Calculating Points for Category and Sub-Category Combined

I'm currently using a points system that uses the query below to list who has the most points in a category or any category directly below it (using 'links_to' and 'links_from' in the 'category_relations table').

SELECT  u.name, 
        pa.user_id, 
        SUM(IF(pa.plus = '1', pa.points_amount, 0)) - 
        SUM(IF(pa.plus = '0', pa.points_amount, 0)) AS points
FROM    points_awarded pa, Users u
WHERE   u.user_id = pa.user_id AND 
        (
           category_id = '" . $category_id . "' OR 
           category_id IN
               (
                   SELECT links_to
                   FROM category_relations
                   WHERE links_from = '" . $category . "'
               )
        ) 
GROUP BY user_id 
ORDER BY points DESC 
LIMIT 50

What I'm now looking to do is switch this query to look for all categories for a specific user instead of looking for all users for a specific category. Below is the query i've tried to use, but this only includes points for the category and not sub categories directly below.

SELECT   u.name, 
         pa.user_id, 
         pa.category_id,
         SUM(IF(pa.plus = '1', pa.points_amount, 0)) - 
         SUM(IF(pa.plus = '0',pa.points_amount, 0)) AS points
FROM     points_awarded pa, Users u
WHERE    u.user_id = pa.user_id AND 
         u.user_id = '" . $user_id . "'
GROUP BY pa.category_id 
ORDER BY points DESC 
LIMIT 50