The MIT Blackjack Team, as the name suggests, was a group of students and ex-students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who attempted to beat casinos at blackjack worldwide. The team and its successors operated from 1979 through the beginning of the 21st century.
The plan and operation
Blackjack gives the house a low statistical advantage compared to other casino games. Beyond the basic strategy of when to hit and when to stand, individual players can use a combination of betting strategy, card tracking, and card counting to improve their odds. Accurate card counting is a fairly difficult skill, but since the early 1960s a large number of schemes have been published — and casinos have adjusted the rules of play to counter the most popular methods.
The chance to make large amounts of money card counting appealed to some mathematically minded students at MIT. The university had card playing clubs, but some students decided to develop their hobby. The group combined the individual player advantages with a team approach of counters and players to maximise any opportunities and disguise the betting patterns card counting produces. In a 2002 interview in Blackjack Forum magazine, MIT team manager Johnny Chang reported that, in addition to classic card counting and blackjack team techniques, the group at various times made use of advanced shuffle tracking and ace tracking techniques. While the card counting techniques used by the MIT team can give players an overall edge of up to about 2%, some of the MIT team’s methods have been established as gaining players an overall edge of up to about 4%. However, in his interview Chang reported that the MIT team had difficulty attaining such edges in actual play, and their overall results had been best with straight card counting.
The original team recruited students through flyers posted around campus. The team tested interested students to find out if they were suitable candidates, and if they were, the team thoroughly trained the new members. A corporate called Strategic Investments bankrolled the team. With the backing of the corporation, they were able to play with a bankroll of hundreds of thousands of dollars, far larger than would normally be available to college students. Eventually, with team morale suffering after a series of large losses, the corporation closed shop, and the original team disbanded, to be replaced by several new teams founded by alumni of the first group.
The team approach used by the MIT groups was originally developed by Al Francesco, elected by professional gamblers as one of the original 7 inductees into the Blackjack Hall of Fame. Blackjack team play was first written about by Ken Uston, an early member of Al Francesco’s teams. Uston’s book on blackjack team play, Million Dollar Blackjack, was published shortly before the founding of the first MIT team. The team methods devised by Al Francesco, and later used by the MIT team, at first made it more difficult for casinos to detect card counting at their tables. Unfortunately, Uston’s books alerted casinos to the methods of blackjack team play, and several MIT team members were identified and barred. These members were replaced by fresh MIT students, and play continued. Investigators hired by casinos eventually realized that many of those they had banned had addresses in or near Boston, and the connection with MIT became clear. The detectives obtained copies of recent MIT yearbooks and added photographs from it to their image database.
With most of the original team barred, most members retired, having made an amount variously reported as $1 million to $10 million. Some members have used reports of their successes to start public-speaking careers or businesses selling blackjack card counting systems or running blackjack seminars.
In the media
The story of the MIT Blackjack Team was told in the documentary Breaking Vegas, in the book Bringing Down the House, and on an episode of the Game Show Network documentary series, Anything to Win. The private investigation firm referred to as Plymouth in Bringing Down the House was Griffin Investigations.
A bar bet is a bet made between two patrons at a bar. Bar bets can range from wagers about little-known trivia, such as obscure historical facts, to feats of skill and strength. Some bar bets are intended to trick the other party into losing.
Famous bar bets
The annual Midnight Sun baseball game played in Fairbanks, Alaska (the only game to be contested after midnight without the use of artificial lighting) was established in 1906 as the result of a bar bet. 2
Two of Tony Hawks’ books, Round Ireland With A Fridge (ISBN 0-091-86777-0) and Playing The Moldovans At Tennis (ISBN 0-091-87456-4), were written describing Hawks’ attempts to win two bar bets.
The film To Have and Have Not is supposedly the result of bar bet between Ernest Hemingway and Howard Hawks, with Hemingway betting Hawks that Hawks couldn’t make a good film from Hemingway’s worst novel.
It is widely believed that the creation of Scientology was the result of a bar bet between L. Ron Hubbard and Robert A. Heinlein. According to Scientology critic Lindsay this is “definitely not true”, no such bet was ever made, it would have been “uncharacteristic of Heinlein” to make such a bet, and “there’s no supporting evidence”.
Three Bar Bets Involving Fire. Daily Lush Magazine. Retrieved on 2005-12-19. — The Daily Lush describes a bar bet as being the “last remnant of a great American con artist tradition” and gives examples of bar bets.
Rub Cruit (October 1985). 175 Ways to Win a Free Drink: The Complete Book of Bar Bets. Dodd Mead. ISBN 0396085865.
Henny Youngman (1974). Bar bets, bar jokes, bar tricks. Citadel Press. ISBN 0806504048.
Alan Ericksen (1981). Bar games, bets and challenges. Warner Books. ISBN 0446906484.
Links
Gerry Riskin. Want to win a bar bet?. Amazing firms, amazing practices. Retrieved on 2005-12-19, 2005-10-14. — An example of a trick bar bet. Riskin describes a bar bet where the correct answer to the question about a photograph of a man tied to a chair is not the obvious one.
Even and Odd Permutations. Introduction to Group Theory. Retrieved on 2005-12-19. — Another trick bar bet. The trick lies in the even and odd parity of the initial and final conditions.
“Black Book” is the nickname frequently used to refer to a list of persons who are unwelcome in casinos. The name comes from the fact that the persons listed in the “book” are essentially “blacklisted”. The term can refer either to such a list officially maintained by a particular Gaming Control Board, or to the Griffin Book, whose information is shared by casinos throughout the gaming industry.In the former case, persons listed are generally suspected of having, or known to have, ties to organized crime. Casinos are obliged by gaming regulations to exclude all such persons from entry, and can be subject to sanctions from the Gaming Control Board for failure to do so. In the latter case, listed individuals are generally suspected of being, or known to be, either advantage players or outright cheaters at the casino games themselves. Thus, casinos find it in their own economic best interest to exclude such individuals.
Marvel battle dice is a game that uses small figures, which are placed inside dice, and then rolled. There are currently 69 of these figures from the first Set, and can be purchased in battle booster packs, or the starter set.
Purchasing
The figures can be purchased in booster packs (listed above), or in the starter sets. The booster packs contain 3 random battle figures, and also comes with one battle dice. The starter set comes with 6 figures, two of which are secret figures. There are also battle dice launchers, which are large sized versions of the Fantastic Four’s Thing (comics), and The Hulk.
The Game
The game works by placing the figures (approximately 1″ inch) in the battle dice, which have certain attributes by popping the dice open. When the dice are rolled, the player with the lower dice roll goes first. They select an attribute on the character, and use them to battle the other figure(s). Then the attributes take place, and so on and so forth, and the player with a certain roll wins, etc. Currently, there are 23 different dice. The attributes are: Intelligence, Strength, Speed, Durability, Energy, and Fighting Skills. Attributes are measured on a 0-6 scale, 6 being the highest. Characters are ranked points; in most tournaments teams cannot exceed 30 points making figures like Dark Phoenix too expensive to use. A comprehensive explanation can be found at any of the first two links in the links section.
Marvel Set 1
In January Playmates released the first set consisting such characters as: Captain America, Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus, Professor X, Psylocke, Dark Phoenix, Apocalypse, Cyclops, Sentinel, Magneto etc. There are also “Clear” forms of the characters that “re-arrange” their abilities. Three characters were left out of production and are currently tournament prizes: She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, and Red Skull. The only other promotional characters from Set 1 are Stealth Wolverine and Spider-Man.
