pot thus assuring 81 players a $195.00 pay day.

Right around the time Zack Parise scored the game tying goal in the hockey game, zhenya__S secured the first seat to the final table while most still held four players at them. And shortly after Sidney Crosby shoved home the game winning goal in overtime for Team Canada, Harthor and RealRastar were heads-up for the last final table seat. Playing all the way into the 200/400 ante 50 blind level nearly even in chips it would take a fortunate river card to end it. Harthor completed from the button as RealRastar checked the option to see a [9c] [Ad] [Ks] flop, RealRastar checked as Harthor led out for the minimum and was called. The [8d] on the turn and RealRastar decided to be the aggressor and lead out for 800 and Harthor decided to call. [8h] paired the board on the river and again RealRastar led out, this time for 1,600. But, Harthor found the eight to his liking and shoved all-in covering RealRastar’s stack. [Ac][5s] was good enough to RealRastar to call with top pair, but not good enough to beat Harthor’s rivered trips [7s][8c] to set up the final table below:

Seat 1: Hexo4yxa (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: mister aleks (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: bolecc (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: slideby (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: Harthor (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: rudzkinator (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: zhenya__S (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: BEFO (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: jeanette_33 (1500 in chips)

jeanette_33 is looking to improve on a fifth place finish here at the Battle of the Planet’s triple shootout after finishing fifth in March 2009 (final table write-up here). The Supernova would have to get thru this talented final table first as everyone started off with 1,500 chips and blinds of 10/20. bolecc started off in the wrong direction, finishing off the level with just 504 chips after being unable to counter the re-raises and shoves post flop by mister aleks and slideby. The big pots off bolecc helped mister aleks to the early chip lead.

No change in the 15/30 blind level as all nine players survived as bolecc continued to nurse a shortstack while mister aleks increased the chip lead to a double stack of near 3,300 chips. bolecc would double up midway thru the 25/50 blind level off Harthor, inching [Ah][Jd] past Harthor’s [Qs][Ad] after spiking a gutshot broadway straight on the turn of the [8s] [Kc] [Qh] [Th] [9c] board to send Harthor down to the bottom of the leaderboard.

At the top of the hour break here’s how the chips stacked up with mister aleks still leading the way:

Seat 1: Hexo4yxa (1705 in chips)
Seat 2: mister aleks (3276 in chips)
Seat 3: bolecc (1,053 in chips)
Seat 4: slideby (1423 in chips)
Seat 5: Harthor (611 in chips)
Seat 6: rudzkinator (1355 in chips)
Seat 7: zhenya__S (1415 in chips)
Seat 8: BEFO (875 in chips)
Seat 9: jeanette_33 (1805 in chips)

Four hands back from the break and increased 50/100 blinds saw off our first contender. Folded around to BEFO in the small blind who would shove with just 825 chips after paying the small blind holding [Qd][Jc]. But, jeanette_33 similarly shorted stacked was not giving up the big blind and called holding the dominating [Jh][Kc]. The trip kings on the flop did in BEFO as the turn and river did nothing to help [Kd] [Kh] [5s] [9s] [4c] and BEFO became our ninth place finisher ($775.00).

jeanette_33 would use this win to springboard over mister aleks into the chip lead and be the first one to 4,000 chips as mostly tentative play continued with preflop raises taking down most of the pots.

As the blinds moved up to 75/150, shortstacked bolecc finally succumbed to the rising blinds and lost back-to-back hands. First, after a short stacked slideby shoved from UTG for only 580 chips, bolecc covered in the big blind and called with [Ah][4h]. Neither player improved on the [8d] [2c] [5c] [Th] [Js] board and slideby slid by the weak ace with pocket treys [3d][3c]. The next hand, chip leader jeanette_33 would gobble up bolecc scraps with a rivered flush endning bolecc’s tournament in eighth place ($1,200.00).

Nine hands later a three-way all-in broke out between Hexo4yxa, slideby, and rudzkinator watch the carnage of the pocket kings of Hexo4yxa did below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Winning the 1,889 chip pot got Hexo4yxa back a solvent stack and eliminated both rudzkinator (7th place for $1,700.00) and slideby (6th place, $2,200.00) as Hexo4yxa tried to broach the idea of a deal but not no takers with five players remaining.

Slow play, no pay. Harthor looked down at pocket aces [Ad][Ac] after mister aleks min-raised to 300 chips and decided to go for a smooth call as the rest of the table folded. [8s] [Qh] [Th] on the flop as mister aleks followed through with a 300 chip bet and Harthor min-raised to 600 as mister aleks made the call. [2s] on the turn mister aleks checked this time as Harthor pushed out 555 chips. A call, and both players saw the [6s] river as mister aleks this time led out for 900 chips and Harthor was forced to call with just 181 chips left and saw the spade on the river completed the nut flush for mister aleks’ [Js][As]. 3,497 chips for mister aleks and $2,735.00 in real cash for Harthor’s fifth place finish.

zhenya__S kept mostly silent by the aggressive play of mister aleks and jeanette_33 found a good spot as the blinds moved up to 100/200 opening all-in with pocket sevens [7s][7h] and jeanette_33 to the immediate left covered and made the call. Watch the hand play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

jeanette_33’s [Ad][Qd] found an ace on the [8d] [As] [4c] [Js] [Td] board to win the coin flip and sent zhenya__S to the rail in fourth place ($3,350.00).

Again, a quick note about a deal was rebuffed or ignored and three handed play continued as jeanette_33 and mister aleks scraped for the blinds with Hexo4yxa was left to be the quiet kid in the corner who could only manage a shortstacked double-up until elimination. After another small blind raise by jeanette_33 to set the big blind all-in, Hexo4yxa with just 968 chips left after paying the big blind made the call holding [5d][9d]. Two live cards one would hope, but not to be as jeanette_33 flipped up [Qc][5s]. A Queen on the flop and a diamond-less [Qs] [7c] [2d] [Th] [Js] board meant Hexo4yxa secured third place ($4,500.00) as we moved on to heads-up play.

Seat 2: mister aleks (6366 in chips)
Seat 9: jeanette_33 (7134 in chips)

Fitting that the most aggressive players would battle it out for the $12,000.00 first prize and also fitting as how quickly it was over. Just fourteen hands into heads-up play we would have February’s Battle of the Planets champion. Blinds raised to 125/250 ante 25, and mister aleks was blinded down to just 1,991 chips after jeanette_33 went on a tear winning 11 of 12 pots and was facing yet another push by the chip leader. This time a call was made as mister aleks’ pocket deuces [2h][2s] were up against the [Js][Ah] of jeanette_33. Just like the many pots before, this one went jeanette_33’s direction also after flopping the ace and dodging the two deuces on the [As] [3h] [7s] [Tc] [9c] board to win the final 3,982 chip pot and $12,000.00 first prize!

Congratulations to all 81 players who cashed and Supernova jeanette_33 who improved on the March 2009 5th place finish in this freeroll by winning the whole $12,000.00 today.

