Poker Tournament Ranking System :

Here are the details of how Poker Tournament Ranking System Works : The top 15% of finishers will receive points for Tournament Rankings standings, based the number of entrants, the tournament buy-in, and place of finish. Note: "Sit-and-go" tournaments with less than 45 players, "Sit-and-go" satellites, heads-up tournaments, shootout tournaments, restricted-entry tournaments, private tournaments, FPP tournaments, play money buy-in tournaments, VIP Freerolls, and satellite tournaments do not count towards the rankings.

The formula used to determine the total points awarded to a player (in the top 15% 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 dollars (excluding administrative fee). For freerolls the buy-in is $0, and for FPP tournaments 1 FPP is counted as $0.05.

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

The total points awarded to this player are:

= 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 * 0.05 = 10

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(10+0.25)]
= 10 * sqrt(25) * [1+(1.01)]
= 10 * 5 * 2.01
= 100.54 (rounded up)

< Source : http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/>