Team Philippines Wins First Ever World Cup of Pool


Newport Centre, Newport, Wales, UK - Team Philippines made up living-legend Efren "Bata" Reyes and two-time world number one Franciso "Django" Bustamante took home the $60,000 ($30,000 each) grand prize in the inaugural staging of the PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool.

The highly touted dynamic duo of Reyes and Bustamante was top seeded in the event and they did not disappoint. They trashed unseeded Malta 9-0 in the 1st round. Then they defeated 16th seed Malaysia in the second, 9-5. They doused the fire of the unseeded Czechs in the quarterfinals, 9-6. (The Czechs were counqurors of Poland and Canada, 9th and 8th seeds respectively). They avenged Marlon Manalo's loss agains German Thorsten Hohmann in the IPT North American 8-Ball Open by defeating 4th seed Team Germany in the semis, 9-7.

The finals was a dream match against 3rd seed Team USA composed of Rodney Morris and spitfire hall-of-famer Earl "The Pearl" Strickland. Team Philippines won the finals convincingly with a 13-5 drubbing of the US.

The tournament is 9-Ball Scotch doubles format and was held August 22-26.