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Freeroll
1. jeanette_33 (Stavanger) $12,000.00
2. mister aleks (Дедовск) $7,500.00
3. Hexo4yxa (Wolfratshausen) $4,500.00
4. zhenya__S (Loveland) $3,350.00
5. Harthor (Mendoza) $2,735.00
6. slideby (bradford) $2,200.00
7. rudzkinator (Neuss) $1,700.00
8. bolecc (Wrocław) $1,200.00
9. BEFO (sofia) $775.00

A little double duty for your writing crew today here at the PokerStarsBlog. The finale of the World Bloggers Championship of Online Poker is taking place with 2,062 scribes on the virtual felt today battling it out for tickets to the 2010 Spring Championship of Online Poker or an Omaha Eight or Better player’s favorite phrase SCOOP! But this multi-tasking crew is here for all the updates on the big end-of-the-month Sunday tournaments along with the weekly Sunday Majors.

Our Sit and Go champs are first up today with the $50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout. 595 players cashed in their weekly freeroll tickets to join us this afternoon for a shot at the $12,000.00 first prize in addition to the weekly contest earned thru the player’s respective buy-in levels or “planet”. Money on top of free money doesn’t hurt the bankroll as the 81 players who survived their first table earned $195.00 and those chronicled below at the final table will walk away with at least $775.00. Not a bad booster for those who are used to playing micro limit tables.

To get to the big money we had to first trim the playing field to 81. After an hour and a half into level eight blinds at 150/300 ante 25 while there were only four tables left, table number six managed to have four players vying for a seat into the cash. Sure enough it was table six deciding the final player into the money today as ihbcney took out Thrash370 when ihbcney’s [2d][Qd] out flopped the [Ad][6d] of Thrash370 as the two got their money in preflop on the [Qs] [3h] [Js] [Jc] [Ts]. Thrash added a “fml” in the chat box for the unlucky final row of cards; missing the second round by a lady today.

Team PokerStars Online Pros were shutout of the money today as Grayson “spacegravy” Physioc, Andre “acoimbra” Coimbra, and Thomas “Boku87″ Boekhoff all had the price for admission but left with nothing but their name and finished number in the tournament results box.

riverkila murdered the table quickly and punched the first seat to the final table after pocket queens held up against the big slick of Stephan111 all-in preflop and had to wait while for the remaining eight showed themselves. But it was JFJO216 who grabbed the all-important ninth seat to the final table. Up against PlatinumStar respect82 both would play to the 125/250 ante 25 blind level and their chips in preflop with JFJO216 holding a near 5:1 chip lead. [Ac][Qh] for JFJO216 dominated the [Qs][Tc] of respect82 as the [Ks] [2h] [2c] [8h] [6s] board hit neither of the players as JFJO216’s ace played and set up the race to the $12,000.00 shown below:

dude_whasup tried to rally the troops for chopping up the lion share of the $50,000 prize pool before the first hand was even dealt but got no takers as the PlatinumStar would have to play to win tonight. Starting off with 1,500 chips and reset blinds of 10/20 dude_whasup would take the first big pot of the final table value betting a flopped set of treys against ironOne all the way to the river and claiming the 1,190 chip pot.

Usually the elimination action doesn’t heat up until the 50/100 blind level, but just four hands after dude_whasup was shipped that big pot, the last person to the final table was on the right side of a post-flop cooler. While UTG Bonsy would raise to 60 as it folded around to JFJO216 in the cutoff who flat called and saw a flop of [2s] [4h] [Qs]. Bonsy led out for 100 and JFJO216 bumped it to 300. Immediately Bonsy shoved all-in for 1,320 total and JFJO216 covered and the call with a flopped set of ducks [2h][2d]. Suddenly the pocket aces [Ad][Ah] of Bonsy looked rather limp. The limp turned into a death knell for Bonsy’s chip stack at the board ran out [Th] on the turn and [9s] on the river to secure the 2,790 pot for JFJO216 and ninth place money ($775.00) for Bonsy.

The 15/30 blind level slid by without major incident but four hands into the 25/50 blind level saw short-stacked ironOne run into the brick wall of dude_whasup’s chip stack. In a blind versus blind confrontation ironOne bumped it to 300 from the small blind as dude_whasup made it 250 more with a three-bet. ironOne only had 450 behind put the rest in as dude_whasup snap called with pocket rockets [Ah][Ac]. Not exactly what someone holding [Ad][Tc] wants to see as both players would hit full houses on the [As] [Jc] [7c] [Td] [Th] board, but dude_whasup’s aces full beat out the tens full of ironOne who was done in eighth place ($1,200.00).

Going into the important 50/100 blind level where short-stacks would have to start trying their luck preflop with pushes here’s how the chips stacked up:

Seat 1: pluisje33 (1705 in chips)
Seat 2: luckEirishmn (1840 in chips)
Seat 3: yalpstel (1340 in chips)
Seat 4: riverkila (1210 in chips)
Seat 5: JFJO216 (2530 in chips)
Seat 7: dude_whasup (2860 in chips)
Seat 8: MirAcleJuice (2015 in chips)

Another blind versus blind battle sent our seventh place finished on their way. Folded around to the small blind luckEirshmn would shove into the big blind holding [9h][Kc] hoping to take the blinds without incident. In a hand similar to ironOne’s elimination luck was not on the Irish’s side however as yalpstel snap called with pocket kings [Kd][Ks]. Both player were even in chips as the 1,980 chip pot would end up with the preflop favorite as the board ran out [6d] [5h] [3s] [Jd] [4d] to end luckEirshmn’s night in seventh place ($1,700.00).

dude_whasup took a post-flop cooler against pluisje33 after floppeing top two pair only to be shown the flopped set from pluisje33 to knock down the once big stack of the table to chip basement. Eleven hands later with the blinds still at 50/100 dude_whasup down to just 855 in the big blind tried to take [As][7h] to victory without showdown after three-betting yalpstel’s raise to 300. But, yalpstel held [Qs][Ac] and was going no place except further up the pay scale as the board ran out all low cards [2s] [4h] [4d] [3c] [6h]. The cards spoke loud and clear for dude_whasup as he exited in sixth place ($2,200.00).

riverkila tried to sneak in a plea as the short stack for a chop of the final five money right after dude_whasup’s bust out, but probably felt better that the players didn’t respond. riverkila went from short stack to chip leader in the final hand of the 75/150 blind level right before the break, taking [Ah][Qc] to the win over pluisje33’s [Kc][Qh] on a [3d] [5d] [Js] [Jd] [7s] board for a 4,295 chip pot leaving pluisje33 with just 250 chips with the table shaping up as shown below:

Seat 1: pluisje33 (250 in chips)
Seat 3: yalpstel (3310 in chips)
Seat 4: riverkila (4295 in chips)
Seat 5: JFJO216 (2730 in chips)
Seat 8: MirAcleJuice (2915 in chips)

On the second hand after the break riverkila would finish off pluisje33 after making a small raise from UTG as pluisje33 was left with just 100 chips in the small blind and yalpstel made the call in the big blind. Both riverkila and yalpstel would check down the [6d] [Ah] [5d] [Jh] [Qc] board to reveal riverkila’s [As][8c] to be the winning hand as pluisje33’s hand couldn’t beat the pair of aces was simply mucked the unseen hand to earn $2,735.00 in fifth place.

riverkila turned up the heat on the four-handed table with several preflop raises that went uncontested but caught a bit of a cooler with pocket tens against the pocket aces of JFJO216 that held up for a 3,610 chip pot. Two hands later JFJO216 would continue to run good finding [Kc][Qd] in the small blind and pushing all-in as MirAcleJuice made the call in the big blind with [Ks][Js]. MirAcleJuice couldn’t find the magic potion of poker life on the [7d] [Ts] [4h] [3d] [Qs] board and the Juice was let loose in fourth place ($3,350.00).

