In April 2008, PokerStars.com expanded their poker tournament promotions to include weekly and monthly prizes for Sit and Go players. This is done in the form of multiple leaderboard races that are all part of the ongoing promotion called “Battle of the Planets”. To put it simple there are 8 different buy-in groups, example: SNG tournaments with buy ins of $1 to $2.99 compete in the Mercury SNG Leaderboard and SNG tournaments with $300+ compete in the Jupiter SNG Leaderboard. Between these two levels 6 other planets/buy-ins are represented. The 8 different planets (buy-in groups) compete in two different weekly TLBs which break down as low orbit TLB and high orbit TLB races. Each TLB race pays its leaders cash prizes on a weekly basis and all players who finish in the top ten of any of the weekly TLB races will also receive a ticket to a monthly $50,000 triple shootout freeroll called the Battle of the Planets.
To get started competing in the Battle of the Planets leaderboard visit the Poker Stars website.
Note: PokerStars also offers a MTT Tournament Leader Board
Detailed Overview of PokerStars’ Battle of the Planets SNG Leaderboard
As already discussed, there are eight different groups, based on buy in levels and named after planets, and each runs two SNG Leaderboard each week which are called “low orbit” and “high orbit”. This means there are 16 different SNG tournament leaderboard races each month. The orbit structure is a way to award both frequent and less frequent players separately. In a “low orbit” race a bracket of 20 qualifying tournaments are used to determine a players TLB score. Similarly, in the “high orbit” race a bracket of 100 qualifying tournaments are used to determine a player’s score. We’ll provide some additional information on these brackets in a bit, first lets look at the different planet divisions and then how points are earned.
The chart below shows how the eight different division break down as well as the weekly prize pool that is paid to each division.
| Sit & Go Buy-in |
Division Name |
Low Orbit Prize Pool |
High Orbit Prize Pool |
Total Division Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1-$2.99 | Mercury | $1500 | $1500 | $3,000.00 |
| $3-$4.99 | Mars | $2000 | $2000 | $4,000.00 |
| $5-$9.99 | Venus | $2500 | $2500 | $5,000.00 |
| $10-$19.99 | Earth | $3000 | $3000 | $6,000.00 |
| $20-$49.99 | Neptune | $3500 | $3500 | $7,000.00 |
| $50-$99.99 | Uranus | $4000 | $4000 | $8,000.00 |
| $100-$299.99 | Saturn | $4500 | $4500 | $9,000.00 |
| $300+ | Jupiter | $5000 | $5000 | $10,000.00 |
Players earn points based on their finish in Sit and Go tournaments that have 6 to 27 entrants. Here is table showing the point breakdowns:
| 6 Player SNGs |
8 Player SNGs |
9 Player SNGs |
10 Player SNGs |
12 Player SNGs |
16 Player SNGs |
18 Player SNGs |
27 Player SNGs |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 39 | 40 | 45 | 50 | 54 | 55 | 61 | 80 |
| 2nd | 21 | 24 | 27 | 30 | 32 | 41 | 46 | 58 |
| 3rd | 0 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 26 | 30 | 38 |
| 4th | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 16 | 22 |
| 5th | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
Low Orbit Leader Board:
For the “Low Orbit Leadboard” points are recorded in blocks of 20 tournaments, and players may play up to five blocks each week. These blocks are recorded in sequence, example: tournaments 1 to 20 are the first block, tournaments 21-40 are the second block, so on and so forth. Only a player’s best block score is counted for the weekly TLB.
Example: You play 64 SNG tournaments that each had a buy-in of $10. This means you’re competing for the Earth division and have completed 3 low orbit blocks. Tournaments 1-20 will be the first block, tournaments 21-40 will be the second block and tournaments 41-60 will be the third block. Tournaments 61-64 will not be used as they were not part of a complete block.
Note: Players are allowed to compete in as many or as few divisions as they chose to compete in each week.
High Orbit Leader Board:
For the “High Orbit Leadboard” points are recorded in blocks of 100 tournaments, and there is no limit to the number of blocks a player can play each week. These blocks are recoded in sequence, example: tournaments 1 to 100 are the first block, tournaments 101-200 are the second block, so on and so forth. Only a player’s best block score is counted for the weekly high orbit TLB.
Example: You play 304 SNG tournaments that each had a buy-in of $5. This means you’re competing for the Venus division and have completed 3 high orbit blocks. Tournaments 1-100 will be the first block, tournaments 101-200 will be the second block and tournaments 201-300 will be the third block. Tournaments 301-3044 will not be used as they were not part of a complete block.
Note: Players are allowed to compete in as many or as few divisions as they chose to compete in each week.
Here are the weekly prizes for the top SNG TLB finishers
Also keep in mind the top 10 finishers of each TLB race also receive free entry to the $50,000 Triple Shootout Tournament called Battle of the Planets.