Marvel Set 2
In July Playmates will release the second series. This set includes the popular Galactus, Phoenix, Storm, Pyro, Scarlet Spider, Vision, Juggernaut, Omega Red, Scarlet Witch, Electro, Green Goblin, Kingpin, etc.
DC Set 1
The first DC Set will be released in the Fall and includes characters like Starfire and Superman.
Bingo cards are used to play various bingo games, including U.S. style bingo and U.K. style Housie. Cards are usually made of cardboard or non-reusable paper, but more and more bingo halls are beginning to use computerized cards. Bingo cards are printed in various styles (see below) with randomized bingo numbers. As bingo numbers are called, players either check off the boxes with a pen or marker, or use a bingo daber/dauber to stamp the box.
U.S. Bingo Cards
A typical U.S. bingo card
U.S. bingo cards are 5×5 squares, with the columns labeled B-I-N-G-O and with spots contains numbers between 1 and 75. The center square typically is a free spot, and often has the word “free” printed on it.
U.K. Bingo, or Housie, cards are usually called tickets and differ greatly from U.S. Bingo cards. The cards contain three rows and nine columns. Each row contains five numbers and four blank spaces. Each column contains one, two or three numbers.
Professional boxing bout featuring Ricardo Dominguez (left) vs. Rafael Ortiz.
Boxing, also called pugilism, prizefighting (when referring to professional boxing) or the sweet science (a common nickname among fans) is a sport where two participants of similar weight fight each other with their fists in a series of one to three-minute intervals called “rounds”. In both Olympic and professional divisions, the combatants (called boxers or fighters) avoid their opponent’s punches while trying to land punches of their own. Points are awarded for clean, solid blows to the legal area on the front of the opponent’s body above the waistline, with hits to the head and torso being especially valuable. The fighter with the most points after the scheduled number of rounds is declared the winner. Victory may also be achieved if the opponent is knocked down and unable to get up before the referee counts to ten (a Knockout, or KO) or if the opponent is deemed too injured to continue (a Technical Knockout, or TKO). For record keeping purposes, a TKO is counted as a knockout. On boxers’ records, only KO’s are mentioned. Technical knockouts are usually only mentioned in contemporaneous news articles.
Governing bodies
Boxing has many governing bodies leaving no organization in overall control.
Numerous metaphors common to everyday speech derive from the sport of boxing. Some of these include:
Metaphor
Definition
he was rocked by that one
a fighter was hit by a punch with enough force to be dazed
not up to scratch
subpar, not able to do the task at hand (in the old days of boxing, boxers started the round by stepping over a scratch made in the ring, but if a boxer could not do this to keep the round going, he was said to be “not up to scratch”)
saved by the bell
rescued from defeat by dint of time running out, an unexpected turn of events, etc.
on (or against) the ropes
on the verge of being defeated
throw in the towel
to quit, give up. Traditionally, a boxer’s manager or trainer will throw a towel into the ring if he feels that his fighter cannot win and is endangering himself.
come out swinging
to throw oneself into an activity or competition; in boxing, to pursue the opponent aggressively (possibly recklessly)
going down swinging
to fail while in the process of trying
in one’s corner
on someone’s side, to help or cheer him on
down/out for the count
knocked out, defeated
sucker punch
hitting an opponent who is off his guard, unfairly taking advantage of a vulnerability
hitting below the belt
a grossly unfair attack (in everyday life, usually of a verbal nature)
punch drunk
dazed or incoherent (originally, from being repeatedly struck, can refer to dazes generally)
pull one’s punches
to hold back, withhold full force or attack
in the arena
to be participating, engaged
keep your guard up
to remain alert, on the defensive
punch above one’s weight
to compete against a more powerful opponent; to perform better than expected
Boxing in popular culture
Undisputed, (2002)
The Broken Place, a novel involving boxing; Shaara had been an amateur boxer.
Battling Butler (1926 film) Starring Buster Keaton
The Champ (1931 film)
Two-Fisted (1935 film) Comedy
Kid Galahad (1937 film) Starring Edward G. Robinson
Golden Boy (1937 stageplay) written by Clifford Odets
Golden Boy (1939 film) Starring William Holden and Barbara Stanwyck
Gentleman Jim (1942 film) Starring Errol Flynn
Body and Soul (1947 film) Starring John Garfield
Champion (1949 film) Starring Kirk Douglas
The Set-Up (1949 film) Starring Robert Ryan
Day of the Fight (1951 short subject) first film directed by Stanley Kubrick
On the Waterfront (1954 film) Starring Marlon Brando
The Harder They Fall (1956 film) Starring Humphrey Bogart
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956 film) Starring Paul Newman
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956 TV play) Starring Jack Palance, written by Rod Serling
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962 film) Starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney
Kid Galahad (1962 film) Musical starring Elvis Presley
Golden Boy (1964 musical stageplay)
The Great White Hope (1970 film) Starring James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander
Fat City (1972 film) Starring Stacey Keach and Jeff Bridges
Rocky Oscar winning movie in 1976 and its sequels, starring Sylvester Stallone (also scriptwriter)
The Main Event (1979 film) Starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal
The Champ (1979 film) Starring Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, and Rick Schroeder; remake of 1931 film
The Prize Fighter (1979 film), starring Don Knotts and Tim Conway
Raging Bull (1980 film) A classic boxing movie, starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci
Spike of Bensonhurst (1988 film)
Tokyo Fist (1995 film)
The Great White Hype (1996 film) Starring Samuel L Jackson and Jeff Goldblum
When We Were Kings (1997 film) The story of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman and The Rumble in the Jungle
24 7: Twenty Four Seven (1997 film) Starring Bob Hoskins
Don King: Only in America (TV movie) Starring Ving Rhames
The Hurricane (1999 film) Starring Denzel Washington as middleweight Rubin Carter
Billy Elliot, about a young dancer whose father and brother wanted to become a boxer, like Ken Buchanan
Girlfight (2000 film)
Ali (2001 film) Starring Will Smith
Champion (2002 film) South Korean film about Duk Koo Kim, a South Korean boxer who died after a bout against Ray Mancini
Undefeated (2003 TV movie) Starring John Leguizamo
Million Dollar Baby (2004 film) Multiple Oscar winner about a female boxer directed by Clint Eastwood
Virgin Gloves (2004) The first novel about a Gay prizefighter, by Alex Hutchinson
Against the Ropes (2004 film) Starring Meg Ryan as Jackie Kallen famous female boxing promoter
Black Cloud Directed by and starring Rick Schroder
The Calcium Kid (2004 film)
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004 film) Documentary directed by Ken Burns
Cinderella Man (2005 film) Based on the true story of Jim Braddock starring Russell Crowe.
The Contender 2005 Reality TV series
Hajime no Ippo A manga/anime about a young featherweight boxer
Activision Boxing, one of the first console games about boxing
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! A Nintendo game. Later adapted to SNES as Super Punch-Out!!
EA Sports Fight Night 2004, Fight Night: Round 2 and Fight Night: Round 3 (formerly Knockout Kings).