As the chips smoothed out during the 125/250 ante 25 level seven blinds riverkila tried once again to play the part of politician and rally the remaining three constituents for a chop of the remaining $24,000.00 in prize money. yalpstel finally offered an three way split from $8,000 a piece but three-handed play continued as JFJO216 stayed silent.

As the blinds moved up to 150/300 ante 25 riverkila’s stack got shorter and shorter on chips as JFJO216 and yalpstel’s preflop raises went uncontested for several orbits. But, there was ray of light as riverkila found [Qh][Ks] on the button and pushed for 1,623 chips and yalpstel called in the big blind holding [7h][Kh]. The sunshine lasted as long as the computer took to show the [8c] [7d] [4c] flop as yalpstel found a pair of sevens to take the lead. The pair would hold on the [Ac] turn and [2d] river sending riverkila home in third place ($4,500.00).

Even after busting out riverkila tried to assist with a chop from the rail yet yalpstel and JFJO216 were intent on finishing this tourney out. Here’s out they stacked up going into heads-up play:

Seat 3: yalpstel (7551 in chips)
Seat 5: JFJO216 (5949 in chips)

The stacks stayed fairly even throughout the heads-up contest as it rolled on to the 200/400 ante 50 level nine with either player chirping up for an even chop or even some friendly banter.

At one point there was four all-ins in a row but JFJO216 held tight winning two of those and chopping another while dominated as yalpstel’s attempt to put away the adversary as both players took turns holding the chip lead. While nearly dead even in chips JFJO216 would take a decent sized 6,500 chip pot after rivering a pair of tens against the flopped third pair of yalpstel and never looked back. JFJO216 would win four consecutive hands ending the tournament after calling yalpstel hail mary shove from the button with only 2,104 chips left with [2s][Ks]. Holding a 5:1 chip lead and [Ac][Th] made the call an easy one as the [Qd] [5h] [4c] [5d] [4d] board complied this time with the preflop favorite and yalpstel was left to collect $7,500.00 for second place.

A little of run-good and some skill got JFJO216 into the winner’s circle tonight for the entire $12,000.00 first place prize. Congrats to all of our winners this evening and throughout the month. Be sure to start collecting those SnG points for February’s race to the top of your planet’s leaderboard!

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Results (01-31-10)
1. JFJO216 (Northampton) $12,000.00
2. yalpstel (North York) $7,500.00
3. riverkila (perth) $4,500.00
4. MirAcleJuice (elnesvågen) $3,350.00
5. pluisje33 (pannerden) $2,735.00
6. dude_whasup (Aliso Viejo) $2,200.00
7. luckEirishmn (Atlanta) $1,700.00
8. ironOne (Nybergsund) $1,200.00
9. Bonsy (Marquette) $775.00

As 600 SnG champs cashed in their tickets earned throughout the month for 2009’s final $50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout freeroll, we had some well-known players make their runs at the $12,000.00 first prize sitting at the end of these three SnGs.

New minted Team PokerStars Online Pro Thomas “Boku87″ Boekhoff’s attempt to gain in his $5 into $100,000 bankroll challenge fell short while heads-up in the first round against VIP GoldStar shaunnn as Boku87 would gets his chips in good pre-flop at the 100/200 blind level holding pocket jacks [Jd][Js] against the pocket sevens of shaunnn. But, the other two sevens in the deck showed up on the [3c] [Ad] [7s] [Ks] [7c] board eliminating Boku87 in 115th place.

Team PokerStars Pro Portugal Henrique Pinho, found himself heads-up at the end of the first round against Jorgo V. Shortstacked with blinds at 125/250 ante 25 Pinho would call the button push from Jorgo and find his [Kd][7s] slightly ahead of Jorgo V’s [8d][Qc]. However the [2h] [Ts] [Qs] [8c] [9h] board would churn out two pair for Jorgo V and end the Portuguese pro’s day short of the money in 100th place.

Another Team PokerStars Pro online, Andrew “Kid Nebraska” Goetsch, did advance to the second round to assure a $195.00 payday along with the other 81 players who won their first round matches.

Alcymar, Method999, and Math130985 all locked up their seats early as there remained six seats to play for the $12,000.00 first prize sitting at the final table. Team PokerStars Online Pro “Kid Nebraska” would last until the 100/200 blind level with three players left at his table. Pocket nines were the choice of weapon against the chip leader Gambit_44s blind steal holding [8d][7c]. Goetsch was looking good for a double up with the 4,410 chip pot even after Gambit_44s paired the seven on the [Kh] [7d] [Qc] flop. But the turned [7h] the turn left the new pro needing a two outer on the river. This time the pretty [As] did not help and Kid Nebraska would leave in 25th place ($195.00).

cristina30 would outlast jenssa heads up for the second to last seat which left Table 7’s m8675309a and Runnunit left for the final seat. They would battle into the 200/400 ante 50 blind level with m8675309a holding a sizable 4 to 1 lead throughout the heads-up play as Runnunit tried chipping away at the lead winning several hands preflop. A big break came when Runnunit’s pocket fours [4c][4d] held up against m8675309a’s [Kc][6c] all in preflop for a game tying pot. Three hands later Runnunit would find pocket nines [9s][9d] and chose to limp in to trap. It worked as m8675309a would shove with [3s][Ad]. Runnunit would make the call and was all-in, but the flop came a disappointing [4c] [3d] [Ac] for Runnunit. The flopped two pair would hold up on the [8d] turn and [5s] river to set up the final nine below:

Seat 1: cristina30 (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: Jorgo V (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: Method999 (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: Godfatti (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: Math130985 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Michalsky 1 (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: m8675309a (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: ruipinto74 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: Alcymar (1500 in chips)

All the players today would be trying to add their name to this list of 2009 Battle of the Planets titleholders:

November - Makkie (for recap click here)
October - xx23xx (for recap click here)
September - so awful (for recap click here)
August - patsaiyan (for recap click here)
July - GABO2584 (for recap click here)
June - DaveDiscount (for recap click here)
May - solody (for recap click here)
April - PrettayGood (for recap click here)
March - Acesupper (for recap click here)
February - Kirua (for recap click here)
January - ISANI (for recap click here)

Normally we need to wait for a few levels of play before there was someone all-in especially with the small 10/20 blinds and 1,500 chip starting stacks. In the final table’s second hand the person who claimed the last seat to this final table, m8675309a, shoved on the turn with the board showing [8s] [6h] [Th] [Qc] against Godfatti. After some deliberations, Godfatti decided to save the other 950 chips and folded as m8675309a took the 1,100 chip pot and the early chip lead.

