I am a hopeful person. I am optimistic to a fault. Ever in search of a good story, I pin my writing dreams on the skill and fortune of a select group of poker professionals. They spend their days trying to fade 13 twice, and I spend my days hoping they succeed. There are days like today that have such interminable promise that it’s almost impossible to suggest that at least some fine story won’t spring from the Amazon Room fountain.

It’s days like today that I can simply mutter, “Oh, well.”

As if to put a period on all of it, I walked up on Victor Ramdin as he got AQ in against AK in the today’s $1,500 NL event. The flop brought an ace. Victor got up to leave. The turn brought a queen.

“Hey, look,” I said. “A queen.”

The river brought a king.

My attentions had diverted form the 2-7 event Victor was in also, so I said, “Oh, well. How are you doing in the other one?”

Victor gave me a look that made me wish I was somewhere else.

“Terrible,” he said. “I’m out.”

Victor Ramdin

Victor was gone before I had a chance to apologize for being the cooler. Eventually these guys will catch on and banish me from their presence during key hands.

After starting with an exceptionally good chance at some big cash today, we are left at this hour with the prospects of just one player. At the dinner break, Bill Chen remains in the Limit 2-7 Triple Draw re-buy event.

With 28 players remaining, Bill has an average stack and is just a few players off the money. Six of those players will make the final table, scheduled to be played tomorrow.

A quick story for 2-7 players on the spooky game Bill is playing: Before the dinner break, he stood pat with 7744x and bet in every round, figuring he was holding cards his opponent needed to draw. After his opponent drew at every opportunity, Bill took down the hand after his opponent ended up mucking the worthless straight he drew.

Or, at least, that’s how I heard the story.

Bill Chen

I supposed if I’m going to pin my hopes on anything, it might as well be a guy who wrote the book “Mathematics of Poker.” Otherwise, it’s early to bed and early to rise for tomorrow’s gambler’s ball–$10,000 PLO re-buys.

That’s bound to be a good day.

As the World Series of Poker carries on and gets closer to the main event, the payouts have increased, and event #39 saw the highest payout yet this year.

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.

Anti-Internet gambling groups such as Focus on the Family have attacked pro-online gambling lobbying, yet legalization and regulation would solve the problems they present.

It’s been a while since I’ve uttered any kind of decree. Ever since losing my crown in an ugly game of 17-card Chinese poker, my ability to issue edicts, executive orders, and declarations of divine right has been severely curtailed. That said, with several members of Team PokerStars still alive in the $1,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw re-buy tournament, I have decided to declare this No-Straight Saturday.

Under order from PokerStars Blog Editor in Chief, Brad Willis, no member of Team PokerStars shall draw a straight in the third round of any Triple Draw hand. In the event said drawer accidentally pulls a straight, the drawn cards will be re-shuffled into the deck and re-dealt until the member has a wheel.

Still alive going into today’s late start in the event are Bill Chen (8,000), Daniel Negreanu (17,300), Greg Raymer (25,300), and Victor Ramdin (32,400).

My only problem in issuing the above is that there are players playing in other events today who might need a straight. Noah Boeken and Tom McEvoy are both back for Day 2 of yesterday’s $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event. It will be interesting to see if they can survive the day without making a straight once. Here’s to them finding flushes once an orbit.

Both of these events are going to have to squeeze tight today as one of the biggest tournaments yet–a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament–kicked off today at noon. It will likely be 9pm tonight before the Amazon Room is anywhere close to habitable for anyone who suffers form mild claustrophobia.

All in all, it’s going to be a big day here at the World Series…and a day free from straights if I have anything to say about it.