ORCOLLO

Manila, Philippines — Dennis Orcollo and Roberto Gomez were more relieved than happy to win their first match in the PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool Wednesday night.

“We felt nervous. It’s a different feeling out there when your compatriots are watching,” said Orcollo after the Philippines Team B edged Crotia, 8-4, to advance into the Round-of-16 at the Robinson’s Place in Ermita.

“It wasn’t a pretty win. And we know we can do better than this,” said Gomez after the Philippine pair needed some breaks to pull away from a tight contest.

The towering Karlo Dalmatin and Philipp Stojanovic engaged the third seeded Filipino duo in a tense battle several times, the last when the score stood at 4-4, and had it not been for a foul by the Croats in the ninth rack, the outcome could have been different.

Dalmatin was assessed with a foul by the referee after his shirt touched the 9-ball as he was cueing for it.

Returning to the table, the Filipinos ran out the table on the way to securing a seat in the next round where they will join compatriots Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante, the defending champions.

Gomez, the losing finalist in the World Pool Championship in 2007, said they should use more power breaks in the next round where they will meet the winner of the Spain-Vietnam tussle.

“Dennis made three illegal breaks and I made one and we continued using the soft break. But next time we will put a bit more power in it,” Gomez said. “Maybe next time we will use our Superman or Robocop break. I’m just waiting to use the time bomb break.”

In other results, Daryl Peach and Karl Boyes of England defeated Qatar’s Mohammed Al Bin Ali and Bashar Hussain, 8-7; Japan trounced Slovenia, 8-7; Poland beat Malta, 8-6; and Taiwan’s Ko Pin-yi and Chang Jung-lin routed Malaysians Ibrahim Bin Amir and Lee Poh Soon, 8-2.