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.

TWO GOOD GUYS BREAK THROUGH
One topic that always seems to elicit lively discussion is the discussion of the "best player to never win a bracelet." Two people that were always on that list were Erick Lindgren, and David Singer. Both have wins in $10k events, and have multiple WSOP final tables to their credit.

Both players notched their first WSOP bracelets this week- ironically, within a couple hours of each other. Lindgren outlasted a tough final table that included Howard Lederer, David Williams, Roland de Wolfe, "ZeeJustin" Bonomo, and many more. Singer, playing in his eighth WSOP final table, finally got his first piece of hardware by winning the $1,500 Pot-Limit event.

PARTY SETTLEMENT RUMORS LABELED 'PREMATURE'
Share prices in PartyGaming leveled off after major financial outlets reported talks of a possible settlement by the company with the US Department of Justice as "premature." Gibraltar-based Party's stock, which is traded on the London exchange, spiked over 10 percent last week when rumors of the settlement were reported by virtually every major financial outlet. Uncertainty over Party's US future remains a hindrance to an extended climb for the company's stock, though several analysts rate the company as a medium-term buy at the moment.

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.