Battle of The Planet: Good for Micro SNG Grinders

The PokerStars Battle of Planet (BOP) is, in my opinion, one of the best ongoing promotions that PokerStars' offers it's members. This is especially true for those with smaller bankrolls who, if they follow proper Bankroll Management (BRM), are forced to play smaller buy-in games that have pretty big rakes. I will be covering the benefits of the Mercury BOP division @ $1-$2.99 buy-in SNGs. Keep in mind that the higher the division you compete at, the bigger the prizes.

Let's take a look at PokerStars' micro-stakes Sit-and-Gos (SNG). The smallest one they offer are the $1 + .20. That is an insane 20% rake that will eat up anyones profit in the long run. On top of that, the next limit after are the $3 + .40 tables. While the rake has dropped from 20% to 13%, it's still pretty high for the stakes. Also, they completely skip the $2 limit and if you're planning on grinding the $1 SNGs on up, you should prepare to do a lot of work before you move up.

Imagine you follow a strict BRM plan of 100 buy-ins for a certain limit before moving up. If you start off at the $1 + .20 tables, we will need a bankroll(BR) of $120. If you want to move up to the $3 + .40 limit, you will need a BR of $340. That means you need a profit of $220 playing at the $1 + .20 tables. Imagine you run super good and it takes you 500 games before you make enough to move up. 500 x .20 = $100 you're paying in rake to reach this point.

While PokerStars does not offer a rakeback deal, the BOP can be the next best thing for micro-stakes SNG players. BOP is broken down into 2 parts: the Low Orbit and the High Orbit. Both are attainable at the same time and both are perfect to suit the type of player you are and what your goals may be. In both orbits of the BOP, you are competing against other players. You earn points for your ITM finish. Then at the end of the weekly low/high orbit period, the player with the most points wins the biggest prize. You get the most points for finishing 1st in a game, but the amount of points differ depending on how many other players were involved. For example, while it may be easier to finish 1st in a 9 seat SNG, you will not gain as many points as you would if you finished 1st in an 18-seat or 27-seat SNG.

The Low Orbits are broken down into 20-game blocks. The points you earn during these 20 games will go toward your Low Orbit leaderboard score. You can play 5 Low Orbit blocks and it will always be your best 20-block score used. The High Orbits score is taken from 100 games blocks. If possible, I suggest going for the high orbit leader boards each week since it gives you many chances to do well. You can do well in the High Orbit (100 games) and by going for the High Orbit, you're also playing 5 (20) Low Orbit games. This gives you 6 chances to finish big per week.

My suggested tips for playing the Low Orbits:

-These are perfect for those who cannot get a lot of volume of games in a week. You only have to get in 20 games/week, which is very doable.

-Aim to play 18-seat SNGs if you're only aiming for the Low Orbit boards. While you may have more better finishes playing 9-seat SNGs, you'll have to do extremely well to place high on the leader boards. Finishing 1st in 18-seats may be less frequent, but the added points will give you a better
overall finish.

My suggested tips for playing the High Orbits:

-If possible, it's more beneficial to try for the High Orbit leaderboards. This way you are giving yourself a chance to not only do will in the High Orbits, but give yourself multiple chances to do well in the Low Orbits as well.

-Again, I suggest playing the 18-seat SNGs since you'll earn more points while still being a tad bit easier to cash than a 27 seat SNG. However, if you're more comfortable or better at 9-seat SNGs, these are good as well if you can cash in them consistently. You may not do well in the Low Orbit, but if you can score high enough over a 100 game block in the High Orbit, then it could make up for it.

Now, lets look at pay-outs. Top prize for both Low/High Orbits in the Mercury Division is $150. Prizes are divided up among the top 100 players, from $5 - $150. While you want to reach top prize every time, it'll be good if you can make it into the money prize, no matter how small.

*I play the $1.50 + .25, 18-seat SNGs so I'll use these games as an example*

-If you play 20 games for the low orbit, you're paying $5 in rake. So, even if you make the bottom prize pool for $5, you're getting 100% rake back.

-If you play 100 games for the high oribt, you're paying $25 in rake. If you make $5 in prizes, you're making 20% back.

-If you play 100 games for the high orbit, you pay $25 in rake. If you make $5 in prizes for both high and low orbits, you make $10 in prizes or 40% in rake. This is potentially better than Full Tilt's rake back if we're playing the same number of games and same rake. I say potentially because even though 40% is much better than Full Tilt's 27%, FTP's rake back is consistent.

-If we look at a perfect month where we take down both the High/Low Orbits every week. That'll be $150(HO) + 150(LO) (x4) = $1200 in prize money - $100(Monthly rake) . That's 100% rake back and an $1100 bonus on top for just play Low Limit SNGs. That is too crazy.

