^

The opening round of 16 was over before it had started for one team. Vietnam were unable to rustle up enough players so the forty-four Russian Federation players had the pitch to themselves. They decided to put on a show anyway, and battled for over two hours until "Sano1975" took home the prize of almost 10M chips.

The Kazakhstan v New Zealand tie was much more hard fought, with the final heads up challenge lasting more than ten minutes before "Jubei Savona" took home honours for Kazakhstan.

France v Switzerland was pretty one-sided, and wrapped up within 45 minutes with only two Swiss players facing-off against the dominant French team. By contrast, the final two heads-up matches between Germany and Portugal included one player from each team. "Blacky551" ultimately prevailed for Germany.

Ukraine dominated in their tie, seeing off the final Slovenian player well before the half way point. Meanwhile the Spain v Hungary game saw a record turnout and a real hum-dinger. The holders Spain went in as firm favourites, but three Hungarian players refused to lie down and made the final four. However, pedigree would prevail with "Peregrino98" securing the quarter final spot for Spain.

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The Latin-American derby at 6pm saw two very evenly matched sides face off, with "Cesar Gaspa" taking the top spot for Brazil. Further north the United States made no mistake and turned up in droves to defeat Mexico for the final quarter-final place.

Now we enter the really competitive stage of the tournament, with the eight quarter-final teams proving they can bring something into their remaining matches.

Good luck to all the teams playing next weekend.

Catch up on previous stages of the World Cup of Poker here.

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