In the 15/30 level there would be a big shift of power as Alcymar slowly played pocket aces [Ac][As] after raising preflop and checking the flopped full house against m8675309a who called from the small blind. On turn m8675309a check-raised all-in holding big slick [Kc][Ah] with the board showing [8s] [Ad] [8c] [9c], not fearing quad eights Alcymar made the quick call making the [6d] river moot and shipping 3,180 chips to the Donald Duck icon. m8675309a was however knocked down to 485 chips.

Eight hands into the 25/50 blind level we would have our first elimination. The first chip leader became the first out. With 585 chips left and facing a 165 chip raise from Math130985, m8675309a would shove over the top with [Ac][Qc] from the button. Math130985 made the call with pocket sevens [7c][7h] to set up the 1,245 chip coin flip. The board came up [4d] [6d] [8h] [Jc] [8c] and m8675309a will have time to call Jenny now after getting LIFO’d (that’s “last-in first-out” for you non-accountants out there) in ninth place ($775.00).

At the pre-determined break at the top of the hour here’s how the chips stacked up with eight players remaining and Alcymar retaining the chip lead and the players returning to 50/100 blinds:

Seat 1: cristina30 (650 in chips)
Seat 2: Jorgo V (1550 in chips)
Seat 3: Method999 (1440 in chips)
Seat 4: Godfatti (2310 in chips)
Seat 5: Math130985 (1715 in chips)
Seat 6: Michalsky 1 (1125 in chips)
Seat 8: ruipinto74 (1245 in chips)
Seat 9: Alcymar (3465 in chips)

With the blinds squeezing the short stacks, Method999 holding just 815 took a shot after play folded to the small blind and shoved holding [4s][3h]. Godfatti however was holding a small ace [Ah][5d] and held enough chips to cover the bet and make the call. The ace would hold up on the [6c] [8s] [8d] [9d] [Jd] board to win the 1,630 chip pot and eliminate Method999 in eighth place ($1,200.00). That pot helped Godfatti nearly catch Alcymar for the chip lead as the rest of the table needed to mind the rising blinds.

A little over a dozen hands later with the blinds still at 50/100, Michaelsky 1 with 825 chips tried to claim the blinds from UTG + 2 after shoving with [Qh][Jh]. But, ruipinto74 was sitting on the immediate left with pocket tens [Tc][Th] and also shoved for 1,595. The rest of the table went silent as the [2d] [Ah] [Kd] [2s] [4c] board ran dry of hearts and sent Michaelsky 1 to the poker heavens with seventh place cash ($1,700.00).

Six hands later and the blinds unchanged Godfatti made a sneaky min-raise UTG as Math130985 on Godfatti’s direct left would throw in a three bet to 450. Folded around to Godfatti with plenty of chips to spare four-bet all-in as Math130985 calculated a call holding [Ac][6c]. The pocket nines [9s][9c] were firmly in the lead for Godfatti and would remain that way on the [Ts] [Kd] [4h] [8h] [Jh] board. As the math dictates, when your tournament chip total reaches zero you are eliminated, just as Math130985 was in sixth place ($2,200.00).

Godfatti would remain on fire in the 75/150 level. Alcymar would open the pot for 600 from UTG as two seats later Jorgo V decided to shove for 1,150 chips. But, the betting wasn’t done as Godfatti over-shoved covering both players. Alcymar would fold later claiming “TT” in the chat box as Godfatti flipped up pocket kings [Kc][Kh]. The [Jd][Ac] of Jorgo V was behind and would remain that way on the [5c] [4h] [2s] [9h] [7s] board to claim another 3,050 chips and send Jorgo V home in 5th place ($2,735.00).

To show you don’t stop a player who is running well, another Godfatti elimination was just around the corner. The blinds still at 75/150 a shortstacked cristina30 would shove from the small blind for 1,150 chips into the chip leading Godfatti. With nearly seven times that amount in the stack, Godfatti made the quick call holding [5s][As] against the suited big slick [Kh][Ah] of cristina30. But, the flopped two pair held on the [Ad] [Qd] [5c] [Jh] [9s] board for Godfatti and cristina30 was gunned down in fourth place ($3,350.00).

Previous chip royalty Alcymar found some bad luck in the latter stages of the final table. After limping in from the button with pocket sixes [6d][6h], Godfatti sat back to admire the huge chip lead in the small blind and folded as ruipinto74 in the big blind shoved for just a few chips less than Alcymar had while holding [Ad][Qh]. ruipinto74 would make bookended pairs on the [Qd] [Kd] [8d] [Kc] [Ah] board and win the 3,615 chip pot as Alcymar exited in third place in the very next hand ($4,500.00).

Heads-up play would start with Godfatti sitting on an over 3:1 chip lead as shown below:

Seat 4: Godfatti (10255 in chips)
Seat 8: ruipinto74 (3245 in chips)

But, seven hands into the final two ruipinto74 would take a chunk of Godfatti’s seemingly invincible chip armor on this hand. The blinds moved up to 100/200 as ruipinto74 led out from the button with a raise to 450. Godfatti used the big stack to its full weight and shoved holding [Ad][7d] and ruipinto74 snap called with big slick [Kc][As]. This time the lesser ace did not produce a suckout as the [Kh] [6s] [8h] [8c] [Qc] board ran out in favor of ruipinto74 for a 6,490 chip pot which knotted up the contest as a near dead heat. With the chips tied up both immediately went to chop negotiations which took a “50/50?” and a “sure” to finish up.

After passing the blinds while sitting out the PokerStars Mod divvied up the remaining prize pool like so:

Godfatti: $9,750.00
ruipinto: $9,750.00

The tournament was then turned back on for conclusion reasons as both players shoved and Godfatti’s [3h][7s] would make two pair by the turn of the [Kc] [2s] [7c] [3s] [Kd] board to beat out ruipinto74’s [6d][Ac] to claim the last official Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout title of 2009!

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Results (12-27-09)
(* denotes part of two-way chop)
1. Godfatti (Breda) *$9,750.00
2. ruipinto74 (Vilar do Pinheiro) *$9,750.00
3. Alcymar (pirapetinga) $4,500.00
4. cristina30 (sibiu) $3,350.00
5. Jorgo V (Genk) $2,735.00
6. Math130985 (salvetat st gilles) $2,200.00
7. Michalsky 1 (Noisy le Roi) $1,700.00
8. Method999 (Weiden) $1,200.00
9. m8675309a (Providenciales) $775.00

November was a special month for the Battle of the Planets promotion. From November 8th-21st PokerStars handed a challenge to all the SnG players out there to break the current point records (read here for details on point distribution). The two week celebration of paying out over $5 million since the inception of the Battle of the Planets gave a bonus to any player that broke the current point record at one of the planet’s levels and orbit. For example in the Venus division a $5,000 prize was up for grabs if you could overcome the 712 points put up by “so awful” in the Low Orbit or PLEBINI’s 1,944 points in the High Orbit. The prizes ranged from $1,500 in the Mercury division up to $15,000 in the high rolling Jupiter division (read about the record race here)

The race to destroy the outstanding records at all levels got quite the turnout for tonight’s $50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout freeroll. 580 SnG players cashed in their weekly tickets for a shot at the $12,000 first prize, which is up from 420 runners last month. All 81 players enjoyed the free $195.00 for advancing to the second round as former final tablist TwistedEcho (3rd place November 2008) came up just short of the money finishing 87th.

