| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 22–27 August 2006 |
| Venue | Newport Centre |
| City | Newport |
| Country | Wales |
| Organisation | Matchroom Sport |
| Format | Single Elimination |
| Total prize fund | $250,000 |
| Winner's share | $30,000 per player |
| Final | |
| Champion |  Efren Reyes andFrancisco Bustamante |
| Runner-up |  Earl Strickland andRodney Morris |
| Score | 13–5 |
← N/A 2007 → | |
The2006 World Cup of Pool (also known as the2006 PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professionalnine-ball pool competition, the firstWorld Cup of Pool, ascotch doubles knockout championship representing 32 national teams. The event was held at theNewport Centre inNewport, Wales, from 22 to 27 August 2006. The event was held as asingle-elimination tournament, for a total prize fund of $250,000 with $60,000 being awarded to the winner. The tournament was organised byMatchroom Sport, sponsored by poker websitePartypoker, and broadcast onSky TV.
The event was won by the Filipino team ofEfren Reyes andFrancisco Bustamante who defeated the American duo ofEarl Strickland andRodney Morris 13–5 in the final. The event saw multiple world pool champions in the field, as well assnooker world champions inSteve Davis andRonnie O'Sullivan. The unseeded Vietnamese team ofNguyen Thanh Nam andLương Chí Dũng reached the semi-finals, where they won $8,000 each, three-times the country's national average wage.
The 2006 World Cup of Pool was a pairsnine-ball tournament played atNewport Centre inNewport, Wales.[1] The tournament was played between 22 and 27 August 2006 asscotch doubles, with players taking shots alternatively.[1][2] Matches were played as arace-to-nineracks until the final, which was played as a race-to-thirteen.[3][2] The tournament was asingle-elimination bracket, consisting of 32 teams.[1] The event was played with the alternatingbreaks system, as to the traditionalwinner breaks as seen in other nine-ball events. The tournament was the inauguralWorld Cup of Pool event, sponsored byPartypoker, and created byMatchroom Sport.[1] The event was filmed and broadcast by Matchroom Sport across 31 single hour programs onSky TV.[4][5]
A total of $250,000 was made available for the prize pool, with $60,000 being awarded to the winning team.[4] Money earned by the team was shared between their players. A breakdown of prize money is shown below:[4][6]
| Stage | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | $60,000 |
| Runner-up | $30,000 |
| Semi-final | $16,000 |
| Quarter-final | $10,000 |
| Second round | $5,000 |
| First round | $3,000 |
| Total | $250,000 |
The field consisted of 32 teams, with England having two teams.[7] The participating teams are shown below, numbers in brackets denote seeded teams.[4][6]
Canada (Luc Salvas and Tyler Edey) (8)
Croatia (Philipp Stovanovic and Ivan Kralj) (15)
Chinese Taipei (Wang Hung-hsiang andYang Ching-shun) (5)
Czech Republic (Roman Hybler and Michal Gavenciak)
England A (Raj Hundal andRonnie O'Sullivan) (13) England B (Steve Davis andDaryl Peach)
Finland (Mika Immonen andMarkus Juva) (7)
Germany (Thomas Engert andOliver Ortmann) (4)
Hong Kong (Lee Chenman and Kong Man-ho)
Hungary (Vilmos Foldes and Gabor Solymosi)
India (Dharminder Lilly and Alok Kumar)
Indonesia (Imran Ibrahim and Ricky Yang)
Ireland (Tommy Donlon andPaddy McLaughlin)
Italy (Fabio Petroni and Angelo Millauro) (10)
Japan (Maasaki Tanaka and Satoshi Kawabata) (12)
Korea (Jeong Young-hwa and Lee Gun-jae) (14)
Malaysia (Patrick Ooi Fook Yuen and Ibrahim Bin Amir) (16)
Malta (Tony Drago andAlex Borg)
Netherlands (Nick van den Berg andNiels Feijen) (2) Philippines (Efren Reyes andFrancisco Bustamante) (1)
Poland (Radosław Babica and Mariusz Rote) (9)
Qatar (Fahad Mohammadi and Bashar Hussain)
Russia (Konstantin Stepanov and Konstantin Zolotilov) (11)
Scotland (Michael Valentine andPat Holtz)
Singapore (Chan Keng Kwang and Toh Lian Han)
South Africa (David Anderson and Yulan Govender)
Spain (David Alcaide and Rafael Guzman)
Sweden (Marcus Chamat andTom Storm) (6)
Thailand (Tepwin Arunnath and Amnuayporn Chotipong)
United States (Earl Strickland andRodney Morris) (3)
Vietnam (Nguyen Thanh Nam andLuong Chi Dung)
Wales (Rob McKenna andBen Davies)
The first round was played between 22 and 24 August.[4] The Filipino team ofEfren Reyes andFrancisco Bustamante won their match over Malta 9–0.[8]Steve Davis partneredDaryl Peach for the first time in the event, but still defeated the Korean team 9–6. Davis commented post-match, "It was hard to get ahead – every time we took the lead they got back into it but we stuck at it and came good in the end."[8] The second England team, however, lost on adeciding rack to Spain.Raj Hundal andRonnie O'Sullivan trailed 0–4 after just 20 minutes, but tied the match at 7–7. O'Sullivanscratched on the break in rack 15, butRafael Guzmán of Spain missed a shot on the9-ball to allow the English team to lead 8–7.[9] The Spanish side however took the next two frames to win the match.[9]
In travelling to the event,Luc Salvas lost hiscue stick, so he and Canadian partnerTyler Edey shared a cue, but still won 9–5 over Thailand.[10] Sweden and Hong Kong featured a deciding rack. Hong Kong trailed 1–4, 6–2 and 8–5, but tied the match at 8–8. With just the final two balls remaining,Lee Chenman made a difficult8-ball to allow the Hong Kong team to win 9–8.[11] Chenman later commented that theodds of 2/1 against the team winning prior to the match pushed them to victory.[11] In their match against the host Wales team, the Germany team ofThomas Engert andOliver Ortmann took an early 6–0 lead, and won 9–2.[9] The Japanese team received awalkover against Indonesia, as the later failed to secure visas to compete at the event.[11] The unseeded Vietnamese team ofNguyen Thanh Nam andLương Chí Dũng won 9–8 over Croatia in a match full of errors.[12][13] The Dutch team ofNiels Feijen andNick van den Berg defeated the Scottish pair 9–5.[13]
The second round was played 24 and 25 August.[4] The remaining United Kingdom team, the England B side were eliminated by the US team ofEarl Strickland andRodney Morris. The teams were tied at 3–3 but the US team won six straight racks to win 9–3.[13] Fifth seed Taiwan were tied at 4–4 with Japan, before winning the next five racks to win 9–4.[14] Hong Kong completed their second 9–8 win, this time over 11th seed Russia.[14] The Canadian side trailed 4–7, but won the next four racks to lead 8–7 over the Czech team. However, the Czechs won the final two racks to reach the quarter-finals.[14] The Filipino team defeated Malaysia 9–5.[13]