Anasi, Robert (2003). The Gloves: A Boxing Chronicle. North Point Press. ISBN 0-865-47652-7
Fleischer, Nat, Sam Andre, Nigel Collins, Dan Rafael (2002). An Illustrated History of Boxing. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-806-52201-1
Fox, James A. (2001). Boxing. Stewart, Tabori and Chang. ISBN 1-584-79133-0
Halbert, Christy (2003). The Ultimate Boxer: Understanding the Sport and Skills of Boxing. Impact Seminars, Inc. ISBN 0-963-09685-0
Hatmaker, Mark (2004). Boxing Mastery : Advanced Technique, Tactics, and Strategies from the Sweet Science. Tracks Publishing. ISBN 1-884-65421-5
McIlvanney, Hugh (2001). The Hardest Game : McIlvanney on Boxing. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-658-02154-0
Myler, Patrick (1997). A Century of Boxing Greats: Inside the Ring with the Hundred Best Boxers. Robson Books (UK) / Parkwest Publications (US). ISBN 1-861-05258-8.
Silverman, Jeff (2004). he Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told : Thirty-Six Incredible Tales from the Ring. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-592-28479-5
U.S. Amateur Boxing Inc. (1994). Coaching Olympic Style Boxing. Cooper Pub Group. 1-884-12525-5
Basketball is a sport in which two teams of five players each try to score points on one other by throwing a ball through a hoop (the basket) under organized rules.
Since its invention in 1891, it has developed to become a truly international sport. Organized league play originated in the YMCA and early leagues were formed in colleges. Basketball eventually became a professional sport and is one of the few women’s sports which developed in tandem with men’s. The modern rules for women’s basketball become more similar to men’s each year. Even though it was originally an American sport, it quickly spread internationally and outstanding players and teams are found today all over the world.
Points are scored for passing the ball through the basket from above; the team with more points at the end of the game wins. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it (dribbling) or passing it between teammates. Disruptive physical contact (foul) is not permitted and there are restrictions on how the ball can be handled (violations).
Through time, basketball has developed to involve common techniques of shooting, passing and dribbling, as well as players’ positions, and offensive and defensive structures. While competitive basketball is carefully regulated, numerous variations of basketball have developed for casual play. Basketball is also a popular spectator sport.
While competitive basketball is primarily an indoor sport, played on a basketball court, less regulated variations have become exceedingly popular as an outdoor sport among inner city groups, particularly African-Americans. Examples of these variations include streetball and one-on-one; a variation in which two players will use only a small section of the court (often no more than a quarter of a court) and compete to play the ball into a single hoop. Such games tend to be more physical than competitive indoor basketball, and emphasize individual dribbling and ball stealing skills over shooting and team play.
Outdoor basketball courts are commonly referred to as ‘blacktop’, a reference to the [asphalt] surface used on many outdoor recreation grounds. This term can apply regardless of the actual surface material used.
Sara Giauro shoots a three-point shot, FIBA Europe Cup for Women Finals 2005.
Variations and similar games
Variations of basketball are activities based on the game of basketball, using common basketball skills and equipment (primarily the ball and basket). Some variations are only superficial rules changes, while others are distinct games with varying degrees of basketball influences. Other variations include children’s games, contests or activities meant to help players reinforce skills. Most of the variations are played in informal settings without referees or strict rules.
Perhaps the single most common variation is the half court game. Only one basket is used, and the ball must be “cleared” – passed or dribbled outside the half-court or three-point line – each time possession of the ball changes from one team to the other. Half-court games require less cardiovascular stamina, since players need not run back and forth a full court. Half-court games also raise the number of players that can use a court, an important benefit when many players want to play.
Baseball is a team sport popular in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and East Asia. The modern game was developed in the United States from early bat-and-ball games played in Britain, and it has become the national sport of the United States. It is a ball game in which a pitcher throws (pitches) a hard, fist-sized ball past the hitting area of a batter. The batter attempts to hit the baseball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat that in professional baseball must be made out of wood. A team scores only when batting, by advancing counter-clockwise past a series of four markers called bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Each base is 90 feet from the previous base. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.
Statistics
As with many sports, and perhaps even more so, statistics are very important to baseball. Statistics have been kept for the Major Leagues since their creation, and presumably statistics were around even before that. General managers, baseball scouts, managers, and players alike study player statistics to help them choose various strategies to best help their team.
Traditionally, statistics like batting average for batters—the number of hits divided by the number of at bats—and earned run average—approximately the number of runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings—have governed the statistical world of baseball. However, the advent of sabermetrics has brought an onslaught of new statistics that perhaps better gauge a player’s performance and contributions to his team from year to year.
Some sabermetrics have entered the mainstream baseball statistic world. On-base plus slugging (OPS) is a somewhat complicated formula that gauges a hitter’s performance better than batting average. It combines the hitter’s on base percentage—hits plus walks plus hit by pitches divided by plate appearances—with their slugging percentage—total bases divided by at bats. Walks plus hits per inning pitched (or WHIP) gives a good representation of a pitcher’s abilities; it is calculated exactly as its name suggests.
Also important are more specific statistics for particular situations. For example, a certain hitter’s ability to hit left-handed pitchers might cause his manager to give him more chances to face lefties. Some hitters hit better with runners in scoring position, so an opposing manager, knowing this statistic, might elect to intentionally walk him in order to face a poorer hitter.
Popularity
Baseball is most popular in East Asia and the Americas, although it is also popular in South America mainly in the northern portion of the continent as well as Brazil. In Japan, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, Nicaragua, South Korea, and Taiwan, it is one of the most popular sports. The United States is the birthplace of baseball, and there it has long been regarded as more than just a “major sport” – it has been considered, for decades, the national pastime and Major League Baseball has been given a unique monopoly status by the United States Congress. Although three of the four most popular sports in North America are ball games — baseball, basketball and American football — baseball’s popularity grew so great that the word “ballgame” in the United States almost always refers to a game of baseball, and “ballpark” to a baseball field (except in the South, where “ballgame” is also used in association with football).
Baseball has often been a barometer of the fabled American “melting pot”, as immigrants from different regions have tried to “make good” in various areas including sports. In the 19th century, baseball was populated with many players of Irish or German extraction. A number of Native Americans had successful careers especially in the early 1900s. Italians and Poles appeared on many rosters during the 1920s and 1930s. Black Americans came on strong starting in the late 1940s after the barriers had been lifted, and continue to form a significant contingent. By the 1960s, Hispanics had started to make the scene, and had become a dominant force by the 1990s. In the 21st century, East Asians have been appearing in increasing numbers.
While baseball is perhaps the most popular sport in the United States and is certainly one of the two most popular along with football, it is difficult to determine which is more popular because of the wide discrepancy in number of games per season. For example, the total attendance for Major League games is roughly equal to that of all other American professional team sports combined, but football gets higher television ratings, both a function in part of the long (162-game) baseball season and short (16-game) football season.
Organized leagues
Baseball is played at a number of levels, by amateur and professionals, and by the young and the old. Youth programs use modified versions of adult and professional baseball rules, which may include a smaller field, easier pitching (from a coach, a tee, or a machine), less contact, base running restrictions, limitations on innings a pitcher can throw, liberal balk rules, and run limitations, among others. Since rules vary from location-to-location and among the organizations, coverage of the nuances in those rules is beyond this article.
Following is a list of organized leagues:
Youth Leagues
Little League, a youth program, headquartered in Williamsport, Pennsylvania (USA).
Pony Baseball, a youth program, headquartered in Washington, Pennsylvania (USA).
Dizzy Dean Baseball a youth program in the USA.
American Legion Baseball, a youth program, headquartered in Indianapolis, IN.
USSSA Baseball a youth and adult program, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri (USA).
Ripken Baseball, a youth program, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland (USA).
