PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool

PartyPoker.com World Cup of PoolMATCHROOM Sport is delighted to announce details of the first ever PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool. The event, which will be held at the Newport Centre, Newport, Wales, from Tuesday, August 22 to Sunday, August 27, features 32 two-man teams from around the world and includes some of the sport’s greatest players.Among the field are four former 9-ball World Champions – Earl Strickland (USA), Mika Immonen (Finland), Efren Reyes (Philippines) and Oliver Ortmann (Germany) – while snooker stars Steve Davis, Tony Drago and Ronnie O’Sullivan will also be taking part.The format of the World Cup will see 31 matches taking place over six action-packed days and there will be afternoon sessions that begin at 2pm and evening sessions which start at 7pm.
Tickets for all of the sessions are FREE and can be collected from the Newport Centre.Alternatively, you can send an e-mail to info@matchroom.com along with your name, address, details of how many tickets you want and for what sessions then Matchroom Sport will mail your tickets to you.Each of the 31 nations will be battling it out for the $60,000 top prize and the Philippines, who are seeded No.1, are betting favourites to win the event. Their team comprises of 1999 World Champion Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante, who finished as runner-up in the 2002 World Championships and they will be up against Tony Drago’s Malta in one of the highlight matches of the first round.Holland, seeded No. 2, look to have a strong team as Niels Feijen and Nick van den Berg are ranked two and three in Europe respectively and they begin their tournament against Scotland’s Michael Valentine and Pat Holtz.Third seeds USA will be confident of doing well as their side consists of three-time World Champion Earl Strickland and former US Open winner Rodney Morris and they start with a match against Singapore.Welsh players Ben Davies and Rob McKenna will be hoping the home crowd, which will be upwards of 1, 000 people, get behind them and support them in their tricky opening round tie.Wales face fourth seeds Germany, whose side consists of current European No.1 Thomas Engert and 1995 World champion Oliver Ortmann.Taiwan, including former World Championship semi-finalist Yang Ching-shun, are seeded fifth and they play India while sixth seeds Sweden entertain Hong Kong.England will be represented by two teams, the A side consists of former snooker world No.1 Ronnie O’Sullivan and 1995 World Pool Masters winner Raj Hundal, and the B team includes snooker legend Steve Davis and highly-rated Daryl Peach.It promises to be an exciting, thrilling six days of top class pool so do not miss out and order your tickets NOW.For more information about the event visit www.worldcupofpool.com2006 PartyPoker.com World Cup of PoolThe 2006 PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool takes place at the Newport Centre, South Wales from Tuesday 22 to Sunday 27 August.Featuring 32 x 2-man national teams, the event has a scotch doubles format with alternate breaks.VenueThe Newport Centre, 1 Kingsway, Newport, South Wales, NP20 1UH; 01633 656 757, TicketsAll 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.ScheduleDay 1 – Tuesday, August 22 14.00 3x First Round Matches 19.00 3x First Round Matches Day 2 - Wednesday, August 23 14.00 3x First Round Matches 19.00 3x First Round Matches Day 3 – Thursday, August 24 14.00 3x First Round Matches 19.00 1x First Round, 2x L16 Matches Day 4 – Friday, August 25 14.00 3x L16 Matches 19.00 3x L16 Matches Day 5 – Saturday, August 26 14.00 2x Quarter-Final Matches19.00 2x Quarter-Final Matches Day 6 – Sunday, August 27 14.00 2x Semi-Final Matches 19.00 The FinalTeams: 32 in total (19 from Europe, 11 from Asia, 2 from the Americas – USA and Canada - and 2 others – Qatar and South Africa). Canada - Luc Salvas and Tyler EdeyCroatia - Philipp Stovanovic & Ivan Kralj Czech Republic - Roman Hybler & Michal Gavenciak England A - Raj Hundal & Ronnie O’SullivanEngland B - Steve Davis & Daryl PeachFinland - Mika Immonen & Markus JuvaGermany - Thomas Engert & Oliver OrtmannHolland - Nick van den Berg & Niels FeijenHong Kong - Lee Chenman and Kong Man-Ho Hungary - Vilmos Foldes & Gabor SolymosiIndia - Dharminder Lilly and Alok Kumar.Indonesia - Imran Ibrahim and Ricky YangIreland - Tommy Donlon & Paddy McLaughlinItaly - Fabio Petroni & Angelo MillauroJapan - Masaki Tanaka and Satoshi KawabataKorea - Jeong Young-hwa and Lee Gun-jaeMalaysia - Patrick Ooi Fook Yuen and Ibrahim Amir Malta - Tony Drago and Alex BorgPhilippines - Efren Reyes and Francisco BustamantePoland - Radoslaw Babica & Marius RoterQatar - Fahad Mohammadi and Bashar HussainRussia - Konstantin Stepanov & Konstantin ZolotilovScotland - Michael Valentine & Pat HoltzSingapore - Chan Keng Kwang and Toh Lian Han South Africa - David Anderson and Yulan Govender Spain - David Alcaide & Rafael GuzmanSweden - Marcus Chamat & Tom StormTaiwan - Wang Hung-hsiang and Yang Ching-shunThailand - Tepwin Arunnath and Amnuayporn Chotipong USA - Earl Strickland and Rodney MorrisVietnam - Thanh Nam Nguyen and Chi Dung LuongWales - Rob McKenna & Ben DaviesSeedings16 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.FormatThe 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 SCHEDULESeeded teams display seed number and brackets2pm Tuesday August 22 7pm Tuesday August 22Round 1 – race to 9 Round 1 – race to 91. Thailand v Canada (8) 4. Philippines (1) v Malta2. Qatar v Malaysia (16) 5. Taiwan (5) v India3. Czech Republic v Poland (9) 6. Spain v England A (13) 2pm Wednesday August 23 7pm Wed August 23Round 1 – race to 9 Round 1 – race to 97. Japan (12) v Indonesia 10. England B v Korea (14)8. Hungary v Russia (11) 11. Singapore v USA (3)9. Hong Kong v Sweden (6) 12. Wales v Germany (4)2pm Thursday August 24 7pm Thursday August 24Round 1 – race to 9 Round 1 & 2 – race to 913. Ireland v Finland (7) 16. Scotland v Holland (2)14. South Africa v Italy (10) 17. Philippines (1)/Malta v Qatar/Malaysia (16)15. Vietnam v Croatia (15) 18. Singapore/USA (3) v England B v Korea (14)2pm Friday August 25 7pm Friday August 25Round 2 – race to 9 Round 2 – race to 919. Taiwan(5) /India v Japan(12) /Indonesia 22. Ireland/Finland (7) v S Africa/Italy (10)20. Hungary/Russia (11) v H K/Sweden (6) 23. Spain/England A (13) v Wales/Germany (4)21. Cz Rep /Poland (9) v Thailand/Canada (8) 24. Vietnam/Croatia (15) v Scotland/Holland (2)2pm Saturday August 26 7pm Saturday August 26Quarter Finals – race to 11 Quarter Finals – race to 1125. QF 1 27. QF 326. QF 2 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 21B. Winner of 19 v winner of 23C. Winner of 18 v winner of 20D. Winner of 22 v winner of 24)2pm Sunday August 27 7pm Sunday August 27Semi Finals – race to 11 Final - race to 1329. SF 1 – Winner of A v winner of B 31. F – Winner of 29 v winner of 3030. SF 2 – Winner of C v winner of DPrize Fund (To be split equally by each pair)Stage US Dollars UK Pounds (approximate)Champions- $60,000 = £35,000Runners-Up - $30,000 = £16,245Semi-Finalists - $16,000 (x2) = £8,665Quarter-Finalists - $10,000 (x4) = £5,415Last 16 Losers - $5,000 (x8) = £2,710First Round Losers - $3,000 (x16) = £1,625Total - $250,000 = £135,415Rules of PlayAll 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 BreakingTwo 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 PlayPlayers 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 ClockThere 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.SanctioningThe 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 InformationTable Used - Brunswick MetroBrunswick 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.comCloth Used – Simonis 860Matchroom 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.comBalls 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 qualityContact: info@aramith.comOfficial 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

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