I remember the first time I saw Noah Boeken. I was new to the European poker circuit. It was a memorable trip for a lot of reasons. I'd lost my luggage on the way to Denmark and ended up having to go shopping with kroners just so I could meet the dress code to get into the casino. More memorable, though, was meeting Noah Boeken.

At the time, I only knew some of the faces I'd seen on American television. Sure, I recognized Marcel Luske, Ram Vaswani, and Julian Gardner. But, in the temporary poker area at Casino Copenhagen, Boeken looked just like any other young European player on the block. I remember writing his name down and having someone check the spelling on it.

Although I met a lot of people on that first trip to Denmark, Boeken ended up standing out in my head. The reason was pretty simple. He ended up winning the Scandinavian Open.

Noah strains under the weight of his winnings in 2005


Noah gives his championship interview, as runner-up Vaswani waits

It's now been more than two years since that day and I've seen Noah in more places than I can count. Now, it looks like I'll get to see him even more. It's just been announced that Noah Boeken is the newest member of Team PokerStars.

If you're not familiar with Noah, you can check out his bio on the Team PokerStars page: Noah Boeken.

Congratulations to both Noah and Team PokerStars for the beginning of what is sure to be a fun relationship.