Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Anna Wroblewski - A Review

Name : Anna Wroblewski
Country : United States
Nicknames : poker pixie, viethottie21
Earnings : Around $820,000
2008 POY Rank : 534
2007 POY Rank : 2,175
Biography : listed below

Anna Wroblewski may be petite, small and single, but at such an early age, she holds a huge presence at the table. She burst onto the poker scene at the age of 18 and her story is one of “rags to riches.”

Beginning with her personal side, she was an orphan at age four in Vietnam and both her parents and baby sister passed away when she was very young. She has since then lived with different family members and finally when she was six or seven years old was sent to an orphanage. She and her other sister were both adopted by an American lady Marilyn Wroblewski in 1994, when she was about nine years old. Looking back she considers that she is more fortunate to be alive than being a poker player

She began playing poker when she was eighteen. It was her boyfriend in Chicago who taught her the basics of how to play poker. Being a beginner, she started playing with low stakes with a bunch of college students. After three months she got kind of hooked on to the game. Once she started winning big, she started to play in cash games shortly after. The more she played the more she won and she was hooked. Funnily, she did not even consider herself a good player

She shortly moved from Chicago to Las Vegas to play professional poker where she developed a gambling problem. Whenever she had funds in her account, she would move up stakes and would not stop playing until she got busted.

This is a common problem with most card players. They get carried away and lose a large amount. Eventually she busted her entire account and struggled with paying bills. The end result was she was forced to move back home to Chicago for five months.

She decided to travel back to Las Vegas for a second chance during the beginning of February in 2007. This time she felt that a job would help bring her some stability. She accepted a $10-an-hour job but took her first week’s paycheck straight to the casino.




She won a single-table tournament that got her a seat into a $2,000 buy-in preliminary event during the Bellagio Five Star Poker Classic tournament series. She cashed by placing sixteenth for a little more than $7,000. Wroblewski then used that money to buy into a $3,000 buy-in event. She took first place and the more than $337,000 prize that also came with a $25,000 seat in the World Poker Tour championship. Amazingly, she also cashed in that for more than $46,000.

And then there was no turning back

She was broke no more, and used her winnings to play in more tournaments. Noting that most of her accomplishments have come in the year 2007, her poker career seems to have a bright future.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

David Pham - A Review

Name : David Pham
Country : United States
Nicknames : The Dragon
Earnings : Around $7,300,000
2008 POY Rank : 9
2007 POY Rank : 2
Biography : listed below


Known in poker circles as “The Dragon,” David Pham has been known to light a fire under his opponents with his dominant play and aggressive style.

David Pham’s story begins with a break at a very early age, when the seventeen year old was one of only 46 out of 145 people, to survive a boat journey fleeing his native Vietnam for the United States. Since then he has been having odds at his side very often.

He joined the cleaning business of his cousin Men 'The Master' Nguyen, who had registered some success at the Las Vegas poker tables. He studied the game under his cousin and has learned well from the master. But like Ann, the poker pixie, he is more fortunate to be alive than having ended up as a poker player

Pham went bust his first time trying to play poker professionally with poker professionals earlier in his career. Since then, he came back in a major way, cashing in 17 major events in 2000. This was good enough to earn him Card Player’s Player of the Year honor. Every year since, he has been a regular fixture in the rankings.

Pham made history when he clinched a second Card Player Player of the Year award in 2007. In 2008, Pham also made the final table of the European Poker Tour Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure. He finished fourth out of a staggering 1,136 players who entered.

This Vietnamese-born player loves to keep things burning at the table and is always quick with a comment about the game.

For a guy who started his career working for a dry cleaning business owned by Men 'The Master' Nguyen, this is fabulous. He has since then won over $7,000,000 in tournaments over the years, and continues to perform well.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

SPARK Ventures funds Isango’s expansion programme

Isango, a leading provider of travel experiences on the internet has received $8m from SPARK Ventures. This fund has been identified to fund its next stage of growth. For Isango, the funding is its first institutional investment.

Led by SPARK, whose team was also a founder investor in the start-up of lastminute.com, has now led to the founding of Isango.com. SPARK Ventures is one of Europe's leading early-stage technology venture capital investors and is also known for previous investment success with PriceRunner and other internet-based businesses.

The funding process was broken into the following; with SPARK Ventures contributed $4m; Beringea, $2.5 million, coming from the top performing ProVen VCTs and the balance $1.5 million coming from the existing shareholders.

Founded in 1999, SPARK has built up a portfolio of investments in the technology, media and telecom sectors (TMT) ranging from enterprise software to digital media and semiconductors. Their current focus is on early stage investments with the objective of developing significant capital growth over the medium term. The SPARK team help develop businesses with world class potential by marrying their technology with the necessary capital, strategic and operational management support, commercial and marketing expertise.

Within two years, since its launch, Isango! has managed to gain a prominent market share and a leading reputation thanks to its multiple product categories and global coverage. This new funding should give Isango room to consolidate itself and further strengthen its current market position. Not to mention, the company’s future appears very solid

It works alongside travel companies, airlines, car rental firms, hotel groups and other portals that include Hertz, Teletext, Yahoo and WAYN.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Barry Diller dismisses Expedia buyout

Expedia Chairman, Barry Diller, announced that the company stands on its ongoing growth plans and dismissed newly resurfaced rumors that the online travel site would be made private.