Babe Ruth League, a youth program, headquartered in Trenton, New Jersey (USA).
Moberly Midget League a youth program headquartered in Moberly, Missouri (USA).
High School
In the USA, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and each state association governs the play of baseball at the high school level.
Collegiate Level
List of Collegiate Summer Baseball Leagues
NCAA, including NCAA Division I and the College World Series, are collegiate level baseball programs played in the USA.
National Club Baseball Association (NCBA)
International Competition
Many international baseball events are coordinated by the International Baseball Federation, including The World Cup and The World Baseball Classic.
As an Olympic sport, see earlier section on the status of baseball in the Olympic games, and the article “Baseball at the Summer Olympics.”
Semi-professional baseball
National Semi-Pro Baseball Association
Professional baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States;
Minor League baseball in the United States;
Independent Baseball
Negro League baseball, defunct since 1958, in the United States.
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Mexican Baseball
Japanese Baseball
Taiwan professional baseball
Korean Baseball Organization (KBO)
Australian Baseball
There are also smaller professional leagues in China, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and many others.
Picture of Fenway Park. Part of the “Green Monster” can be seen on the right side of this picture
References
Joe Brinkman and Charlie Euchner, The Umpire’s Handbook, rev. ed. (1987)
Bill James and John Dewan, Bill James Presents the Great American Baseball Stat Book, ed. by Geoff Beckman et al. (1987)
Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, (ISBN 0743227220)
Robert Peterson, Only the Ball Was White (1970, reprinted 1984)
Joseph L. Reichler (ed.), The Baseball Encyclopedia, 7th rev. ed. (1988). (since 1871)
Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig, The Image of Their Greatness: An Illustrated History of Baseball from 1900 to the Present, updated ed. (1984)
Lawrence S. Ritter (comp.), The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It, new ed. (1984)
David Quentin Voigt, Baseball, an Illustrated History (1987)
Charles Euchner, The Last Nine Innings: Inside the Real Game Fans Never See (2006)
Jeff MacGregor, The New Electoral Sex Symbol: Nascar Dad, The New York Times (January 18, 2004)
Michael Mandelbaum, The Meaning of Sports, (PublicAffairs, ISBN 1-58648-252-1).
Diamonds of the North: A Concise History of Baseball in Canada by William Humber (Oxford University Press, 1995).
Old Time Baseball and the London Tecumsehs of the late 1870s by Les Bronson, a recorded (and later transcribed) talk given to the London & Middlesex Historical Society on February 15, 1972. Available in the London Room of the Central Branch of the London Public Library.
Journal of Sport History (1988), A Critical Examination of a Source in Early Ontario Baseball: The Reminiscence of Adam E. Ford by UWO Professor Robert K. Barney and Nancy Bouchier.
The Beaver, Exploring Canada’s History October-November 1994, Baseball’s Canadian Roots: Abner Who? by Mark Kearney.
The Northern Game: Baseball the Canadian Way by Bob Elliott (Sport Classic, 2005).
‘The 1948 London Majors: A Great Canadian Team by Dan Mendham (unpublished academic paper, UWO, December 7, 1992).
An Eight-Page Indenture/ Instrument #33043 between The London and Western Trusts Company Limited, The Corporation of The City of London and John Labatt, Limited, dated December 31, 1936, and registered on title in the Land Registry Office for the City of London on January 2, 1937, conveying Tecumseh Park to the City of London along with $10,000 on the provisos that the athletic field be preserved, maintained and operated “for the use of the citizens of the City of London as an athletic field and recreation ground” and that it be renamed “The John Labatt Memorial Athletic Park.”
Heritage Baseball: City of London a souvenir program from July 23, 2005, celebrating the history of Labatt Park and London, Ontario’s 150th anniversary as an incorporated city.
The U.S. Open is a prestigious Grand Slam tournament.
Tennis is a sport played between either two players (“Singles”) or two teams of two players (“doubles”). Players use a stringed racquet to strike a ball, a hollow rubber ball covered in felt, over a net into the opponent’s court. In some places tennis is still called lawn tennis to distinguish it from real tennis (also known as royal tennis or court tennis), an older form of the game that is played indoors on a very different kind of a court. Originating in England in the late 19th Century, the game spread first throughout the English-speaking world, particularly among the upper classes. Tennis is now an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society, by all ages, and in many countries around the world. Except for the adoption of the tie-breaker in the 1970s, its rules have remained remarkably unchanged since the 1890s. Along with its millions of players, millions of people follow tennis as a spectator sport, especially the four Grand Slam tournaments.
Manner of play
The court
The dimensions of a tennis court, in metric units.
Tennis is played on a rectangular, flat surface, usually of grass, clay, or concrete. The court is 78 feet (23.77 m) long, and its width is 27 feet (8.23 m) for singles matches and 36 feet (10.97 m) for doubles matches. Additional clear space around the court is required in order for players to reach overrun balls. A net is stretched across the full width of the court, parallel with the baselines, dividing it into two equal ends. The net is 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) high at the posts, and 3 feet (914 mm) high in the center.
Types of Courts
There are three main types of courts. Depending on the materials used for the court surfaces, each surface provides a difference in the speed and bounce of the ball, which in turn can affect the level of play of the individual players. The three most common types of courts that are used for play are:
Clay court
Grass court
Hardcourt
Some players are clearly more successful on certain surfaces than on others and become known as, for instance, a “grass-court” or “Clay-court specialist”.
Hardcourt encompasses many different surfaces ranging from old-fashioned concrete courts, to coated asphalt, to wooden gymnasium surfaces, to artificial grass similar to AstroTurf.
Clay courts are considered “slow”, meaning that balls first lose speed as they hit the court and then bounce relatively high, making it more difficult for a player to hit an unreturnable shot, called a winner. On clay courts, line calls are easily reviewable because the ball leaves a visible mark.
Hardcourts and grass are “fast” surfaces, where fast, low bounces keep rallies short and where hard-serving and hard-hitting players have an advantage. Grass courts add an additional variable, with bounces depending on how healthy the grass is and how recently it has been mowed.
For the Grand Slam tournaments, different kinds of courts are used: The U.S. Open and Australian Open use hardcourts, the French Open is played on clay, and Wimbledon is played on grass.
Two players before a serve.
Play of a single point
The players (or teams) start on opposite sides of the net. One player is designated the server, and the opposing player, or in doubles one of the opposing players, is the receiver. Service alternates between the two halves of the court.
For each point, the server starts behind his baseline, between the center mark and the sideline. The receiver may start anywhere on his side of the net, usually behind the service box. When the receiver is ready, the server will serve.
In a legal service, the ball travels over the net (without touching it) and into the diagonally opposite service court. If the ball hits the net but lands in the service court, this is a let service, which is void and the server gets two more serves. If the first service is otherwise faulty in any way, wide, long or not over the net, the serving player has a second attempt at service. If the second service is also faulty, this is a double fault and the receiver wins the point. However if the serve is in then it is considered a legal service.
A legal service starts a rally, in which the players alternate hitting the ball across the net. A legal return consists of the player or team hitting the ball exactly once before it has bounced twice or hit any fixtures. It then travels back over the net and bounces in the court on the opposite side. The first player or team to fail to make a legal return loses the point.
Scoring
A tennis match usually comprises one to five sets. A set consists of a number of games, and games, in turn, consist of points.
