Last year, I wrote an extensive piece in this magazine on the current state of Dutch poker. I wrote about people like Marcel Lüske, Rob Hollink, Ed de Haas, Arno Weber, and Dennis de Ruiter. Those were the people who at that time (February 2005) had proven themselves for such a long time that they truly deserved the title "top players".
But in less than 18 months, a bunch of new players have shown what they are capable of doing. A long list of Dutch players have played excellent poker in recent times, including Peter Dalhuijsen, Sven Polarski, Steve Wong, Teddy Wong, RaSZi, RomarioX, Nazgul18, Demokritos, Scorpy, Daniel Smidt, Joep Durkstra, Justin Bliek, Jordy Veenboer, Daniël Pastor, Michiel Brummelhuis, Pieter-Jan Postmus, Johan Rensink, Sijbrand Maal, Marc Naalden, and Abel Meijberg.
But the most recognizable young Dutch face of all is without a doubt Noah "Exclusive" Boeken. He has worked his way up in a manner that is so characteristic of the young guns nowadays: They move up fast, and even before they have truly established themselves at a certain level, they already are busy setting newer (higher) goals for themselves. This issue contains a well-deserved cover story about this young man, who has just come back from a long poker trip to Vegas. The ramblings of Noah and his friends are compiled in a diary that describes their experiences on a daily basis - and I am certain that you will find this "Vegas Report" to be very interesting.
New columnist and magazine improvements
In addition to the start of an insightful four-part series on how to extract the maximum out of a big hand, by Rob Hollink, I also have the pleasure of announcing the addition of a new columnist, David Downing. Many of you will already know him from his blog, where he has a large group of loyal followers. Dave will be writing a monthly column for us about online play.
Finally, I am certain that you have noticed that the magazine has become thicker and looks great. With the increasingly large role that articles on European poker topics will play, I am certain that you will continue to enjoy the magazine even more.
