Although Noah Boeken (pronounced Boo-ken) has only been on the poker scene for a relatively short time, he has already established himself as a winning player. Well-liked for his enthusiasm and charisma, Boeken represents the new generation of poker pros who have asserted their dominance not only in live games but online as well.

Born in 1981 in Amsterdam, poker was not Noah's first foray into the world of professional card playing. An elite "Magic: The Gathering" player, Boeken traveled the globe in his earlier years playing tournaments and honing some of the skills which would come in handy down the road.

Noah won the 2000 European Magic Championship and had some high finishes in events around the U.S. as well. In a PokerListings.com exclusive video interview at the 2006 World Series of Poker, Noah talked a bit about how his experience with Magic has helped him at the poke table.

"I played tournaments all over the world so I was already into card games and tournaments. My friends started playing poker and that's how I got into it and it's just the same thing.

"The [Magic] tournaments were always for money prizes so I was always ready to go out there and play for money so I wasn't under pressure. It's the same thing with poker when it's for big money; I'm not under pressure at all."

It was a short time into his academic career as an economics student that Boeken began playing poker seriously. A highly motivated young man with a natural talent for numbers, Noah decided that university life was not for him and dropped out to pursue poker full time.

In the beginning of his career Noah made his presence known by being a consistent winner online. He was determined and played constantly, soon becoming known to many as a dangerous and skilled opponent.

In making the transition to live play, Noah was lucky enough to hook up with "The Flying Dutchman" Marcel Luske, who he developed a mentor/protégé relationship with. The wisdom passed on to him from the poker veteran has helped Boeken immeasurably in improving his game.

Marcel emphasized the importance of modesty and respect for oneself and for other people both on and off the felt. With the help of Luske and his own confidence and ability, Boeken has already amassed an impressive résumé of tournament finishes.

Although many know Boeken as "Exclusive" - which was his online name - he has since come to be called "Mini-Marcel" because the two are almost always seen together.

Noah's first breakthrough came in October 2004 when both he and Luske made it to the final table at the EPT event in London. His first big win came the next year in 2005 at the EPT Scandinavian Open in Copenhagen when he beat Ram "Crazy Horse" Vaswani in heads-up play to take down the first prize of $191,000 and change.

With a few more cashes including a final table at the WSOP later that year, Noah has proved that he has the expertise needed to compete in big tournament poker.

Although Noah enjoys the poker pro lifestyle he understands the downsides as well, and hopes to partly phase poker out of his life by the time he is older. With a long career ahead of him, though, it will be interesting to see how far this rising star can climb. With the help of his mentor and his attitude of perpetual self-improvement one thing is for sure, he's got a shot.