TheGenius123, makkie21, and Gobbblin stole their seats early on to assure themselves at least $775.00 at the final table. All eyes then drew to Table 7 and Table 2 for the two remaining seats. icecoldRivA faced off against SilverStar Stepay while xxxZotecxxx took on tybybey. Both Stepay and icecoldRivA would find an ace in their hands during the 150/300 ante 25 blind level and shove their remaining chips in. The [As][Qc] held by Stepay would prevail over the [Ah][8h] of icecoldRivA on the [6s] [6h] [6c] [7s] [Tc] board to finish in 11th place.

Over to Table 2 where tyzbybey opened up a 9K to 4K lead on xxxZotecxxx in a match that contain more careful aggressive betting and post flop play versus all-in preflop gambling. The lead would swing back and forth as the two moved on to the 200/400 ante 50 blind level as xxxZotecxxx would capture a 9K pot after both players hit top pair on the flop and xxxZotecxxx’s higher kicker would hold. In one of the longer final table bubbles of this promotion the players would make it to the 300/600 ante 50 blind levels as the other eight finalists finished that quilt they started after winning their tables. tyzbybey got ground down to 1902 chips and called the raise of xxxZotecxxx holding [4c][Kd]. The suited ace [As][5s] of xxxZotecxxx would flop a pair and river an unnecessary flush to send tyzbybey home in 10th place ($195.00) and set up the final table below:

Seat 1: Jorgo V (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: xxxZotecxxx (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: makkie21 (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: Gobbblin (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: TheGenius123 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Maxmus86 (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: Stepay (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: songok1 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: forhisglory8 (1500 in chips)

The blinds were reset 10/20 for the third and final leg to the $12,000 first prize and the usual feelers for a chop of the final table money were silent as all the players got straight to work. With the exception of songok1’s 880 chip pot taken on the first hand of the final table, the 10/20 level was uneventful as all nine would move on.

The 15/30 level found TheGenius123 and songok1 all in after they both flopped the nut straight, but neither had a redraw to the flush so chop chop for the 2,960 chip pot as players headed to the break with the following chip counts:

Seat 1: Jorgo V (1295 in chips)
Seat 2: xxxZotecxxx (1590 in chips)
Seat 3: makkie21 (1180 in chips)
Seat 4: Gobbblin (1190 in chips)
Seat 5: TheGenius123 (1940 in chips)
Seat 6: Maxmus86 (1735 in chips)
Seat 7: Stepay (1480 in chips)
Seat 8: songok1 (1880 in chips)
Seat 9: forhisglory8 (1210 in chips)

Blinds steals and re-steals dominated the 25/50 blind level as forhisglory8 was holding on to a below 1K stack most of the level as songok1, Maxmus86, and TheGenius123 retained the top stacks. Another short stack, Gobbblin, couldn’t find a call on the river in a 800 chip pot against makkie21 and became a micro-stack with 540 chips right before the blinds bumped up to 50/100.

Yuck. Puke. Ugh. WTF. All acceptable reactions to this all-in preflop three-way hand between Gobbblin, Maxmus86, and Stepay:

RSS readers click through to see replay

As the blinds moved up to 50/100, shorty-stack Gobbblin open pushes with [Kh][Qc] for 640 chips, Maxmus86 follows suit and shoves for 1695 with [Ad][Qh], and Stepay wakes up in the small blind with pocket kings [Kd][Ks] and calls for 1340. The [Ts] [6c] [8h] flop is safe for the leading kings, but the [Ah] on the turn had Maxmus86 ahead to eliminate two players. But, the ghastly looking [Js] on the river gave Gobbblin the broadway straight and the 2020 chips in the main pot. Maxmus86 took down the 1500 chips from the side pot and showed hard luck Stepay the door in ninth place ($775.00).

On the very next hand shortstacked forhisglory8 tried to get some divine intervention shoving with [7s][Qd] from the small blind to grab some much needed chips. But, Jorgo V held [Qc][Ad] and easily covered to make the call. The [6c] [Tc] [8s] [3s] [6h] gave no shining light to forhisglory8 as the shortstack finally succumbed in eighth place ($1,200.00).

With the blinds still at 50/100, xxxZotecxxx could not make headway after the break and with just 840 chips attempted the same move as forhisglory8 and open-shoved from the small blind with [8s][Jh]. And again the big blind covered and held an ace, this time it was makkie21 with [Ac][6d] who made the call for the 1880 chip pot. makkie21 would flop an ace as xxxZotecxxx couldn’t find a ten on the turn or river on the [Kd] [Ah] [Qd] [3s] [6h] board to make a straight as last seated final tablist tonight would go out in seventh place ($1,700.00).

Chat remained at a minimum thru the 75/150 level as TheGenius123 took a big hit after attempting a button steal by open-shoving with [Qc][Kd] and songok1 would make an easy call in the big blind with big slick [Kc][Ah]. This one went up and down as TheGenius123 would flop top two pair but the best hand preflop would prevail with a rivered straight on the [Qd] [Th] [Ks] [2s] [Jc] board for the 3425 chip pot knocking TheGenius123 down to 740 chips.

Two hands later we had a coin flip for rollz as Maxmus86 shoved from 1480 chips from the cutoff with [Kd][Qd] and folded to makkie21 in the small blind who would make the call with pocket nines [9d][9s]. The pair was never contested and hit a set on the turn of the [Th] [6h] [2c] [9c] [2h] board to ship the 3035 chip pot to makkie21 and also ship $2,200.00 for sixth place to Maxmus86.

TheGenius123: even chop anyone?

*sound of crickets and some wind* as no one answered the shortest stack’s hail mary attempt to lock up some additional cash.

After the bump in blinds to 100/200 and no one responding to TheGenius123’s suggestion makkie21 began to pull away from the field. First point of order was eliminating the shortstack. After makkie21 made a raise to 500 from the cutoff, TheGenius123 decided to shove for 1890 from the small blind with [Jc][As]. Normally a decent heads up hand, but makkie21 would make the call holding big slick [Ah][Kd]. No reversals here, as makkie21 would make top two pair by the turn [9h] [6h] [Ac] [Ks] [5s] as TheGenius123 couldn’t outsmart the superior hand and was gone in fifth place ($2,735.00).

A mere four hands later makkie21 would find yet another big hand, this time pocket queens [Qs][Qh] and made the same 500 chip raise as before from the cutoff. Gobbblin on the button with just 1245 chips would shove with an equally big hand [As][Kc] as it folded back to makkie21 who would make the easy call. Watch the ladies take on big slick below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

makkie21’s queens would improve to a queen high straight on the [8h] [9h] [2d] [Jc] [Tc] board as Gobbblin headed back to middle earth $3,350.00 richer after the fourth place finish.