A great thing to keep in mind is the BOP is a weekly competition and not a monthly. This means you have many, many chances to do well. If you play 100 games a week, you're giving yourself 4 chances/month to finish in the top High Orbit leaderboards. At the same time, you're giving yourself 5 chances/week or 20 chances/month to do well in the Low Orbits.

If you play the High Orbits, the rake for the 100 games = same rake for 5 x 20 Low Orbit games. That's $25 in rake/$100 in rake for the month. You will need to finish in the top High/Low Orbit once for $150 to not only make 100% rake back and $50 bonus on top of that. If you can make it into the money prizes in each orbit for the month, you can still benefit. Even if you don't make the top prize. Let's say you make $10 in each orbit for the month. That's 8 orbits x $10 = $80 prizes. That's 80% rake back.

And if all these great prizes, bonuses, and rake back back you could potentially earning isn't enough for you-they also offer a monthly $50K freeroll for the top 10 finishers in each orbit.

So, as you can see it can be very beneficial to go for the Battle of the Planet Leaderboards. Especially if you're planning on grinding out SNGs and starting at the micro-limits. While the rake at the lower games can be killer, they don't have to eat away at your profits if you take advantage of the BOP promotion. It'll be foolish to not to take advantage of it. Please keep in mind that, while all of this sounds nice and easy, it isn't and takes a lot of hard work and determination. I've tried this many times and have had a number of small finishes in the Low Orbits that were nice. After a lot of hard work, I finally took to the top Low Orbit prize for $150 which was a huge boost to the BR. So, lots of grinding and hard work to reach the top in these, but when your hard work pays off, you should be rewarded for it...right?

I replying to my own thread because I'm sad to see 71 views and no comment.

Sorry man, great read, but I don't play Stars. Therefore nothing to say on the matter.

Ph- I think ur posting is a great contribution to the forum.

Ive heard about this promo at Pokerstars -it’s a reoccurring 1, but know nearly zippo about it and have never tried it.

But from reading ur posting, u shed some light on the subject and even gave me and all those onlookers some recommendations if we wanna try it down the line. So thank you. Awesome posting.

Since I used to play the 18 mans when I was at pokerstars I will chime in. Philphy is spot on 18 mans are the best for these imo, less verience than the 27s more points than the 9s. One week I was leading the low orbit untill the weekend and twice I have made it through to the monthly triple shootout twice I went out to a drawing hand. I played non turbos so was a little different I had to throw a few 9 mans in to finish the high orbit. The only thing I can add is dont let BOP consume you its a bonus to your playing well and running good, its ok to look now and again at your points but dont do it after each game you play lol.

I used to play the 1$ sng's at Stars and found them to have a good rate of return. That is until they spruced them up. I agree that they improved it for micro players like myself but I became frustrated with the new influx of "better" players that moved in as a result of the changes.

Currently, I'm trying out the 1.40 90 man knockout and so far it seems full of fish who will call with anything hoping to get that extra .25c

Wow, I sure hope you get rakeback. @ 40% you're getting raped!

.15 is the rake and .25 is the bounty. I began a thread in the tournament section where I'll be tracking knockout earnings as being separate from tournament cashes. Naturally this will take some time.

My roi as of last night is 64% over 48 games which is obscene, have to see where it goes from here.

Ah, I see. I'll be following your other thread, interseted to see how it goes. I stopped playing the 3.30 KO 90 manTurbo's on FTP because I found myself gettin' a bit fishy for that .50c bounty.

Why not just play cash? 20% rake is crazy.

My gosh! You're right! Why didn't I think of that? Who cares what this thread is about and it's geared toward low stake SNG players. Let's just play cash games.

EFF SNGS!!!!

Can I get a mod to please put a note on my OP that reads:

TL;DR, play cash instead.

?

Great post, I dont know how I missed it. Looking into in now, ty.

is there a link where I can read more about these & under what tabs do you find specific games, if any?

BOP

And thank you.

Just found this post. I have never deposited at PS, but am planing to in a couple of weeks (School vaca is still on and I am a dad, so not much playing at the moment. As soon as school starts up I am bak on the felt). Anyway, I will check this out.

Thanks for this info!!! These are exactly my stakes. I play mainly FT and avoid the 1$ due to insanely high rake - and I have no RB, sadly - so I will make a deposit to put me in a good BR for the 3$ games. And hope I can stay there...lol

Thanks, Fletch. Hope it goes well for you.

Great article, very instructive, thank you !
But i play 45man and 180man turbo SNG´s on Stars, is there a similiar contest ? Or ony the Tournament Leaderboard (TLB) ?!

I don't know...looking at last weeks' leaderboards, you'd have to be running extremely hot just to get in the top 100 in either orbit.

