USA Power Through

USA cruised into the semi-finals to finally end the resistance of brave Hong Kong in the PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool.

Hong Kong, dismissed as 150/1 outsiders before the tournament, had defeated seeded teams Sweden and Russia in earlier rounds but were thrashed 9-3 by America, the competition’s number three seeds.

Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris will now face Vietnam in Sunday afternoon’s semi-final and will be confident of securing their spot in the first ever World Cup final.

“We just stayed focused and didn’t lose track of our goal and stayed ahead," said Morris.

“It was very important to come out of the gate well to set the tone for the match and that’s what we did. If you get up but a couple of games in this format then you have a big advantage.

"Vietnam is the story of the tournament and they’re on a high with nothing to lose so they will come at us with full force.”

Hong Kong’s Lee Chenman had said the match against USA was the biggest of his career but if he had any nerves then he certainly was not showing them at the start. He won the lag for Hong Kong and then his side took the first rack with America not getting out of their chairs.

But that was as good as it got for Chenman and Kong Man-ho as an attempted safety shot on the blue two by Chenman went wrong and Strickland and Morris, w