Two hands later with the blinds still at 100/200 songok1 would slow makkie21’s run by doubling up with pocket sevens against the chip leader’s [Td][Ks]. makkie21 couldn’t find a pair on the [9h] [5s] [Qc] [3h] [2d] board as songok1 took in the 3750 chip pot.

songok1 would use those newly found chips five hands later to cover the all-in shove by Jorgo V. With 2745 chips and button Jorgo V pushed holding [As][8h], but songok1 held the dominating big slick [Ks][Ac] and made the call. This hand would end early as the flopped king for songok1 put Jorgo V in dire straits, and the blank turn on the [Kc] [9c] [7c] [Qs] [3d] board left Jorgo V drawing dead and the Belgian took home $4,500.00 for third place.

Immediately with near identical chip stacks (6605 for makkie21 and 6895 for songok1) the two started to chat about chopping up the remaining $19,500.00 in the prize pool. With a few laps of sitting out the PokerStars Host dropped by to congratulate the two players and divvied up the money as shown below:

makkie21: $9,750.00
songok1: $9,750.00

With all of the money off the table the players continued to play for the title of monthly Battle of the Planets champion. A few hands into the pride match, makkie21 would make a flopped straight and got songok1 to call all bets with top pair on the [5s] [4s] [6d] [5h] [4d] board to officially win the November $50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout!

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Freeroll Results (11-29-09):
(*denotes part of two way chop)

1. makkie21 (Soest) *$9,750.00
2. songok1 (montgat) *$9,750.00
3. Jorgo V (Genk) $4,500.00
4. Gobbblin (Wadsworth) $3,350.00
5. TheGenius123 (wallsend) $2,735.00
6. Maxmus86 (Nizhny Novgorod) $2,200.00
7. xxxZotecxxx (Spittal/Drau) $1,700.00
8. forhisglory8 (Hesperia) $1,200.00
9. Stepay (Екатеринбург) $775.00

Autumn time in North America, NFL football on the TV, good beer in hand, and a steady stream of leaves in different shades to rake into 30 gallon lawn bags until your hands resemble a war zone of blisters. The term freeroll is a misnomer here as players worked hard to earn their Battle of the Planets $50,000 freeroll tickets today, earning points thru single and multi-table SnGs for a shot at the large prizes waiting on the third table.

r3n3k375 took a long nap at the final table before the remaining seats drizzled in. The first seat was taken while 38 other players were still vying for the final eight seats to today’s Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout final table. The monthly reward tournament for our hard working SnG rounders returns today with 420 players cashing in their tickets today, earned throughout the weekly contest in various skill and bankroll levels to meet for the triple shootout that would award $12,000.00 to one lucky player (or split up as we’d soon find out).

mattmatic and GG3o would join the final nine next, securing at least a $775.00 payday while the players who survived their 1st round matches all got $195.00 for their efforts.

Down to the final two final table qualifiers, all eyes went out to Table 2 and 6 where Supernova stu7ungar was heads-up against zzcantwinzz, and SilverStar kelavi battled woody123432 past the 125/250 ante 25 level. woody123432’s [Ah][Jd] couldn’t find any love against kelavi’s [Ks][8s] in their final hand as kelavi would spike an eight on the flop and have it hold up on the [7c] [Qs] [8h] [2d] [2h] board to claim the eighth seat.

With one seat remaining, zzcantwinzz was down 4:1 in chips to stu7ungar and took [Ts][Ks] to war preflop by shoving the remaining 2,623 chips into the middle. stu7ungar woke up with an ace in the blinds and made the call with [Ah][4h]. zzcantwinzz name sake perhaps told the tale before the river, as a king would hit the turn giving zzcantwinzz a chance to get back into contention, but the third heart hit the [3s] [7h] [2s] [Kh] [Qh] river, giving stu7ungar the nut flush, zzcantwinzz would have settle for the $195.00 consolation prize as today’s bubble boy.

Seat 1: natdog100 (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: kelavi (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: xx23xx (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: Papos777 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: mattmatic (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: stu7ungar (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: NigDawG (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: GG3o (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: r3n3ke75 (1500 in chips)

The players gathered around the final table with various degrees of stars lining their names, like the PokerStars VIPs Supernovas NigDawG and stu7ungar, PlatinumStar of r3n3ke75, and SilverStars of mattmatic, kelavi, and Papos77. Immediately the players tried to gather up talks for a nine way split of the considerable final table money. Two players abstained as the final table started off with fresh 10/20 blinds and 1,500 chip stacks.

But, as the 13th hand was dealt and the hourly break started, all players used the five minutes to agree to sit out and look at the split number evenly doling out the final table money to all of them. HostAndresSA split up the $3,995.55 to all players temporarly. But, a few players wanted to play for something which threw a wrench into the proverbial chop cog, as NigDawG had a few other tournaments up including the Sunday Million which carried a hefty $200K+ plus on its own and wanted a 4th place money chop and play for the rest.

In the end it was NigDawG who decided against the chop as HostAndresSA floated off into the night and play resumed…

… for another six hands and everyone sat again waiting for the next PokerStars Host to drop by as the blinds popped up to 15/30 with NigDawG’s suggestion becoming the agreed to amount.

This time it was HostNicoleA turn to play banker for our final nine as the players agreed to split 4th place money ($3,350.00) and split the remaining prizepool among the top three players as followed:

1st $ 2,905.00
2nd $ 1,743.00
3rd $ 1,162.00

As the clocks were turned back on, the players slid away from the negotiating table and got back to trying to take each other’s money like normal poker players. No blood was drawn thru the 15/30 blind level as all nine players continued on to the 25/50 level.

Shortstacked r3n3ke75 took a pair of jacks all-in preflop UTG + 2 and found a caller in Papos777 who’s pocket tens [Ts][Td] didn’t look too hot when the cards were revealed. No improvement to either hand on the [Qc] [7h] [2c] [5h] [2d] board and r3n3ke75 took down the 1,621 chip pot as Papos777 slid back to the under 1,000 chips.

Nine hands later with the blinds at 25/50 we had back-to-back eliminations as NigDawG tried shoving all-in with pocket treys [3d][3c] over the top of kelavi’s early position min-raise. kelavi’s apparent weakness showed to be untrue with a snap call holding pocket kings [Kd][Kh]. A king on the flop was overkill as the board [6s] [Ks] [Ad] [9c] [4c] handed NigDawG the $3,350.00 in chop money for finishing ninth.

The very next hand Papos777 told his shortstack to make some money with [Ah][Qd] after shoving for 717 chips. stu7ungar in the cutoff would give the action Papos777 wanted by re-raising the blinds out, and flipping up pocket nines [9h][9s]. Papos777 would flop an inside straight draw, but nothing more came out of the [Jc] [8c] [Tc] [Js] [3s] board as Papos777 would return to Moscow with the $3,350.00 agreed chop money in eighth place.

After the two eliminations players settled back into a rhythm of taking each other’s blinds as they reached the hourly break with seven still remaining and blinds at 50/100. Here’s how those seven stacked up with natdog100 holding a slight lead over xx23xx and kelavi:

Seat 1: natdog100 (2828 in chips)
Seat 2: kelavi (2418 in chips)
Seat 3: xx23xx (2780 in chips)
Seat 5: mattmatic (2206 in chips)
Seat 6: stu7ungar (1582 in chips)
Seat 8: GG3o (690 in chips)
Seat 9: r3n3ke75 (996 in chips)

r3n3ke75 started off the 75/150 blind level with a bang by doubling up off kelavi. Pocket nines [9s][9h] found a third one on the [9d] [7c] [6h] [7d] [Qh] board as kelavi’s [Kc][Qs] went down to r3n3ke75’s set as the previous short stack took in the 2,067 chip pot.