Hell, if you played in the 27 man SNG's and cashed 4th or 5th place in 20 times in a row, it still wouldn't be enough to make top 100 in low orbit.

If you played the 9-man SNG's and placed 1st 5 times, 2nd 3 times and 3rd 12 times, you still wouldn't make top 100.

Not to mention that the games have to be played in 20-game blocks. You can't play 40 games, place really well in 20 of them scattered evenly over those 40, and get the points. It's 1-20 and 21-40 blocks.

It seems like a nice potential bonus, but you're not going to see big returns on it unless you're already doing extremely well.

High orbit on the other hand seems a lot easier...guess the higher number of games lowers the effect of people just running really hot over 20 games.

your math is off that would be 522 points good for 8th last week and a spot in the bop.

Cool...I like this. Thanks for posting!

lol. this thread is finding new life.

dam this seems confusing as hell after reading the Pokerstars page

so...i wanna play....so i can enter any 18man SnG and it will give me leaderboard points?? or are certain tables named "venus"?? i wanna play right now...so... hmmm

Nah just play any sng from 6 seaters to 27 man games and if you cash you will get points towards that weeks leaderboard. There are no special things you have to do other than play enough games. You get more points if you play games with more players in so 6max sngs will not get you as many points as the 9 man and so on. So you will want to either find a game you are cashing in a high % or find games with a good point return.

I like the 18 man games if you hit 1st or 2nd in these you get some good points.

As said in the OP there are two leaderboards for each buy-in level.

LOW- your best total points after 20 games played in week.

HIGH- your best total points after 100 games in a week.

You can play as many games as you want pokerstars will just take your best score for both blocks if you play more than 20 or 100.

'Venus' is just the name of the planet for certain buy-in ranges.

In the picture posted, the top image is the name of the planets and the buy-in range. This include turbo SNGs, but not HU or DoNs.

Below it is the point system for ITM finishes. The more players involved, the better your finish, the more points you earn.

And finally, if you look in the PokerStars' lobby > Request > Sit and Go Leader Points: you can track how many points you have and how many games you need to complete your block. Updates aren't instant and usually take a few minutes after you finish a game/session. Below it in Request is the SNG Leader Board, where you can see where you place in the top 100 for either orbit.

In December, I'm going to attempt to place in the Low and High Orbits for $1.75 18-seat Turbo SNGs.

Attached Images

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very nice! i tried a couple 18 mans...no top finishes lol..dammit

you make it sound good philthy will have to give them a shot

Hey, good tread,..

I started to know about BOTP when i received 10$ for finishing 44th in the low orbit

I like it very much, but i played now like 931 1,75$ 18-mans with a ROI of 19,15%, en the 10$ is the only time i received some price untill now, so easy its not for sure,...

greetz

Smoke weed or drink beer. weed is beeter for you. You will need this for the paitence and tilt from the sickness of these micr sng plays and players. Just some advice!!! And listen to good music (like Ronald Jenkees or RJD2) GL All!

If you drink or smoke too much it could be that you turn into a beet ?

Veggified imo.

To the op:

Though it has taken me 3+ months to find this thread I will give it a try.

I'm still clearing my first deposit bonus on pokerstars anyhow.

Seems Philthy has a good handle on this and it could use an update.

Is this a continuing promo or is it date dependent?

Should we even consider it a promo or is it more like a program like the astronomers freerolls? Which technically are promo's but they have been going on for so long they are really just part of a program.

I have never heard of this BOP thing, and missed this thread before today.

well i am sure that this is a promo, but one that will remain for long

greetz

It's been going on for so long on Pokerstars. It's a continuous promotion.

This thread is funny. It gets bumped, dies down. Gets bumped again...

Just got bumped again philthy,
Was looking at pro-mo's on PS website,and noticed the BOP.
Looked up BOP in the CC Search tab,and found this thread.
Having read your discription of how the points,rake,and prizes all work out,I found this all very informative.
Thanks for breaking all this down into such fine detail.
Think I will take this on as a January challenge.
Good luck in your BOP as well!!
Thx again for the post!

Thanks philthy, this thread was very informative. I just started playing SnGs on pokerstars and didn't even know about this promotion, but am definitely gonna keep an eye on my points to see if I am close to winning some money. I have 8 more to complete my first block, and been running kinda hot!




I know u posted this question a while ago... I saw this on the FAQ page:

"We will also be excluding any tournaments that are already eligible for the Multi-Table Tournament Leader Board (i.e. any tournament with 40 or more players)."

So it seems no BOP for anything with players of 40 or more.

Great thread. I don't play a Poker Stars (yet) but is there anything like this at Full Tilt. I've noticed that they have a leaderboard for certain games. Is this the same thing?