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The quarter-finals were played on 26 August.[4] The Vietnam team of Nguyen Thanh Nam and Lương Chí Dũng won their third match in the tournament 9–8, this time over the Italian team.[15][16] The Italians led the match 8–7, but acombination andtable-length shot on the2-ball by Nguyen allowed the Vietnam team to win the match.[15][17] The German team of Ortmann and Engert defeated the Taiwanese team 9–4.[18] The Philippine team (and top seeds) defeated the Czech Republic 9–6.[19] The Filipino team won the first three frames, but won just one of the next seven to trail 4–6.[19] However, they then won the next five frames to win the match. Bustamante called the match "scary", and said that they had "played badly".[19][20] With pre-tournament odds of 150/1, the Hong Kong team were defeated 3–9 against the American team.[19]
The semi-finals were played 27 August.[4] The first semi-final was held between the Philippines and Germany. The Filipino team led 5–4, and won rack 10 with a fluke, escaping from a snooker and took the next to lead 7–4.[21] The German team won the next three racks to tie the match 7–7.[21] The Philippines won the next rack, before Ortmann missed banking the 2-ball in rack 16 and the Filipino team cleared the table to win 9–7.[21] The second semi-final was held between the Vietnam and US teams.[22] The unseeded Vietnam team had already beaten three seeded teams to get to the semi-finals, and won the opening rack. They then came from behind to tie the match at 3–3, before the US team won three racks in a row.[22] The US team also had a three rack advantage at 8–5 to go to thehill.[22] Nguyen made a difficult shot on the 9-ball in rack 14, and also won rack 15 to trail 7–8. Breaking to gohill-hill, Nguyen missed a shot with the cue behind his back on the5-ball allowing the US team to take the rack and win 9–7.[22] Even in losing, the pair won $8,000 each, three-times the national average wage in Vietnam.[17]
The final was contested on the evening of the same day as a race-to-13 racks, between Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante of the Philippines and Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris of the US.[4][23] The final was attended by a crowd of 900 people, the majority of which wereExpatriates supporting the Philippines.[23] With the scores tied at 4–4, the Philippine team won 7 consecutive racks, to take a 11–4 lead, and eventually win the final 13–5. Morris said of the match: "That was pretty disappointing. After 4–4 it didn'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. We never really got a clear shot off the break and it was a tough hill to climb but they played great – the way they were supposed to so congratulations to them."[23][24] Bustamante commented that the event win was due to his partner's play saying, "Efren played lots of unbelievable shots; some of them I've never seen in my life! That's why we won."[25]
Below is the results from the event.[4] Teams in bold denote match winners. Numbers to the left of teams represents the team's seedings.[26][27]
| Round 1 Race to 9 | Round 2 Race to 9 | Quarter-finals Race to 9 | Semi-finals Race to 9 | Final Race to 13 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Philippines | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Malta | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Philippines | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16 | Malaysia | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16 | Malaysia | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Qatar | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Philippines | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Czech Republic | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 | Poland | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Czech Republic | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Czech Republic | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Canada | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Canada | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thailand | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Philippines | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Germany | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Chinese Taipei | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| India | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Chinese Taipei | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12 | Japan | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12 | Japan | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indonesia | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Chinese Taipei | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Germany | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13 | England 1 | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spain | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spain | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Germany | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Germany | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wales | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Philippines | 13 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | United States | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | United States | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Singapore | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | United States | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| England 2 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14 | South Korea | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| England 2 | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | United States | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hong Kong | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11 | Russia | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hungary | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11 | Russia | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hong Kong | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Sweden | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hong Kong | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | United States | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnam | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Finland | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ireland | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Finland | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | Italy | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | Italy | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| South Africa | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | Italy | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnam | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15 | Croatia | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnam | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnam | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Netherlands | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Netherlands | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scotland | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||