Our fellow SRK member, Hevad “Rain” Khan, has made the final table (top 9) in the World Series of Poker Main Event! He’s currently 7th place in total chips with a little under half what the chip leader has. Hevad has played tremendously throughout the week and has risen to the top of a field that initial consisted of 6358 players!

The action continues Tuesday (Monday is a day off for the players).

Nothing more to say other than:

“GET THAT MONEY!”

Hevad “Rain” Khan is known as Viet Khan on the SRK boards, has made it to day 4 in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Currently in 15th Place at the time of this post, with almost 1.2 million in chips, he is looking to take the title of World Champion. Hevad is also known for playing 28 tables at one time on Poker Stars. He was accused of being a bot, until he proved himself to be human by taping himself at the computer.

Our own Tony Cannon (Ponder) is in Las Vegas right now giving live updates in the #capcom channel on EFnet. Hevad successfully spotted and identified Tony as he was playing.

For updates, you can check out Hevad’s progress out at Pokernews.com.

For live updates, head on over to #capcom on EFnet.

 All of us at Shoryuken.com wish you the best! Get that money!

For the past year, Maj has been working on a surprise combo video for everyone attending Evo World this year.  With August just around the corner, it’s about time we gave you guys a sneak peek at the ambitious project.  Download the SF? Guile Exhibition (Evo2k7 Edition Trailer) at Sonic Hurricane and get hyped for the full video showing on the big screen in Las Vegas in less than two months!

It’s coming up on a year since the U.S. has had its best showing ever. For the first time in almost 3 years, we showed the Japanese that they could no longer come to our tournaments and walk all over us in every event. Most of us cheered, as a gang of U.S. players took down one Japanese player after another, including the legendary Daigo. It was a proud moment. But, it’s a new year and as tough as last year’s tournament was, this one will be even tougher.

How to get better for Evolution

So the big question on everyone’s mind is “How do I get better for Evolution”? Well the obvious answer would be to practice, practice, practice, but we all know that doesn’t guarantee anything. So, here are my 3 tips that will improve your game. You might not come out of this dominating Daigo, but if you follow my advice, you will player better and hopefully have better results.

Practice with a Purpose
Don’t just play the game for hours on end with no game plan, this won’t get you anywhere. When Tito Ortiz, or Oscar De La Hoya are preparing, they don’t just train mindlessly, they have a game plan and so should you. It’s what makes champions. Find out what your weaknesses are, such as match you hate, set ups you always fall for, cheap tactics you can’t reverse, moves you can’t figure out how to counter…. and so on. Then practice with the purpose of improving the areas of weakness. If you do this right, you should see improvement immediately. Most people don’t realize it, but often time we lose because players take advantage of the same weakness over and over again, it’s your job to learn a counter and stop getting your ass kicked. There is an old saying “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”

Learn some good characters
You like T-hawk… that’s great, but learn someone else too. You may think your proving a point by being loyal to one character, but the only thing you’re proving is how much of a “One trick pony” you are. Good players know many characters. They have the ability to change it up and play a back up character if things aren’t going well. Winning tournaments is about using all the tools available to you. You wouldn’t try to build a car with just a screwdriver, would you? Use all the tools available to you and learn 2-3 really good characters. By doing this, you’ll never have to make the excuse of “I’m so much better but he played an unfair match….boo hooo hoooo”. Bottom line; learn more characters and you will have more tools to win with.

Learn your enemies’ tricks, and how to counter them
YouTube is a great resource right at our finger tips. You should be watching videos and not only learning tricks and setups but also counters to tough moves. By taking time to study matches, you won’t be surprised when the Japanese come over and pull of a fancy combo, you should have seen it many times already. So take some time, watch the videos and write down tricks that you could learn and integrate in your game, and also traps that you have to watch out for. If you do this right, you’ll be one step ahead of your competition.

Ok, these are my pearls of wisdom. Hope you guys can take this and beef your game up in time for Evolution 2007. Last year I kept hearing “The Japanese are coming!” This year they’ll be saying “The Americans are back!”. Should be fun, see you guys there. USA!