Ask the many players whose poker fun is within the play chip games what exactly are they playing for. They enjoy the game, despite some nasty turn cards crushing aces or in the case of a certain railbird tonight, losing with big slick against ten-nine preflop. Tonight's monthly Battle of the Planets $50,000.00 triple shootout freeroll, our final three divvied up the remaining $24,000.00 with David Vff getting the lion share of $9,317.44. But, they played on to see who would get their name in the headline, and it was Shhmenaru' from Romania claiming the November title despite no further monetary gains.

It would take one hour and 47 minutes to condense our starting player pool of 598 down to nine tables of 81 as 13491349 would limp away on the money bubble as the remaining 81 players enjoyed at least $195.00 for winning their table.

Just before the third hour of the tournament the floodgates towards the final table opened. 8oggo8 (Bulgaria), David Vff (Peru), Shhmenaru' (Romania), buddha2325 (Philippines), and jaxx2012 (Ukraine) all claimed their seats within five minutes of each other as heads-up play continued on the other four tables to determine who would get a shot at the $12,000.00 in free cash.

VeoTuzKartas would be the first to claim one of the four remaining seats knocking off Alex.i1off. First, after getting big slick to do its work against ace-nine, then two hands laterfinishing off the Russian with king-seven versus king-three to claim a final table seat. crusty64 would overcome cracked aces late by VIP Supernova Limels to grab the second chair.

spiran7 would outkick xiaoxiaumao. With the blinds up to 125/250 ante 25 spiran7 would min-raise from the button as xiaoxiaumao check called the 500 chip [6c] [3s] [7h] flop bet. [3d] on the turn and xiaoxiaumao would check-raise spiran7's 625 chip bet to 2,250. Holding top pair [Qs][7s] spiran7 would shove as xiaoxiaumao holding just 1,240 chips behind made the call with [6d][Qh]. The kicker problems sent xiaoxiaumao to the rail after the [Tc] in 11th place.

Over on table eight our last pair, unluckybs and scott96dl, were finishing up the battle for the final spot. With the blinds still at 125/250 ante 25 and scott96dl holding an 8,525 to 4,975 chip lead scott96dl would shove over the top of unluckybs' min button raise. Holding a decent heads-up hand [Ad][9d] unluckybs made the call. However, scott96dl flipped up pocket aces [Ah][As] and survived the flush draw scare [7d] [6s] [6d] [4s] [7c] to claim the last spot at the final table below:

Seat 1: crusty64 (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: buddha2325 (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: spiran7 (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: jaxx2012 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: Shhmenaru' (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: David Vff (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: VeoTuzKartas (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: scott96dl (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: 8oggo8 (1500 in chips)

Eight is not enough

The PokerStars Host would drop by the final table to potentially settle up nearly $4K in winnings for all nine winners. But, one player decided to look away from chatbox or abstain from the deal. Without complete table consent play would continue into the 15/30 blind level with the $12,000 still sitting up top.

Going to be a mad dash to the cash

With the blinds all the way up to 50/100 and no eliminations players started to push constantly preflop to grab the blinds. Unfortunately, twice in row those shoves were intercepted by a better hand. First, 8oggo8 would shove all-in for just 570 chips getting a call from buddha2325 on the button. spiran7 in the small blind however had other plans and re-shoved for 1,965. buddha2325 calm was rocked and folded as spiran7 showed pocket queens [Qd][Qs]. 8oggo8's pocket sixes failed to find another on the [2s] [Th] [8c] [5s] [Ad] board to earn $775.00 in ninth place.

On the next hand, buddha2325 with 325 chips left after folding them to spiran7's shove, would try again and shoved over a min-raise from David Vff. Having to call just 125 chips was made easier holding pocket aces [As][Ah]. buddha2325's [Ad][Tc] would catch one ten, but not two [3h] [Th] [Qs] [2s] [2d] to exit in eighth place.

David says hey hey hey goodbye to two players

With the blinds up to 75/150 and despite a rail friend who apparently did not appreciate David Vff's play during the earlier rounds the Peruvian would mow down two players quickly. First, spiran7 would shove from middle position for 1,480 as it folded around to David Vff in the small blind holding big slick [Kh][Ad]. David Vff would re-shove for a bit more shutting out the big blind as spiran7 revealed pocket sixes [6s][6c] for the flip. The ace [Js] [7d] [Ah] [7c] [4d] hit the middle of the board and spiran7 hit the rail in seventh place ($1,700.00).

Three hands later David Vff would corner scott96dl all-in as well. Check out the hand below as a little luck adds to David Vff's stack:

RSS readers please click through to view video

scott96dl, who has made this final table before back in 2010 http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/botp/2010/battle-of-the-planets-smart-alex245-take-069165.html would get a disappointing finish tonight after [Qd][Ah] would be nicked by David Vff's [Td][Ac] when a ten hit the [2c] [Tc] [2h] [8s] [7d] flop. scott96dl earned $2,200.00 in sixth place.

Vff that's gotta hurt

Ground down to just 675 chips with the blind still at 75/150 and in the big blind VeoTuzKartas had little choice to try to make something happen with the new chip leader David Vff shoving from the small blind. [Kh][6h] turned out to be the better hand preflop as David Vff revealed [Ts][2s]. However, post-flop was a different story as spades rained upon the [Js] [As] [5s] [Td] [Ks] board to kill any chance of a small stack revival, ending VeoTuzKartas' night in fifth place ($2,735.00).

More David means less players

Still in the 75/150 blind level, the original deal abstainer jaxx2012 was still in the running to earn more than the $4K split at the beginning. jaxx2012 would raise to 750 from the button as David Vff called in the big blind. After the [2d][9d][6c] flop jaxx2012 would lightly toss in the remaining 33 chips showing a king-high flush draw [Kd][8d] as David Vff was much further behind with queen-high [Jc][Qc]. No bother though as a jack hit the turn [Jh] and with an ace on the river [Ah] jaxx2012 earned $3,350.00 in fourth place.

Now you may deal

With jaxx2012 gone our final three produced this deal below to dole out the remaining cash in the prize pool effectively ending the tournament:

David Vff: $9,317.44
crusty64: $7,682.56
Shhmenaru': $7,000.00

Shhmenaru' would handle knocking out crusty64, then overtook David Vff for the chip lead. For pride reasons the two would continue their play into the 100/200 blind level as Shhmenaru' completed the comeback and took down David Vff for the November Battle of the Planets title!

PokerStars Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Freeroll result (11-24-13):

Players entered: 598
Places paid: 81
Prizepool: $50,000.00 (freeroll)

(* denotes part of three-way deal)

1. Shhmenaru' (Romania) *$7,000.00
2. David Vff (Peru) *$9,137.44
3. crusty64 (Germany) *$7,682.56
4. jaxx2012 (Ukraine) $3,350.00
5. VeoTuzKartas (Costa Rica) $2,735.00
6. scott96dl (Ireland) $2,200.00
7. spiran7 (Greece) $1,700.00
8. buddha2325 (Philippines) $1,200.00
9. 8oggo8 (Bulgaria) $775.00

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

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