Five hands later the newly minted shortstack would take pocket tens for a ride preflop. Watch the results below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The runner-runner wheel for natdog100’s [Qc][Ad] on the [9h] [5c] [3s] [4h] [2s] board meant GG for GG3o, leaving today with $3,350.00 in seventh place from the chop.

natdog100 would be responsible for the next elimination as well. After raising to 344 chips from the button with the blinds still at 75/150, kelavi did not believe in the strength in the raise and shoved all-in for 1,383 chips from the small blind. Covering, natdog100 would make the call with pocket sevens [7s][7h] as he embarked on another winning race situation as kelavi flopped nothing more than an inside straight draw on the [Ah] [8s] [Jd] [2s] [5c] board as kelavi want home with 4th place money ($3,350.00) while finishing in sixth.

Four hands later with the blinds still at 75/150 and stu7ungar fresh off taking a beat, the VIP Supernova would open shoved from the cutoff for 903 chips with [Qs][9s]. r3n3ke75 on the button with 2,367 chips would shutout the blinds by shoving over the top holding pocket eights [8s][8h]. The [7s] [Tc] [3c] [7d] [2d] board never threatened the pocket pair as stu7ungar would walk down Freemont street once again with an extra $3,350.00 from the chop in fifth place.

The title of this video could be called “when stop and go’s go bad”:

RSS readers click through to see replay

With the blinds moved up to 100/200 r3n3ke75 raised from the cutoff up to 500, folded around to mattmatic in the big blind who would make the call leaving just 518 chips behind. The mono-suited flop of [7c] [3c] [4c] had mattmatic taking a stab at it with 6s][8h] by pushing…

… right into r3n3ke75’s flopped nut flush [8c][Ac]. The turn and river didn’t matter as mattmatic was sent home in fourth place with fourth place money as we now moved into the second tier of the chop.

Three handed talks about an even chop of the remaining money went nowhere with natdog100 holding a comfortable lead over xx23xx and r3n3ke75. Several hands blew thru the new talks until r3n3ke75 raised from the small blind to 600 with the blinds still at 100/200 into natdog100 who would flat call. A flop [3h] [8s] [7h] came out as r3n3ke75 would check and natdog100 bet 444 chips. r3n3ke75 sensing some weakness and holding a decent draw [Kh][2h] would push all-in for 2,573 chips. natdog100 was anything but weak by snap-calling and showing pocket rockets [Ah][Ac]. The aces would fade the heart draw on the [6s] turn and [3c] river for the 6,346 chip pot sending r3n3ke75 home in third place earning $3,350.00 plus $1,162.00 in additional chop money.

With the big win, natdog100 would head into heads-up play with xx23xx holding a 8,366 chip to 5,134 chip lead.

Nine hands in xx23xx would slip to just 1,866 chips but caught pocket aces at the right time and double thru natdog100. Six hands later xx23xx would benefit from another big hand, this time it was pocket kings [Kd][Kc] as both players shoved preflop creating a 7,064 chip pot. natdog100’s [Td][As] could not find an ace on the [Qs] [5s] [Tc] [2h] [4h] board and it was a near dead heat in the chip counts.

natdog100 would come back immediately taking the next two big pots worth 2,750 and 2,870. But, xx23xx would stay alive yet again in the third straight big hand when both players flopped top pair on a [7h] [9h] [7c] flop and got their money in the middle. xx23xx’s [8d][9c] would hit two pair on the turned [8s], and hold on the [3s] river over natdog100’s [5s][9s] to earn the chip lead again with the 8,508 chip pot.

The players would continue battling into the 150/300 ante 25 blind level as natdog100 tried to bully preflop by limping then shoving over the top of xx23xx’s raise to 790 for 5,366 chips. xx23xx was going nowhere with pocket tens [Th][Td] and made the call as natdog100 rolled over [9h][7d] for the bluff. [6d] [2s] [As] [Qc] [6s] rolled out on the final board as natdog100 couldn’t pull off the upset and took home second place chop money $3,350.00 plus $1,743.00 for second place.

With the hard fought victory, xx23xx was crowned this month’s $50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout champion! For the overtime, xx23xx took home the biggest chunk of the two tiered chop earning $3,350.00 plus $2,905.00

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Results (10-25-09)
(* denotes nine way chop)
(** denotes chop of remaining prizepool for top three finishers)

1. xx23xx (Toronto) **$6,255.00
2. natdog100 (Fairburn) **$5,093.00
3. r3n3ke75 (Eindhoven) **$4,512.00
4. mattmatic (Los Angeles) *$3,350.00
5. stu7ungar (Manchester) *$3,350.00
6. kelavi (Zagreb) *$3,350.00
7. GG3o (Newmarket-on-Fergus) *$3,350.00
8. Papos777 (Коломна) *$3,350.00
9. NigDawG (Southampton) *$3,350.00

As a Minnesota Vikings fan watching the future Hall of Famer Brett Favre throw a last second touchdown to win today (tune into ESPN for the next two months as they show the replay on loop) was similar to what are final nine will be facing today. PokerStars’ monthly Battle of Planets $50,000 triple shootout freeroll provides a chance, big bankroll and small starters, to make a five figure score simply by doing what they do best, and best of all for free! Favre leads the NFL in the most fourth quarter comebacks, while our final nine got here from crushing their opponents in the end at the Sit and Go tables last month earning their ticket along with the 545 other players who qualified for today and defeating two more tables for a shot at the $12,000.00 first prize.

VIP Supernova LuckyTC ran over the first broken table, locking up the first seat to the final leg of the triple shootout while the other tables still had three to five runners. No stranger to high stakes play, LuckyTC earned a WSOP Main Event bid back in 2006 via PokerStars satellites.

Not often that two players are completely even in chips deep into a SnG but pfeilchen and UpayIstudy were heads-up for one of two final table seats left when both got their even stacks in the middle:

RSS readers click through to see replay

With the rivered wheel, pfeilchen took seat number eight to the final table as UpayIStudy earned $195.00 towards another Biology textbook.

In the last match, EDE(4ever) held a commanding 10,717 to 2,783 lead over Oracle 20 as both got their chips in the middle preflop. Oracle 20 was looking good for a much needed double holding [Kd][Ts] leading EDE(4ever)’s suited [8h][Th], but the flop was a near perfect [6s] [9s] [7h] as EDE(4ever) hit the nut straight leaving Oracle 20 looking for running spades or an eight for a chop. Neither came on the [9c] turn or [2d] river and Oracle 20 became the official bubble boy today earning $195.00 in tenth place.

