Pro9 - Europe's No.1 Pool Player Resource

The World Cup of Pool
The Newport Centre
Venue
The Newport Centre
1 Kingsway
Newport
South Wales
UK
NP20 1UH
Tel: 01633 656757
www.worldcupofpool.com

Tuesday-Sunday 22-27 August 2006

Venue information, tickets, schedule, teams, seedings, format, match schedule, rules, sanctioning, and lots more too!

32 national teams representing 31 countries are gathering in Newport , South Wales in preparation for the inaugural PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool which gets underway at the Newport Centre on Tuesday afternoon, 22 August.

From the Far East to North America , from Europe to Africa , some of the world�s greatest cuemen will do battle over six days for the $250,000 prize fund, with $60,000 going to the winning two-man team.

The format is 9 ball, straight knock-out, �scotch� doubles whereby players take alternate shots and the opening round matches are race to 9 with alternate break.

Click on "Read More..." for the details.

The tournament, which is produced by England-based company Matchroom Sport, will be seen in a highlights package to be broadcast around the world later this year.

There will be four former 9-Ball World Champions in the field � Earl Strickland (USA), Mika Immonen ( Finland ), Efren Reyes ( Philippines ) and Oliver Ortmann ( Germany ) � while snooker stars Ronnie O�Sullivan and Steve Davis are also taking part.

The PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool is the biggest pool event to be held in B rita in since the 2003 World Pool Championships were held in Cardiff .

Betting favourites are Team Philippines represented by the pairing of Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante whilst many like the chances of the American pairing of Rodney Morris and Earl Strickland.

Other notables in the field include Holland (Nick van den Berg and Niels Feijen ), the German duo of Engert and Ortmann and Team Taiwan represented by Yang Ching-shun and Wang Hung-hsiang.

All the action, including rack by rack scoring, will be covered by www.worldcupofpool.com

Tickets

All tickets for the 2006 World Cup of Pool are FREE and available in person from the Newport Centre or from Matchroom Sport.

Send an e-mail to info@matchroom.com with your name, address and details of how many tickets you want for what sessions and Matchroom Sport will post the tickets to you.

Schedule

Tuesday 22 August 2006
2.00 - 3 x L32 matches, 7.00 - 3 x L32 matches
Wednesday 23 August 2006
2.00 - 3 x L32 matches, 7.00 - 3 x L32 matches
Thursday 24 August 2006
2.00 � 3 x L32 matches, 7.00 - 1 x L32 match, 2 x L16 matches
Friday 25 August 2006
2.00 - 3 x L16 matches, 7.00 - 3 x L16 matches
Saturday 26 August 2006
2.00 - 2 x L8 matches, 7.00 - 2 x L8 matches
Sunday 27 August 2006
2.00 - 2 x Semi-final, 7.00 - The Final

Teams

32 in total (19 from Europe, 11 from Asia, 2 from the Americas � USA and Canada - and 2 others � Qatar and South Africa).

The Teams
Canada	Luc Salvas & Tyler Edey
Croatia	Philipp Stovanovic & Ivan Kralj
Czech Republic	Roman Hybler & Michal Gavenciak
England A	Raj Hundal & Ronnie O�Sullivan
England B	Steve Davis & Daryl Peach
Finland	Mika Immonen & Markus Juva
Germany	Thomas Engert & Oliver Ortmann
Holland	Nick van den Berg & Niels Feijen
Hong Kong	Lee Chenman and Kong Man-Ho
Hungary	Vilmos Foldes & Gabor Solymosi
India	Dharminder Lilly and Alok Kumar
Indonesia	Imran Ibrahim and Ricky Yang
Ireland	Tommy Donlon & Paddy McLaughlin
Italy	Fabio Petroni & Angelo Millauro
Japan	Masaki Tanaka and Satoshi Kawabata
Korea	Jeong Young-hwa and Lee Gun-jae
Malaysia	Patrick Ooi Fook Yuen and Ibrahim Amir
Malta	Tony Drago and Alex Borg
Philippines	Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante
Poland	Radoslaw Babica & Marius Roter
Qatar	Fahad Mohammadi and Bashar Hussain
Russia	Konstantin Stepanov & Konstantin Zolotilov
Scotland	Michael Valentine & Pat Holtz
Singapore	Chan Keng Kwang and Toh Lian Han
South Africa	David Anderson and Yulan Govender
Spain	David Alcaide & Rafael Guzman
Sweden	Marcus Chamat & Tom Storm
Taiwan	Wang Hung-hsiang and Yang Ching-shun
Thailand	Tepwin Arunnath and Amnuayporn Chotipong
USA	Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris
Vietnam	Thanh Nam Nguyen and Chi Dung Luong
Wales	Rob McKenna & Ben Davies

