Hsia rips foe in world pool

Hui-kai Hsia, the 28 year-old World Championship quarter-finalist from Taiwan, made light work of Swede Niclas Bergendorff in his first round match at the 2003 pokerempire.com World Pool Masters.

Filipino masters Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante were playing Tom Storm and Nick Van Den Berg, respectively at presstime.

Hsia was a late call up after compatriot Ching-shun Yang turned down the offer of a trip to Holland and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

He ran out rack after rack and Bergendorff’s misery was compounded when he missed a straight 9-ball at 7 - 2 down and that gifted the match to the talented Hsia.

That victory earned him a last eight match up against either World Champ Thorsten Hohmann or Holland’s Rico Diks.

In other matches, Finnish Mika Immonen trounced German ace Ralf Souquet, 8-5, to arrange a quarterfinal match with Alex Lely, who booted out Steve Davis, 8-3.