RaiNKhaN takes honours in Hold’em 100

Hevad Khan, the vocal and popular final tablist at this year’s World Series of Poker main event maintained his run of form yesterday by winning the Hold’em 100, the charity event founded 12 years ago which raises money for the Royal Marsden Cancer Fund in the UK.

Tearing through a field which included fellow Team PokerStars players Daniel Negreanu, Noah Boeken, Chris Moneymaker, Katja Thater, Dario Minieri and guest of honour Gavin Griffin (winner of the EPT Grand Final last March), Hevad - known as “RaiNKhaN” on PokerStars, won a tense heads-up battle against Hold'em 100 regular Rory McCafferty, a 34-year-old IT support analyst from Lewisham, London. Rory, whose mum Cathy has made the Hold'em 100 final table three times, won £1,500.

2007 Hold’em 100 Final Table Results

1. Hevad Khan £1,500 + £5200 seat to London EPT [*]
2. Rory McCafferty £1,500
3. Valentine Low £1,000
4. Geoff Marsh £650
5. Barney Cordell £400
6. Phil Shaw £250
7. Geoff Henman £100
8. Mark Patrick £80

[*] since Hevad is already playing London, he will defer the seat to Baden EPT in Austria, October 7-10, 2007.

In town for the EPT London which starts tomorrow, Hevad finished 6th at the WSOP main event this summer, winning $956,243. But it’s hard not to have seen or at least heard of the 22 year old former ‘Starcraft’ player before that break through result.

RainKhaN's unorthodox playing practices brought him to the attention of the PokerStars security team some months ago, when they thought they had dentified 'bot' activity. In other words, they thought it impossible for a human to play so many Sit & Go’s online at the same time. To clear his good name, Hevad made a video of himself playing 36 Sit & Go’s and sent it to PokerStars support.

Case closed.

Being the type of guy who lives for online poker Hevad jumped from the Hold’em 100 final into the $1,000 WCOOP event on PokerStars, doubling up on the first hand when he spiked a queen to make a set against pocket Kings. Then two hands later he did the same, spiking a ten to match the two in his hand again against kings, only this time the board filled out a straight for his opponent.

The Hold’em 100 marked Hevad’s debut appearance as a Team PokerStars player. Not a bad way to warm up for the EPT marathon this week. Congratulations to him, to organisers and to the 78 runners who raised over £8,000 for the Royal Marsden Cancer Fund. Whoever said that poker players weren’t generous?