Seat 1: deZZZed (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: EDE(4ever) (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: PWNgirl13 (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: lonelyguy422 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: so awful (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: tfnc314 (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: LuckyTC (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: camie892 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: pfeilchen (1500 in chips)

An observer dropped by to comment “y are the stacks sooo small?”. Well, everything is reset each table, chip stacks, opponents, and of course the blinds are rolled back to 10/20. During the 10/20 level no blood was drawn as no pots over 500 chips were played for as the players got a feel for each other’s play.

In the 15/30 level camie892 made one heck of a soul read (or chose to ignore all those pretty clubs on the board), with the board showing [Jc] [7d] [Tc] [7c] [Ac] and facing a 125 chip bet from PWNgirl13 on the river camie892 would call holding top pair [9s][As] as PWNgirl13 exposed the pure bluff [6h][Qh] to ship the 715 chip pot to camie892. pfeilchen would also claim some chips at the hand of PWNgirl13 rivering a flush on the [Kh] [2h] [As] [5s] [2s] board holding [8s][Ks]. PWNgirl13 mucked and watched the 857 chip pot float to pfeilchen while dropping to 1,049 chips as pfeilchen sat with 1,841 in chips just below chip leader so awful.

All nine still decided they wanted to play thru the 25/50 blind level as no big pots were played and everyone still had a legit shot at the big prizes sitting atop the prize pool. But, the 50/100 blind level started with a bang as short stacked camie892 would use [Kh][Qd] to overcome the pocket jacks [Js][Jh] of tfnc314 and double up to 2,100 chips as tfnc314 was left with 1,160. The very next hand deZZZed put PWNgirl13 to the test open shoving from the button with [Ah][3h]. PWNgirl13’s tournament stake was on the line but pocket tens [Ts][Td] and a short stack made the call easier. PWNgirl13’s run to the five figure ended on the flop as deZZZed hit two pair on the [Ad] [3d] [2c] [8d] [6h] board as the “pwned” one was out in ninth place ($775.00).

Despite several preflop all-ins in the 50/100, we wouldn’t see our next elimination until the first hand of the 75/150 blind level. EDE(4ever) would find pocket jacks [Jh][Jc] while facing a raise from camie892, and with only 950 chips EDE(4ever) would shove as it folded back around to camie892 who covered and made the call. Big slick [Kh][Ad] for camie892 would hit an ace the flop of the [Th] [Ah] [5d] [3d] [2c] board, enough to knock EDE(4ever) out in eight place ($1,200.00).

In short order, two hands later down to 650 chips LuckyTC holding [4c][2c] tried to sneak a 3X big blind raise past camie892 from the small blind. Unfortunately, camie892 was willing to gamble [Tc][8c] and had LuckyTc drop in the other 200 chips into the pot. LuckyTC would flop a gutshot wheel draw but fail to connect on the [5h] [Js] [Ad] [Ac] [9h] board to finish in seventh place ($1,700.00).

A few more orbits in the 75/150 blind level and deZZZed was getting tired of watch a stack shrinkage and three-bet pfeilchen by shove 2,334 chips into the middle with [Ac][8c]. Folded back around the pfeilchen, who covered, would make the call with a dominating [Qc][Ah]. The queen kicker would hold up on the [Ts] [7h] [3c] [Th] [9d] board putting deZZZed to sleep in sixth place ($2,200.00).

Five handed heading to the 100/200 blind level here’s how the final five stacked up:

Seat 4: lonelyguy422 (2371 in chips)
Seat 5: so awful (1350 in chips)
Seat 6: tfnc314 (1457 in chips)
Seat 8: camie892 (5545 in chips)
Seat 9: pfeilchen (2777 in chips)

so awful would make the first move doubling up off pfeilchen with big slick crippling pfeilchen to just over four big blinds. The small stack would last a few orbits then in a blind versus blind battle held a decent advantage over lonelyguy422 when pfeilchen’s micro stack of 627 went into the middle with [5s][Ad]. lonelyguy422 only held [Kd][4s] and was sporting a smaller stack as well, but would make the math call. Math sometimes prevails in poker as we’re sure Friend of PokerStars and poker author Bill Chen would assert, as the board came down in lonelyguy422’s favor [9h] [Qs] [8h] [5d] [Kh] by hitting the needed king on the river for the 1,254 chip pot knocking out pfeilchen in fifth place ($2,735.00).

lonelyguy would pick up a much needed double up as the antes were introduced in the 125/250 ante 25 blind level. Rivering a wheel with [Ac][Jh] and cracking the pocket kings [Ks][Kc] of camie892 for the 3,442 chip pot. so awful would also even out the chips left on the table after pushing and doubling up again with pocket fours [4h][4s] over the [Js][Td] of the calling tfnc314 after the [2d] [7d] [6h] [5s] [6c] blanked for both of them.

so awful would bring the beginning of the end of tfnc314’s Battle of the Planets run in this hand:

RSS readers click through to see replay

After the 4,594 chip pot was pushed to so awful, tfnc314 was left with 179 in chips which would get pushed up against the pocket queens [Qd][Qh] of, you guessed it, so awful acting the schoolyard bully today. [9h][Ac] for tfnc314 didn’t hit any of the [4s] [Kh] [4d] [Jh] [Qs] board as tfnc314 would be left observing his chips in so awful’s stack after exiting in fourth place ($3,350.00).

so awful’s run wouldn’t stop with taking all of tfnc314’s chips as the two biggest stacks would get their chips into in the middle preflop on this hand:

RSS readers click through to see replay

After the blinds increased to 150/300 ante 25 it was a big flip for a 7,065 chip pot as camie892 was all-in for 3,495 holding [Qh][Kd] but couldn’t catch the pocket jacks [Js][Jd] of so awful on the [8c] [8h] [9d] [5s] [4s] board as camie892 took leave in third place ($4,500.00).

The stacks remaining for the $12,000.00 first prize:

Seat 4: lonelyguy422 (4572 in chips)
Seat 5: so awful (8928 in chips)

A near 2:1 heads-up chip lead for the resurgent so awful would be taken to the bank as so awful would win all three hands of heads-up play cumulating in the September Battle of the Planets $50,000 triple shootout victory. After pushing preflop and getting the blinds in the first hand and getting lonelyguy422 to fold to a river min-bet in the second hand, the two would get their chips in preflop in the third. so awful would limp in from the button as lonelyguy422 tried to pounce by shoving all-in with [6h][Qh]. The feint worked for so awful, making the call with the dominating [As][Qs]. Neither player benefited from the [8s] [9c] [Tc] [5d] [Ts] board as lonelyguy422 received $7,500.00 as the runner-up to help find someone special.

so awful took a short stack and built it into the 13,500 chips needed to win the $12,000.00 first prize and title of Battle of the Planets champion. Thanks all our SnG grinders out there, and get working towards earning tickets to next month’s event!

$50,000 September Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout
1. so awful (Amsterdam) $12,000.00
2. lonelyguy422 (Lexington) $7,500.00
3. camie892 (Baton Rouge) $4,500.00
4. tfnc314 (Silver Spring) $3,350.00
5. pfeilchen (Entenhausen) $2,750.00
6. deZZZed (Rosemère) $2,200.00
7. LuckyTC (London) $1,700.00
8. EDE(4ever) (com Catunele) $1,200.00
9. PWNgirl13 (Unknown) $775.00

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:

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:

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