PokerStars has such a stranglehold on that top online poker room spot that there isn’t really a #2 competitor. There’s PokerStars and then everyone else. The numbers overall. I believe that they have more regular active players than every other online poker room combined, which is about 30,000 cash players during peak European evening hours.

The PokerStars Tournament Ranking System. Here's how it works: The top 15% of finishers in each event will receive points towards the PokerStars Tournament Leader Board standings, based on the number of entrants, the tournament buy-in, and place of finish. Texas Hold’em - Hand Ranking Before you hit the online poker tables, you’ll need to familiarise yourself with the basic hand rankings and rules that govern Texas Hold’em. Here are the 10 hands every player should know before joining the action.

Here's how it works: The top 15% of finishers in each event will receive points towards the PokerStars Tournament Leader Board standings, based on the number of entrants, the tournament buy-in, and place of finish.

Note: Sit & Go tournaments with less than 40 players, satellite tournaments, heads-up tournaments, shootout tournaments, restricted-entry tournaments, private tournaments, play money tournaments, Astronomer Freerolls, Weekly Round 2 tournaments and VIP Freerolls do not count towards the rankings.

Only your 10 best results will be counted for the weekly rankings, 20 best results for the monthly rankings, and 100 best results for the yearly rankings.

The formula used to determine the total points awarded to a player (in the top 15% of finishers) for any given tournament is:

Points = 10 * [sqrt(n)/sqrt(k)] * [1+log(b+0.25)]

Where:

n is the number of entrants
k is the place of finish (k=1 for the first-place finisher, and so on)
b is the buy-in amount in US Dollars (excluding entry fee). For freerolls the buy-in is $0, and for FPP tournaments 1 FPP is counted as $0.0161. If the tournament is not a US Dollar tournament, the buy-in will be converted to US Dollars using the current exchange rate at the time the tournament begins.

Downloadable Excel sheet to calculate TLB points - leaders.xls.

Example 1: A player takes third place in a $20 tournament with a field of 150 players. Here:

n = 150, k=3, b=20

The total points awarded to this player are:

= 10 * [sqrt(n)/sqrt(k)] * [1+log(b+0.25)]
= 10 * [sqrt(150)/sqrt(3)] * [1+log(20+0.25)]
= 10 * sqrt(50) * (1+1.31)
= 10 * 7.071 * 2.31
= 163.09 (rounded up)

Example 2: A player takes 25th place in a freeroll with a field of 900 players. Here:

n = 900, k=25, b=0

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The total points awarded to this player are:

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= 10 * [sqrt(n)/sqrt(k)] * [1+log(b+0.25)]
= 10 * [sqrt(900)/sqrt(25)] * [1+log(0+0.25)]
= 10 * sqrt(36) * [1+(-0.60206)]
= 10 * 6 * 0.39794
= 23.88 (rounded up)

Example 3: A player takes 10th place in a 200 FPP tournament with a field of 250 players. Here:

n = 250, k=10, b = 200 * 0.0161 = 3.22

The total points awarded to this player are:

= 10 * [sqrt(n)/sqrt(k)] * [1+log(b+0.25)]
= 10 * [sqrt(250)/sqrt(10)] * [1+log(3.22+0.25)]
= 10 * sqrt(25) * [1+(0.540329]
= 10 * 5 * 1.540329
= 77.02 (rounded up)

The PokerStars tournament ranking formulas are designed to reward excellent performance and frequent play. The annual tournament rankings are based upon a calendar year, starting on January 1.

All players making their first deposit qualify for the PokerStars 100% deposit bonus of up to $600.

PokerStars has tournaments with giant prize pools running every day. Take your shot at the Daily Bigs!

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