Seedings

16 of the 32 teams have been seeded and will be kept apart for the first round of matches.

The seedings are as follows �

1. Philippines.
2. Holland.
3. USA.
4. Germany.
5. Taiwan.
6. Sweden.
7. Finland.
8. Canada.
9. Poland.
10. Italy.
11. Russia.
12. Japan.
13. England A.
14. Korea.
15. Croatia.
16. Malaysia.

Format

The PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool consists of 32 national pairings in a straight knock out scotch doubles single elimination format.

The opening two rounds are race to 9 racks with the quarter-finals and semi-finals race to 11 and the final race to 13.

Each match is alternate break and with the scotch doubles format the players take alternate shots at each visit.

MATCH SCHEDULE
Seeded teams with brackets.

2pm Tuesday August 22
Round 1 � race to 9
1. Thailand v Canada ( 8 )
2. Qatar v Malaysia (16)
3. Czech Republic v Poland (9)

7pm Tuesday August 22
Round 1 � race to 9
4. Philippines (1) v Malta
5. Taiwan (5) v India
6. Spain v England A (13)

2pm Wednesday August 23
Round 1 � race to 9
7. Japan (12) v Indonesia
8. Hungary v Russia (11)
9. Hong Kong v Sweden (6)

7pm Wed August 23
Round 1 � race to 9
10. England B v Korea (14)
11. Singapore v USA (3)
12. Wales v Germany (4)

2pm Thursday August 24
Round 1 � race to 9
13. Ireland v Finland (7)
14. South Africa v Italy (10)
15. Vietnam v Croatia (15)

7pm Thursday August 24
Round 1 & 2 � race to 9
16. Scotland v Holland (2)
17. Philippines (1)/Malta v Qatar/Malaysia (16)
18. Singapore/USA (3) v England B v Korea (14)

2pm Friday August 25
Round 2 � race to 9
19. Taiwan(5) /India v Japan(12) /Indonesia
20. Hungary/Russia (11) v H K/Sweden (6)
21. Cz Rep /Poland (9) v Thailand/Canada ( 8 )

7pm Friday August 25
Round 2 � race to 9
22. Ireland/Finland (7) v S Africa/Italy (10)
23. Spain/England A (13) v Wales/Germany (4)
24. Vietnam/Croatia (15) v Scotland/Holland (2)

2pm Saturday August 26
Quarter Finals � race to 11
25. QF 1
26. QF 2

7pm Saturday August 26
Quarter Finals � race to 11
27. QF 3
28. QF 4

(Schedule of QF will be decided once the line-up is completed.
QF matches will be�
A. Winner of 17 v winner of 21
B. Winner of 19 v winner of 23
C. Winner of 18 v winner of 20
D. Winner of 22 v winner of 24)

2pm Sunday August 27
Semi Finals � race to 11
29. SF 1 � Winner of A v winner of B
30. SF 2 � Winner of C v winner of D

7pm Sunday August 27
Final - race to 13
31. F � Winner of 29 v winner of 30

Prize Fund
(To be split equally by each pair)

The Prize Fund
Winners:	US$60,000 x 1
Runners Up:	US$30,000 x 1
Semi-Finalists:	US$16,000 x 2
Quarter-Finalists:	US$10,000 x 4
Last 16:	US$5,000 x 8
Last 32:	US$3,000 x 16
Total US$250,000 * All prize money is split between the two players.

Rules of Play

All matches will be played to WPA Standardised Rules of 9 Ball.

