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WSOP IN FULL SWING

Greetings from the Rio, where the 39th annual World Series of Poker just entered its second week of play. The big story seems to be … that there isn’t a story. In recent years, most of the news that has come from the halls of the Rio convention center early in the WSOP wasn’t always good, as players and the media often chose to focus on the negatives, like long lines, and experiments gone wrong. This year, however, the player, fan, and media experience has gone really smoothly. I haven’t seen a line at registration longer than about 20 people, and the tournament room seems to be humming along just fine, thanks.

NEGREANU UNVEILS NEW POKERVT TRAINING SITE

Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu and Las Vegas-based LightSpeed have teamed up to create and launch a new poker training site hosted by Negreanu, one of the game’s most poplar players. Dubbed PokerVT (VT stands for “Virtual Training”) and found at pokervt.com, the site will offer a series of “virtual oneon- one” poker lessons with Negreanu and other pro players, along with a poker math course taught by stats and probability professor Charley Swayne. Other noted pros joining Negreanu on the PokerVT site include Paul Wasicka, Annette Obrestad, Adam Junglen, JC Alvarado and Justin “BooostedJ” Smith.

POKERSTARS LIFE BALL 2008 DONATIONS TOP €150,000

Top online poker site PokerStars’ charity efforts regarding the China earthquake have really set a standard for the industry. PokerStars’ good works also include the Life Ball 2008, dedicated to the ongoing battle against AIDS. Stars and its players combined for a contribution of more than €150,000 to this very worthy cause, which was announced at Austria’s historic Vienna City Hall on May 17.

Life Ball is Europe’s largest charity fundraiser, and the recent event drew 40,000 attendees and was highlighted by a Sharon Stone appearance. More than 190,000 Stars players took part in freerolls and made contributions to the effort. PokerStars was a sponsor of the Life Ball 2008 event, and hosted a live charity poker tournament in conjunction with the gathering.

Written by John Caldwell

pokerplayernewspaper.com