 Earl Strickland |
The hopes for a US win at the 2003 empirepoker.com World Pool Championship now rest squarely on the shoulders of Earl Strickland.
The US started with five players remaining in the field of 32 on Thursday, but those numbers dwindled to one by the end of the day. Rodney Morris, and his Team Fury partner Max Eberle, both lost hill-hill matches while Danny Harriman and Teddy Garrahan lost later in the evening.
The US players were not the only competitors losing hill-hill matches, as Nick van Den Berg lost on the hill to Efren Reyes and Marc Holtz lost on the hill to Luc Salvas. It was Salvas' second straight hill-hill win in the single elimination stage of the event.
Strickland kept his hopes of a repeat victory alive with a 9-3 win over Haruyoshi Hinokiyama from Japan and will face Steve Davis friday on the TV table. Other marquee matches include Efren Reyes vs Francisco Bustamante and Mika Immonen vs Ching-Shun Yang.
We were able to share a couple words with Strickland after the matches were done on Thursday and got his thoughts on the match with Davis tomorrow and the rest of the field. You can read those comments in our mini-interview with Earl Strickland.
Results - Last 32
Alex Pagulayan (Can) 9 - 8 Rodney Morris (USA)
Ramil Gallego (Phi) 9 - 6 Kun-Fung Lee (Tpe)
Sin-Young Park (Kor) 9 - 1 Niels Feijen (Hol)
Alex Lely (Hol) 9 - 5 Che-Wei Fu (Tpe)
Marcus Chamat (Swe) 9 - 3 Jang-Su Lee (Kor)
Hui-Kai Hsia (Tpe) 9 - 8 Max Eberle (USA)
Tony Drago (Mal) 9 - 4 Danny Harriman (USA)
Young-Hwa Jeong (Kor) 9 - 2 Marlon Manalo (Phi)
Ching-Shun Yang (Tpe) 9 - 3 Ralf Souquet (Ger)
Mika Immonen (Fin) 9 - 1 Niclas Bergendorff (Swe)
Earl Strickland (USA) 9 - 3 Haruyoshi Hinokiyama (Jap)
Steve Davis (Eng) 9 - 6 Kunihiko Takahashi (Jap)
Thorsten Hohmann (Ger) 9 - 3 Teddy Garrahan (USA)
Luc Salvas (Can) 9 - 8 Marc Holtz (Lux)
Francisco Bustamante (Phi) 9 - 3 Lee Vann Corteza (Phi)
Efren Reyes (Phi) 9 - 8 Nick van den Berg (Ned)
Winners advance to the last 16, losers receive $2,000.
Last 16
Alex Pagulayan (Can) v Ramil Gallego (Phi)
Sin-Young Park (Kor) v Alex Lely (Hol)
Marcus Chamat (Swe) v Hui-Kai Hsia (Tpe)
Tony Drago (Mal) v Young-Hwa Jeong (Kor)
Ching-Shun Yang (Tpe) v Mika Immonen (Fin)
Earl Strickland (USA) v Steve Davis (Eng)
Thorsten Hohmann (Ger) v Luc Salvas (Can)
Francisco Bustamante (Phi) v Efren Reyes (Phi)