Matches consist of an odd number of multiple sets, the match winner being the player who wins more than half of the sets. The match ends as soon as this winning condition is met. Some matches may consist of five sets (the winner being the first to win three sets), while most matches are three sets (the winner being the first to win two sets).
A set consists of a sequence of games played with service alternating between games, ending when the count of games won meets certain criteria. Typically, a player wins a set when he wins at least six games and at least two games more than his opponent. It has become common, however, to play a “twelve-point tiebreak” or “tiebreaker” when each player has won six games. A tiebreaker, played under a separate set of rules, allows one player to win one more game and thus the set, to give a final set score of 7-6.
A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving, and is won by the first player to have won at least four points and at least two points more than his opponent. The running score of each game is described in a manner particular to tennis: scores of zero to three points are described as “love” or “zero”, “fifteen”, “thirty”, and “forty” respectively. When at least three points have been scored by each side and the players have the same number of points, the score is “deuce”. When at least three points have been scored by each side and a player has one more point than his opponent, the score of the game is “advantage” for the winning player. During informal games, “advantage” can also be called “ad in” or “ad out”, depending on whether the serving player or receiving player, respectively, is ahead.
A game point occurs in tennis whenever the player who is in the lead in the game (the smallest unit of play) needs only one more point to win the game. The terminology is extended to sets (set point), matches (match point), and even championships (championship point). For example, if the player who is serving has a score of 40-love, he has a triple game point (triple set point, etc.).
A break point occurs if the receiver, not the server, has a game point. It is of importance in professional tennis, since service breaks happen less frequently with professional players. It may happen that the player who is in the lead in the game has more than one chance to score the winning point, even if his opponent should take the next point(s). For example, if the player who is serving has a score of 15-40, the receiver has a double break point. Should the player in the lead take any one of the next two points, he wins the game.
For two years before the Open Era, in 1955 and 1956, the United States Pro Championship in Cleveland, Ohio was played by the Van Alen Streamlined Scoring System (VASSS) rules, created by James Van Alen, who later invented the tie-breaker. The scoring was the same as that in table tennis, with sets played to 21 points and players alternating 5 services, with no second service. The rules were partially created in order to limit the effectiveness of the powerful service of the reigning professional champion, Pancho Gonzales. Even with the new rules, however, Gonzales beat Pancho Segura in the finals of both tournaments. Even though the 1955 match went to 5 sets, with Gonzales barely holding on to win the last one 21-19, apparently it took only 47 minutes to play. The fans attending the matches preferred the traditional rules, however, and in 1957 the tournament reverted to the old method of scoring.
Officials
In serious play there is an officiating chair umpire (usually referred to as the umpire), who sits in a raised chair to one side of the court. The umpire has absolute authority to determine matters of fact. The chair umpire may be assisted by line umpires, who determine whether the ball has landed within the required part of the court and who also call foot faults. There may also be a net umpire who determines whether the ball has touched the net during service. In some open-tournament matches, players are allowed to challenge a limited number of close calls by means of instant replay in order to have the call overturned. In clay-court matches, a call may be questioned by reference to the mark left by the ball’s impact on the court surface.
Ball boys or girls (who are usually children) may be employed to retrieve balls, pass them to the players, and hand players their towels. They have no adjudicative role. The referee, who is usually located off the court, is the final authority on the rules.
In some leagues players will make their own calls based upon the honor code. This is the case for many high school and college level matches.
Miscellaneous
Convention dictates that two players shake hands at the end of a match.
A tennis match is intended to be continuous. Stamina is a relevant factor, so arbitrary delays are not permitted. In most cases, service is required to occur no more than 20 seconds after the end of the previous point. This is increased to 90 seconds when the players change ends (every two games), and a 120 second break is permitted between sets. Other than this, breaks are permitted only when forced by events beyond the players’ control, such as rain, damaged footwear, or the need to chase an errant ball.
Balls wear out quickly in serious play, and therefore are changed after every nine games. The first such change occurs after only seven games, because the first set of balls is also used for the pre-match warm-up. Continuity of the balls’ condition is considered part of the game, so if a re-warm-up is required after an extended break in play (usually due to rain) then the re-warm-up is done using a separate set of balls, and use of the match balls is resumed only when play resumes.
Wheelchair tennis can be played by able-bodied players as well as people who require a wheelchair for mobility. The use of legs or feet is then prohibited, and the player is required to remain seated in the wheelchair. There is an exception for those who are only able to propel themselves using a foot. In wheelchair tennis, in which the players move in wheelchairs instead of using legs, an extra bounce is permitted. This rule makes it possible to have mixed wheelchair and legs matches. It is possible for a doubles team to consist of a wheelchair user and a legs user, or for a wheelchair user to play against a legs user. In such cases, the extra bounce is permitted for the wheelchair users only.
Another, informal, tennis format is called “Canadian doubles” (also referred to as “American Doubles” in Australia, and “Australian Doubles” in Canada). This involves three players, with one person playing against a doubles team. For the single player, singles-court rules apply (such that the ball must be within the singles-court lines) but on the side of the doubles team, doubles-court rules apply (the alleys are considered in). The scoring is the same as a regular game. This format is not sanctioned by any official body and is only played when a fourth player is not available for normal doubles.
Lastly, there is a tennis formation called “Australian doubles” in which both players on the same team line up on the same side of the court, with one player at the net and one in the backcourt. The one in back will generally move to the vacant side of the court after the point begins, which forces the opposing player to hit the ball down the line. This formation also allows the player at the net to poach more easily.
Other Rules of Play Used in American College Tennis
As of 1999, in Division I tennis at the college level, a let service is considered playable. This rule change was made to prevent receivers from falsely claiming a valid service to be a let, which is a call that cannot be overruled. Thus, a service that hits the net before landing in the service box is a playable shot, and must be returned by the receiver. Otherwise, the receiver loses the point.
Other Rules of Play Used in American High School Tennis
During high school tennis team matches players may have to follow a few different rules:
Pro set: Instead of playing best out of three sets, players may play one pro set. A pro set is first to 8 games instead of 6. All other rules apply.
Super tie-break: This is played sometimes after players split sets (Each wins one set). It decides who wins instead of a third set. This is played like a regular tie-break but you go to ten instead of seven.
No-ad: You play through the match without any ads. When the game is at deuce the receiving player has the option to choose what side of court (either the deuce side or the ad side) they want to receive the serve for the final game-deciding point. The first player or team to four points wins the game.
Tournaments
Tournaments are often organized by gender and number of players. Common tournament configurations include men’s singles, women’s singles, doubles (where two players of the same sex play on each side), and mixed doubles (with a member of each sex per side). Tournaments may be arranged for specific age groups, with upper age limits for youth and lower age limits for senior players. There are also tournaments for handicapped players. In the four grand slams, the draw (the maximum number of players allowed in a particular category of the tournament) is 128 people.
Players may also be matched by their skill level. According to how well a person does in sanctioned play, he or she is given a rating (examples from the U.S. system called the National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP): 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, etc.) which is adjusted periodically to maintain competitive matches.
The Gold Coast Hotel & Casino is a hotel and casino located in Las Vegas, Nevada. This locals casino is owned an operated by Boyd Gaming Corporation. It’s located about 2 blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel has 711 rooms, a 70 lane bowling center open to the public, and a bingo room.
History
Built in 1986, it was the second major resort built on the west side of I-15.
The property received a major upgrade in 2002 that provides additional space for parking, restaurants and gaming.
Also, current singer for the band The Killers, Brandon Flowers, used to work as a bellhop here.
