I first met Noah Boeken in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was my first time in the country and the first time my luggage had been lost overseas. It was also the first time I'd covered a poker tournament in Europe. I walked around in the same clothes for two days and tried to figure out how much the Kroner with the hole in it was worth.

My European friends pointed out Boeken and said, "He's Marcel's protege. You might know him as Exclusive."

Word on the street was he was a good player, and he proved his reputation a worthy one as he chopped his way through the field and landed right next to his mentor at the tables.

Noah Boeken and Marcel Luske, circa January 2005

By and by, Noah outlasted Marcel, made the final table, played a marathon heads-up match with Ram Vaswani, and walked away with the EPT Scandinavian Open championship--something about which I'm sure the Scandis are still a little sore.


Noah gives his winner's interview

Noah's been around the Series for a couple of weeks now. He's managed to go deep a couple of times, but hasn't yet finished this year with a big score. That could change today.

Last time I checked in, Noah's stack was better than average. Ten minutes after I sat down to write this, a member of the Dutch media popped in to say Noah was sitting on 180,000 in chips--about 50% above the current average--and has a shot at making it very, very deep.


Noah Boeken today in Day 2 of the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event

As I told you last night, Team PokerStars' Tom McEvoy also made Day 2. At the time, I wrote:

Thirty years ago, McEvoy was basically an unknown. He made his way into a satellite, played the main event, and has spent the last 25 years making a name for himself both in tournament poker and as a poker author. When McEvoy won his championship, Boeken was two years old. Now, thanks to online poker and the globalization of the game, both men are making their way through a field so big it would've seemed silly a few years ago. On this stage, they are equals with only their chip stacks marking their difference.

Today, McEvoy made it to 93rd place and cashed out for $5,378.


Tom McEvoy in Day 2 of the $2,000 no-limit hold'em event

Meanwhile, Noah is battling through the field and shows no signs of relenting. So, since I started making declarations earlier today, I'm going to declare this Day of the Boeken and see if Noah can repeat his performance from the first time we met.

Either way, Day of the Boeken sounds pretty cool. I may have t-shirts made.

Update: Forget about the t-shirts. While Noah made a great showing, he ended up running into aces and going out in 40th place for $15,000. Good work, Noah.