Although, Barry has over 60 percent shareholding in Expedia, he told the media that he was against privatizing the company and blamed speculators for these rumors.

Like many Hollywood extravaganzas, Diller's production in the last two years has strayed a lot from its script and he has been a victim of changing industry trends. He said that he was so unsure and suspecting about the current markets, which makes anyone believe that there is something fishy behind everything. Unfortunately, it is this uncertainty that drives market rises and falls. Perhaps, excessive exposure to such conditions makes one a bit unstable and drives them to believe such rumors.

For those who came in late, Diller was the former head of Paramount Pictures and the founder of Fox Television Network. Now he is rebranding himself to dominate the entire sector of online commerce and has given priority to nothing else. However, IAC was still awaiting the formal go-ahead from the Exchange Commission

Though the rumor mills have been fairly quiet of late, it is believed that Google is in the middle of these two rumored deals. As a result, shares of online travel site Expedia were up by 2% on Wednesday, 28th May, 2008 which was more that of the previous day’s 10% gain on rumors of the potential buyout by Google.

Despite its growth slide, Expedia continues to amass 30% profit margins before most non-cash charges.

So don’t shed any tears for Barry Diller yet

Sunday, September 7, 2008

BAs Rise In Current Market Turbulence

Business class airline Silverjet may have gone into administration after running out of cash, but this cloud had a silver lining for British Airways

British Airways shares recently rose to 232.5p, thereby topping the FTSE100 and listing it at the top of potential gainers. The Silverjet fiasco, removed another potential competitor for the ever lucrative travel market. The meteoric rise was further helped by the fact that UA and US Airways would be merging to combat their difficulties

Besides, any unexpected fall in oil prices would only be to their benefit as BA has once again raised its passenger fuel surcharge costs. As a result any dip in prices would be profitable

Once upon a time, British Airways was one of the world's most profitable airlines and now this is just the opposite. Its shares have become close to half of what it was in May 1997.

So where did they go wrong?

The era of jetting around in style in the business class has passed for many executives. Instead, now they op to fly economy or take one of the many cheaper seats available on the number of bargain price airlines operating short hauls

This is definitely not good news for neither British Airways nor its CEO Bob Ayling. Basically, times are tight and the simple fact that they are losing its hold on the highly profitable business class customers. What you have now is an airline in desperate need of changing fortunes.

In other words, BA and Mr. Ayling in particular have a bumpy time ahead. It would, of course, be a major blow to a man whose career has simply soared away.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Personal Injury Claims

Personal Injury Claims relate to claims rising from injuries that incurred through carelessness, or recklessness, inaction, malpractice, or negligence of another individual, organization or business.

If you feel that you have been harmed, and that it is truly someone else's fault, you can sue for recovery of damages due to your injury.

If you have been injured by use of product, in a car accident or through some other act of negligence, you have suffered a personal injury and should consult with a personal injury lawyer or attorney.

Although the time following an accident cannot only be extremely difficult and confusing, DO NOT settle your personal-injury-claim without consulting a lawyer. Also choose a personal injury lawyer experienced in dealing with insurance companies and with trial experience

There are particular elements that must be addressed before a personal injury claim can be filed. Of course, the particulars vary from place to place, but the basics are as follows:


You must indicate that the person charged in your personal injury actually does bear legal responsibility.

You must prove that the damages you claim reflect your injury or loss

Once you have established the above facts, then you need to figure out which of these basic areas you will base your personal injury claim.


Personal Injury Claims are commonly linked to the below mentioned areas

Negligence.

This is essentially accusing the defendant that your injury was caused because he or she could have prevented it, and did not. For example, if your accident was caused by a defect on a path or pavement, for example an obstacle or pothole you may be able to bring a personal injury compensation claim against those responsible for maintaining the path or pavement. However it is to be noted that although slips and falls can often be the cause of some of the most painful injuries, if you were to some degree responsible for causing your injuries, it is unlikely that you will be able to make a personal injury compensation claim. Public Place Accidents:

Land and / or property owners have an obligation to ensure the safety of all visitors. In most cases insurance cover will be in place to ensure that an injured party will be able to make a personal injury compensation claim in the event of injury occurring.

Intentional Wrong.

Cases for intentional wrong are usually the results of criminal acts against victims. Victims of criminal acts normally do not receive monetary damages from the law. This is called and Intentional Wrong because the perpetrator is believed to have deliberately injured the victim

Product liability - faulty goods

These are cases arising out of a situation where products are defective and cause injury as a result of the defect. If you have been injured as a result of purchasing a standard consumer product, which is defective, then you may be able to claim compensation from the manufacturer/ supplier as well as individuals/ companies through whom the goods may have passed.

Other Accidents:

This category will include cases not listed above. For example sports injury cases, where an injury occurs 'on the field of play' due to the reckless actions of an opponent, or the failure of an official to apply the rules of the game in the way in which they should be applied.

Although most personal injury claims are settled out of court, personal injury lawyers sometimes obtain favorable out of court settlements. The defendants are often willing to pay out more money to avoid the expensive trials, negative publicity, and perhaps to avoid losing the case.

So, your lawyer's experience counts a lot in personal injury claims.