Jeff Tanita also dealt craps there.
Attractions
Shuttle service between the Gold Coast and The Orleans. Approximately every 15 minutes.
Players in a poker game act in turn, in clockwise rotation (acting out of turn is a breach of etiquette and can negatively affect other players). When it is a player’s turn to act, the first verbal declaration or action he takes binds him to his choice of action; this is to prevent a player from changing his action after seeing how other players react to his first action.
A player may fold by surrendering his cards (some games may have specific rules–for example, in stud poker one must turn one’s upcards face down). A player may check by rapping the table or making any similar motion. All other bets are made by placing chips in front of the player, but not directly into the pot (this is called “splashing” the pot, and is also a breach of etiquette, because it prevents other players from verifying the bet amount).
Open
The act of making the first voluntary bet in a betting round is called opening the round. On the first betting round, it is also called opening the pot. Some poker variations have special rules about opening a round that may not apply to other bets. For example, a game may have a betting structure that specifies different allowable amounts for opening than for other bets, or may require a player to hold certain cards to open.
Call
To call is to match a bet or raise. A betting round ends when all active players have bet an equal amount or no opponents call a player’s bet or raise. If no opponents call a player’s bet or raise, the player wins the pot and the hand is over.
The second and subsequent calls of a particular bet amount are sometimes called overcalls. A player calling a raise before he or she has invested money in the pot in that round is cold calling. For example, if in a betting round, Alice bets, Bob raises, and Carol calls, Carol “calls two bets cold”. A player calling instead of raising with a strong hand is smooth calling, a form of slow play.
In public card rooms and casinos where verbal declarations are binding, the word “call” is such a declaration. In particular, the practice of saying “I call, and raise $100″ is considered a string raise and is not allowed. Saying “I call” commits you to the action of calling, and only calling.
Check
If no one has yet opened the betting round, a player may check, which is equivalent to calling the current bet of zero. When checking, a player declines making a bet; indicating that he does not choose to open, but that he wishes to keep his cards and retain the right to call or raise later in the same round if an opponent opens. In games played with blinds, players may not check on the opening round because they must either match (or raise) the big blind or fold. A player with a live big blind who chooses not to exercise his right to raise is said to check his option. If all players check, the betting round is over. A common way to signify checking is to tap the table with a fist or an open hand.
Raise
To raise is increase the size of the bet required to stay in the pot, forcing all subsequent players to call the new amount. If the current bet amount is nothing, this action is considered the opening bet. A player making the second (not counting the open) or subsequent raise of a betting round is said to reraise.
Standard poker rules require that any raise must at least equal the amount of the previous raise. For example, if a player in a spread-limit or no-limit game bets $5, the next player may raise by another $5 or more, but he may not raise by only $2, even if that would otherwise conform to the game’s betting structure. The primary purpose of this rule is to avoid game delays caused by “nuisance” raises (small raises of large bets that do not affect the bet amount much but that take time). This rule is overridden by table stakes rules, so that a player may in fact raise a $5 bet by $2 if that $2 is his entire remaining stake.
In most casinos, fixed-limit and spread-limit games cap the total number of raises allowed in a single betting round (typically three or four, not including the opening bet of a round). For example in a casino with a three-raise rule, if one player opens the betting for $5, the next raises by $5 making it $10, a third player raises another $5, and a fourth player raises $5 again making the current bet $20, the betting is said to be capped at that point, and no further raises beyond the $20 level will be allowed on that round. It is common to suspend this rule when there are only two players betting in the round (called being heads-up), since either player can call the last raise if they wish. Pot-limit and no-limit games do not have a limit on the number of raises.
Fold
To fold is to discard one’s hand and forfeit interest in the current pot. Folding may be indicated verbally or by discarding one’s hand facedown into the pile of other discards called the muck. In stud poker played in the United States, it is customary to signal folding by turning all of one’s cards face down. In casinos in the United Kingdom, a player folds by giving his hand as is to the “house” dealer, who will spread the hand’s upcards for the other players to see before mucking them.
It is a serious breach of etiquette to fold out of turn, that is, when it is not the folding player’s turn to act, because this can harm other players. For example, if there are three players remaining and the first player in turn bets, the third player folding out of turn gives valuable strategic information to the second player (who is in turn at this point), to the detriment of the bettor. In some games, even folding in turn when a player is entitled to check (because there is no bet facing the player) is considered an out of turn fold since it gives away information to which other players would otherwise not be entitled. Finally, if a player folds out of turn in a stud poker game, the player in turn may demand that his upcards remain exposed until he has completed his turn. When folding, concealed cards should not be exposed unless no further betting is possible in the hand (i.e., unless the fold awards the pot to the only remaining player). A player is never required to expose his concealed cards when folding prior to the showdown.
The Flamingo Las Vegas is owned and operated by Harrah’s Entertainment and is located on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. The property offers a 77,000 ft² (7,200 m²) casino along with 3,626 hotel rooms. The hotel is sometimes referred to as the pink hotel from the pink neon on the building similar to the color of flamingos. The 15 ac (61,000 m²) site is landscaped in a Caribbean theme, with the central area housing an exhibit of flamingos and penguins as part of a wildlife habitat.
The Flamingo has a Las Vegas Monorail station at the rear of the property.
History
The Pink Flamingo Hotel & Casino (as it was originally named), had only 77 rooms when it was built and opened by Bugsy Siegel and his partner Meyer Lansky on December 26, 1946. “The Flamingo” was named after the pet name for Virginia Hill, that name given to her by casino dealers in Mexico because of her exibitionist style of dancing; Hill would raise her skirts to show off her long legs while swinging her flaming red hair. Funding for the casino came from mob money and it was conceptualized and its construction was supervised by Bugsy. When it had been discovered that Bugsy was skimming money from the building funds, his death was ordered and management for the casino changed hands. The Flamingo changed names to The Fabulous Flamingo on March 1, 1947.
The Flamingo hotel boasted lavish shows and glorious accommodations for its day. The casino became well known for its comfortable, air conditioned rooms, beautiful gardens and fabulous swimming pools. The Flamingo helped popularize the concept of offering a “complete experience” as opposed to simple gambling.
Kirk Kerkorian acquired the property in 1967.
The hotel was acquired by the Hilton Corporation in 1972 and became the Flamingo Hilton in 1974. The last of the original Flamingo Hotel structure was torn down on December 14, 1993 and the hotel’s garden was built on the site, complete with a plaque to Bugsy Siegel.
In the 1998 spin off of Hilton’s gaming operations ownership was changed to Park Place Entertainment which was renamed to Caesars Entertainment in 2004.
In September 1999 the Flamingo Hilton and its sister property in Laughlin, Nevada ended their long standing relationship with Hilton Hotels. The Hilton name was removed and the property was renamed to Flamingo Las Vegas.
To enhance the hotel’s Caribbean theme, a Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurant was opened in 2004.
In 2005 Harrah’s Entertainment purchased Caesars Entertainment and the property became part of Harrah’s Entertainment company.
Toni Braxton replaced Wayne Newton as the Flamingo’s new headlining act on August 3, 2006. The show, Toni Braxton: Revealed, ran through April 7, 2008. Although scheduled to run until August 2008, the show was canceled early due to Braxton’s health problems.
Film history
The 1960 version of Ocean’s Eleven was filmed here. Also a flashback sequence from the 2001 version of Ocean’s Eleven was filmed at Flamingo.
