>perl -wMstrict -le
"use Data::Dump;
 ;;
 my @GET_STRING =
   ('no', '*nine', '*(not)', '* yes', '* (yup)', '* ya)');
 ;;
 my @ra = map { $1 if / ^ \* \s \(? ([^\)]+) \)? /x } @GET_STRING;
 dd \@ra;
"
["", "", "", "yes", "yup", "ya"]

##</code><code>##

>perl -wMstrict -le
"my @GET_STRING =
   ('no', '*nine', '*(not)', '* yes', '* (yup)', '* ya)');
 ;;
 my ($first) =
   map { / ^ \* \s \(? ([^\)]+) \)? /x ? $1 : () } @GET_STRING;
 print qq{'$first'};
"
'yes'