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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

PHILIPPINES TAKE FIRST EVER PARTYPOKER.COM WORLD CUP OF POOL

The Filipino dream team of Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante become the inaugural PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool Champions as they hammered Team USA 13-5 in front of a packed arena at the Newport Centre, South Wales.

The American duo of Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris were expected to make a match of it but a combination of bad luck and loose shots on the part of the Americans and unrelenting skill from the Filipinos meant there was only one winner.

With upwards of 900 people in the arena including a large contingent of expatriate Filipinos, the atmosphere was electric and the tension mounted as the two teams shared the first eight racks of the race-to-13 final...

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

From there though things unraveled for the Americans. They lost control of the cue ball on the break and consequently found it difficult to get anything going.

By contrast the Philippines turned up the heat with Reyes in particular playing a series of stunning shots to get out of jail and pot some seemingly impossible balls.

The second half of the match became something of a procession as the Philippines won seven consecutive racks to leave their opponents in no mans land.

Team USA got one back to take the score to 11 -5 but Reyes and Bustamante knocked off the final two racks to take the magnificent silver trophy, the title and a cheque for $60,000.

â€œItâ€™s funny that every time there is a new big tournament, I win it but all week I thought if we could get to the final we can win, said a delighted Efren Reyes after the match.

â€œThe USA is a good team but they were unlucky and that made it easy for us. The support of the fans was brilliant, theyâ€™ve come from all over Britain and have looked after us all week.â€

Bustamante was thrilled to take poolâ€™s first ever World Cup event; â€œIn the beginning there was a lot of pressure on us but when we went three games ahead it all lifted, he said.

â€œEfren played lots of unbelievable shots; some of them Iâ€™ve never seen in my life! Thatâ€™s why we won.

â€œThey were unlucky because they didnâ€™t get the shots after the break but when he plays perfect and I play good we knew we had a great chance and it is a great feeling to be World Cup of Pool champions.â€

For the Americans, Rodney Morris summed up their feelings; â€œThat was pretty disappointing. After 4-4 it didnâ€™t go our way although the match was closer than the score suggested but when it went to 7-4 we were both pretty deflated and felt it slipping away.

â€œWe never really got a clear shot off the break and it was a tough hill to climb but they played great â€“ the way they were supposed to so congratulations to them,â€ he added.

THE STATS

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.

The Teams
Canada	Luc Salvas & Tyler Edey
Croatia	Philipp Stovanovic & Ivan Kralj
Czech Republic	Roman Hybler & Michal Gavenciak
England A	Raj Hundal & Ronnie Oâ€™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

THE LAST 32
Canada	9 : 5	Thailand
Malaysia	9 : 3	Qatar
Czech Republic	9 : 6	Poland
Philippines	9 : 0	Malta
Taiwan	9 : 6	India
England "B"	9 : 6	Korea
Russia	9 : 3	Hungary
Hong Kong	9 : 8	Sweden
Japan	9 : 0	Indonesia (Walkover)
Spain	9 : 8	England "A"
USA	9 : 6	Singapore
Germany	9 : 2	Wales
Finland	9 : 5	Ireland
Italy	9 : 2	South Africa
Vietnam	9 : 8	Croatia
Holland	9 : 5	Scotland

THE LAST 16
Philippines	9 : 5	Malaysia
USA	9 : 3	England "B"
Taiwan	9 : 4	Japan
Hong Kong	9 : 8	Russia
Czech Republic	9 : 8	Canada
Italy	9 : 2	Finland
Germany	9 : 5	Spain
Vietnam	9 : 8	Holland

THE QUARTER-FINALS
Germany	9 : 4	Taiwan
Vietnam	9 : 8	Italy
USA	9 : 3	Hong Kong
Philippines	9 : 6	Czech Republic

THE SEMI-FINALS
USA	9 : 7	Vietnam
Philippines	9 : 7	Germany

THE FINAL
Philippines	13 : 5	USA

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