In poker, a bad beat occurs when a hand, which was at one time a big favourite to win, loses. Typically the term is only applied in this way when the player holding the eventual winning hand misplayed it spectacularly.Alternatively, the term is also applied when a particularly strong hand loses to an even stronger one. In some casinos there is a “bad beat jackpot” awarded whenever a player suffers a particular beat.
A typical example of the first type of bad beat, in No Limit Texas hold ‘em:
Alice (the hero) holds A♦ A♣ – pocket aces, the strongest possible starting hand.
Bob (the villain) holds Q♣ 8♥ – a weak hand.
The players have the same amount of chips. Before the flop, Alice raises to 15 times the big blind, placing a fifth of her stack in the pot, and only Bob calls. The flop comes A♥ 8♠ 7♠. Although Alice has the nuts at this point, making 3 aces, she is concerned about possible draws to a straight or flush, and goes all-in with a bet that is twice the size of the pot. Bizarrely, Bob, who has only middle-pair, calls.
At this point, Bob’s chances of winning are precisely 1 in 990. [1] He can only win if both the turn card and the river card are eights. Since this is a bad beat story, the turn and river naturally bring precisely that, and Bob scoops the pot, leaving Alice cursing Bob’s appalling play – he should not have called such a big bet before the flop, nor on the flop.
Reacting to bad beats
Bad beats can be infuriating, but mathematically “Alice” actually wants “Bob” to play in this manner. Bob took a gamble that should not have worked; his odds were 989-to-1 against. It worked this time, but if he continues to play in such a careless manner, he will almost certainly lose more than he wins. He is essentially giving away his money—and if Alice is careful, it will all go to her. Thus, the more stoic poker players accept bad beats as an unpleasant but necessary drawback to a tactic that works the vast majority of the time (989 of 990 instances, in this case). Nevertheless, a bad beat is often a profound psychological blow, and can easily lead to a player going on tilt. Professional player Phil Hellmuth, among others, is notorious for his pronounced reactions to bad beats.
In online poker rooms, bad beats often lead to accusations that the random number generator is “rigged”, even though such beats occur in offline games.
Bad beat jackpot
A bad beat jackpot is a prize that is paid when a sufficiently strong hand is shown down and loses to an even stronger hand held by another player. Not all poker games offer bad beat jackpots, and those that do have specific requirements for how strong a losing hand must be to qualify for the jackpot. For example, the losing hand may be required to be four-of-a-kind or better. There may be additional requirements as well. For example, in Texas hold ‘em there is usually a requirement that both hole cards play in both the losing and winning hands. These rules vary from one cardroom to the next.
Bad beat jackpots are usually progressive, often with a small rake being taken out of each pot to fund the jackpot (in addition to the regular rake). When the jackpot is won, it is usually split among all players sitting at the table at the time of the bad beat, including players that folded their hands (usually a 25% share), with the largest shares of the jackpot going to the players holding the winning (usually 25%) and losing hand (usually 50%). Because such bad beats are rare, jackpots can grow to be quite large, sometimes reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Excalibur Hotel/Casino is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip at 3850 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada. It is one of the large casinos owned by the Mandalay Resort Group. As of June 2004, the Mandalay Resort Group was purchased by MGM Mirage adding this hotel to its vast array of properties on the Strip.
Excalibur, named for the mythical sword of King Arthur, uses the Arthurian theme in several ways. Its facade is a stylized image of a castle, with a wizardlike figure representing Merlin looking out from a high turret.
The Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard intersection, where the property sits, is very busy, so pedestrians are not allowed to cross at street level. Instead, Excalibur is linked by overhead pedestrian bridges to its neighboring casinos to the north (the New York-New York Hotel & Casino, across Tropicana Avenue) and to the east (the Tropicana Resort & Casino, across the Strip). There is also a free tram that connects Excalibur to its sister Mandalay Resort Group hotel-casinos to the south, the Luxor and Mandalay Bay.
History
The Excalibur opened on June 19, 1990. It was one of many new, modern Las Vegas hotels that featured children’s attractions, such as an arcade and a small medieval style roller coaster. Another feature of the Excalibur that is prominent in many of today’s Las Vegas hotels is a large family swimming pool.
In February 2003, the Las Vegas area received over 3 inches of rain. In turn the 18th floor of the Excalibur Hotel was evacuated. The fire alarms were triggered when rain entered the rooms. This is a design flaw of the building. To date this has not been repaired.
On March 21, 2003 the largest Megabucks Jackpot, as of that time, was hit at the Excalibur. The jackpot was for $39,713,982.25.
On April 26, 2005, the Excalibur, along with the other hotels of the Mandalay Resort Group, was purchased by rival MGM Mirage.
Some restaurants and other areas have Arthurian names, such as the Roundtable Buffet, Sir Galahad’s Prime Cuts, The Steakhouse of Camelot, and Regale Italian eatery, or reflect a broader “Merrie Olde England” theme, such as the Sherwood Forest Cafe. A long-running show, the “Tournament of Kings,” features simulated medieval jousting. Regale was originally called “Lance-a-lotta Pasta” and was more family/child oriented than Regale, which is more upscale.
A few years after opening, Excalibur introduced a free nighttime show in the moat near the resort’s main entrance. A dragon would emerge from under the main entryway bridge and do battle with the wizard, Merlin. After a few years of operation, this attraction was discontinued.
In June of 2007, the Dick’s Last Resort chain opened a restaurant in the Excalibur. Accompanying this addition, the iconic figure of Merlin visible from Excalibur’s exterior was replaced by the image of “Slick Dick” from the restaurant chain’s logo.
Like many other hotels on the Strip, the Excalibur features a wedding chapel. The chapel offers themed medieval weddings complete with renaissance period costumes.
The hotel has opened a spa near the pool.
In 2007, the pool area was closed for renovation. Most of the parking area to the east of the parking garage was gated off for the expansion of the pool area. The new pool construction was originally started in fall, 2006 in the hopes of being completed for the summer of 2007 but there were delays so the new pool is now slated to open for summer, 2008. Excalibur recently added on their official website that the pool is now open saying “We’ve doubled the size of our pool, adding cabanas, fire pits, sun decks and a secluded relaxation pool. And our new poolside restaurant, DRENCHED, is the perfect place to quench your thirst, and your appetite.”
4-Digits (4D) is a Singapore lottery. People play by choosing any number from 0000 to 9999. 23 number combinations are drawn every time. If one of the numbers match the one that the player has bought, a prize is won.
Methods of Play
Ordinary Entry
Ordinary entry refers to a specific number. Example: 1234
4-D Roll
4-D Roll refers to a bet which substitutes any one of the four digits with ‘R’. (i.e. R123, 1R23, 12R3 and 123R) where ‘R’ denotes all digits from 0 to 9. Only one digit can be substituted with ‘R’. For example, if you mark R234, you are actually buying 10 Ordinary Entries (i.e. 0234, 1234, 2234, 3234 …. 9234).
System Entry
System entry refers to a bet on all the possible permutations of a 4-D number, e.g. the number 1234 has 24 permutations (1234, 2341, 3412, 4123…).
iBet
iBet is a System Entry bet priced from $1, regardless of the number of permutations.
Quickpick
Quick pick refers to a bet on a random number selected by the computer.
Circus Circus Las Vegas is a circus-themed 3,774 room hotel and 101,000 square foot (9,392 m²) casino located in Las Vegas, Nevada on the Las Vegas Strip that is owned and operated by MGM Mirage. Circus Circus features free circus acts on a regular basis throughout the day and the only RV park on the Strip.
