By now, we know WSOP main event ninth-place finisher James Akenhead pretty well. But what you may not know is Akenhead is part of a group of rising poker stars that call themselves the “Hit Squad.”

Akenhead has proven to be an outstanding player, but he’s not the only member of the Hit Squad making poker headlines. Praz Bansi, who won a bracelet in no-limit at the 2006 WSOP, is coming off a third-place finish at the WSOPE main event. The rest of the Squad has combined for dozens of big tournament cashes.

Squads, teams and crews are nothing new in poker. No poker fan can forget — even though they’ve tried — the endless features on “The Crew,” a group of upstart players which included Dutch Boyd, Scott Fischman, Joe Bartholdi and Brett Jungblut. Before there was the crew, before the Internet and online poker, Allen Cunningham, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu and Layne Flack would meet weekly to discuss strategy.

Like the Hit Squad, each group member’s success seems tied to the other’s. There’s nothing like the confidence of seeing a friend — someone you regularly beat and whose game you’re familiar with — win a big tournament.

You get better at this game through experience, and it helps to have someone there with you, to talk about that questionable check-raise you made, to tell you to raise less and to pour over hand histories until the wee hours of the morning. Your group doesn’t even need to have experience, just look for friends who are strangely eager to listen to your bad beat story — that’s when you’ll know.

Learn from the pros before you, find your own Hit Squad and you’ll find your game.