The format of play is �scotch doubles� with alternate break being in force. This means that there will be teams of two players with each player taking alternate shots.

Order of Breaking

Two players, one from each team, lag for the break. The team that wins the lag then elects one of its team to break.

From there the sequence of breaking for that team is set: Player A breaks the 1st, 5th, 9th, 13th etc racks and Player B breaks the 3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th racks etc.

Once the opening rack is complete, the second team elects a player to break the second rack. Once done, their sequence of breaking is then set.

Order of Play

Players in each team play alternate shots throughout except for the break shot when it reverts to sequence.

Push out � If Player A breaks, Player B then pushes out if the situation requires. If the opponents decline the shot, the Player B will play the next shot.

Shot Clock

There will be a 45 second shot clock in force throughout the tournament.

There will be a 10 second warning issued to the player at the table when 35 seconds have elapsed.

Each team is allowed one 45 second extension per rack. They must signal this to the referee by clearly saying �Extension�.

The onus is on the player to make himself loud and clear.

The referee will then repeat 'extension' to confirm that they have heard it. The player may call 'extension' at any time during the 45 seconds - the additional 45 seconds will not start until the initial 45 seconds has elapsed.

Ball cleaning, the use of a rest / mechanical bridge, or any other regular interventions by the referee will be included in the 45 second period.

Sanctioning

The 2006 PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool is sanctioned by the World Pool Association which is the world governing body for pool and administers the game at many levels across the globe.

Membership of the WPA is made up of continental members which currently consists of Africa, Asia, Europe, North America Oceania and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Individual national associations are in turn members of their continental associations.

Other Information

Table Used - Brunswick Metro
Brunswick Billiards is the official table suppliers to all Matchroom Sport pool events, a relationship which began at the 1998 Mosconi Cup. This year Matchroom Sport has been using the new Metro �Tournament Edition� tables, with tight pockets. With a tradition of quality that spans over a century and a half, Brunswick Billiards is a legendary name in the billiard industry. A division of the Brunswick Corporation, Brunswick Billiards is headquartered in Bristol, Wisconsin and is a marketer and manufacturer of a complete line of premier billiard tables, table lights, cues, cue racks, and accessories.
Contact: info@brunblrds.com

Cloth Used � Simonis 860
Matchroom Sport and Simonis already enjoy a long-standing relationship that dates back over a decade and the prestigious Belgian company are suppliers to Matchroom Sports� entire roster of pool events. Simonis 860 cloth covers the tables at the World Pool Championship, the Mosconi Cup, the World Pool Masters, the World Pool League and the World Cup of Pool. Founded over 300 years ago in the city of Verviers, Simonis cloth stands today as the benchmark to which all billiard cloths aspire. Suppliers to major tournaments all over the world, Simonis technicians are constantly improving the quality of its cloth to maintain its position as the world�s finest .
Contact: iwansimonis@iwansimonis.com

Balls Used � Saluc Super Aramith
For several decades, Belgian Aramith Billiard Balls have had a legendary reputation for outstanding endurance, performance and uncompromising quality. That is why they are the balls used at the World Cup of Pool as well as all other Matchroom Sport pool events. Made by Saluc, Aramith�s excellence is the result of a high-tech process that combines that combines the unmatched characteristics of phenolic resin with fine Belgian craftsmanship. Their consistently reliable performance guarantees razor-sharp precision. Their exceptionally long product life offers the table owner the lowest ball cost on an annual basis. That is how Aramith for almost half a century gained its legendary reputation as signature for true and unrivalled quality
Contact: info@aramith.com

Official Cue - Predator
Predator is the Official Cue of the inaugural World Cup of Pool in this, the fifth year of an ongoing relationship with Matchroom Sport. In addition, they are also the Official Cue to the full roster of Matchroom pool events in 2006. Since its creation in 1992 and thanks to the constant research effort put into the understanding of Pool Cue performance dynamics, Predator strives to stimulate the sport and help pool players improve their game by being at the cutting edge of pool cue performance. Currently over 50% of the top Currently over 65% of the top 40 US male professionals use Predator technology (Source:UPA rankings - Dec 2005).
Contact: info@predatorcues.com

Comments