History
Opened October 18, 1968 by Jay Sarno.
Became the flagship casino for Circus Circus Enterprises (later Mandalay Resort Group), now part of MGM Mirage.
Underwent major renovations in 1997 that changed the hotels theme from the standard American Circus to a French Cirque du Soleil style Circus. Circus Circus is slated to be renovated to its former self in 2006.
The hotel may be demolished and rebuilt. According an MGMMirage report, the Circus Circus site “does not make economic use of the 44 acres that it sits on, therefore, we feel that demolishing the current property and rebuilding it in a different fashion (while still keeping the Circus Circus name) will be in our best interest.”
Adventuredome Theme Park
Adventuredome seen from inside.
Formerly known as Grand Slam Canyon. Located under the pink top, this 5 acre (20,234 m²) indoor amusement park offers 16 rides and is connected to the hotel. The theme park includes a rock climbing wall, 18-hole miniature golf course, an arcade, and carnival type games. The dome of the park is made up of over 350,000 sq ft. of insulated glass.
Movie history
Performers in the Circus.
The hotel’s famous midway was featured in the 1971 James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever”.
It is also known to movie goers as Bazooko Circus in the film version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where Raoul Duke (played by Johnny Depp) while in midst of an ether binge utters the line “Bazooka Circus is what the world would be doing every Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war. This was the Sixth Reich.”
Amenities and Entertainment
In addition to the casino and the Adventuredome Theme Park, Circus Circus also offers:
Convention rooms—space for up to 800 people
Race and Sports Book 80 seats, with 18 big screens
RV park operated by Kampgrounds of America (KOA) offers 399 spaces with full service utility hook-ups
Casino Royale is a small casino and motel located on the East side of the Las Vegas Strip, between Harrah’s Las Vegas and The Venetian. The casino caters to low rollers, and features low table minimums for roulette, craps, and blackjack. The casino often employs people handing out coupons inviting people inside and seems to rely heavily on street traffic for their business. The parking lot behind Casino Royale is a little known secret with some of the most convenient and closest parking to the Las Vegas Strip.
Casino Royale is known for its promotional slot play. Timeshare promotions in Las Vegas typically give out Casino Royale slot play, to be used at specific machines. This slot play can be a fun way to gamble for free, but may also become misleading if misrepresented by the person representing the timeshare resort.
History
The first building on this site was Frank Musso’s Restaurant, located at the time next door to the Sands. It was in business during the 1950′s and 60′s. It later became Joey’s New Yorker Night Club, then the Nob Hill Casino. Nob Hill closed in 1980, and on January 1, 1992 it reopened as Casino Royale. It purchased the adjacent Travelodge and used it as its hotel rooms.
Backgammon is a board game for two players. Each player has fifteen pieces (checkers) which move between twenty-four triangles (points) according to the roll of two dice. The objective of the game is to be first to bear off, that is, to move all fifteen checkers off the board. The oldest recorded game in history, backgammon traces its roots to the ancient Mesopotamian game tabula, which appears in an epigram of Byzantine Emperor Zeno (476–481 A.D.). Further archaeological excavations have placed the possible date of origin of backgammon to 3000 B.C.
Though the gameplay is quite basic—each player is trying to move his checkers to his home board and then bear them off before his opponent is able to do so—backgammon incorporates strategy insofar as with each dice roll, the player must choose between multiple options for movement of the checkers. Furthermore, the doubling cube, which raises the stakes of the present game when a match consists of multiple games, and rules like the Crawford Rule and the Jacoby Rule, introduce more strategic intricacies. Experts have also developed a nomenclature to define commonly used general strategies for play such as the running game and the backgame.
As with chess, backgammon has been significantly interfaced with computer technology. By 1979, Hans Berliner’s BKG 9.8 program had defeated a world champion backgammon player, and since then neural network and other approaches have improved the playing quality of the virtual backgammon opponent. In addition, a number of other computer programs, most notably the backgammon software Snowie, have combined the capabilities of an intelligent opponent with extensive statistical analyses of individual moves and possible outcomes.
History
Medieval tabula players, from the 13th century Carmina Burana
Backgammon is the oldest known recorded game. Traditionally, it was believed to have originated in ancient Mesopotamia, (present-day Iraq), also see Royal Game of Ur. In English, the word backgammon is believed to be derived from “back” plus the Middle English word “gamen” (game).
Medieval backgammon players
Tabula was a form of backgammon played by the ancient Romans. It was called tabula, which means ‘table’ or ‘board’, since it was played on a special board. Tabula bears some similarity to Egyptian Senet, which dates back to at least 3000 BC.
The game of Tabula was similar to modern-day Backgammon in that the same board was used with fifteen pieces alloted to each player with the object of the game being to be the first to bear off all fifteen pieces. It differed in that the game began with no pieces on the board so that these first had to be entered by the roll of the dice. Likewise, three dice were used instead of two. Finally, both players entered the board from the same table and moved around the board in the same counterclockwise direction.
Recent excavations at the “Burnt City” in Iran showed that a form of backgammon existed there around 3000 BC. The artifacts include two dice and 60 pieces. The set is believed to be 100 to 200 years older than the oldest set found in Ur.
Backgammon set, 19th century
Backgammon as a gambling game
Backgammon is often played for money stakes. The most common ways that gamblers play is to set a wager on which player can be first to reach a certain score, achieved over however many games necessary; to assign a monetary value to each game (affected by the doubling die, of course), and to play until a certain score is reached or passed; or to assign a monetary value to each game and play games until either player chooses to stop. Backgammon is also available, though not often, at casinos.
Backgammon Chouette
A backgammon chouette is an adaptation of backgammon for three or more players, generally played for money.
Before beginning, a monetary value is agreed upon as the basic stake for each game. Dice throws determine an initial ranking. One player is in the box, the next is the captain, and the others take their places as members of the captain’s team. The captain, who may take advice from the team, plays against the player in the box. Traditionally, there is one doubling cube. This is controlled by the player in the box and the captain (in the usual way), except that, when the player in the box offers a double, each member of the team may accept or decline independently. Nowadays, however, the team members often operate separate doubling cubes, in which case they may accept, decline and offer doubles independently. Whichever system is employed, a team member who has refused a double drops out of the game and may no longer advise the captain. If the captain drops out of the game, the highest-ranking team member takes over as captain.
At the end of each game, the box settles up with the other players individually. If the player in the box has won, he retains the box and the (original) captain becomes the lowest-ranking team member. If the (final) captain has won, he takes over from the player in the box, who joins the team as its lowest-ranking member. The highest-ranking member of the team becomes its captain for the next game.
[The word 'chouette' is French for any of a seemingly arbitrary collection of species of typical (i.e. non-barn) owls.]
Backgammon in the Middle East and Central Asia
Backgammon is widely played in the Middle East and Central Asia, particularly in cafes. There are four main variants played in the Middle East:
1) the European game as described above and known as ifranjiah (meaning Frankish in Arabic); “Takhte Nard” is the Iranian version.
2) shesh besh (Shesh means six in Persian and Hebrew and Besh means five in Turkish) in Azerbaijan, Israel, and Uzbekistan and tavla in Turkey;
3) mahbusa (meaning ‘imprisoned’)
4) maghribiyya.
The most popular of those is probably mahbusa. In this game each player’s 15 checkers are all initially positioned on his 24-point. When hit, an isolated checker is not placed on the bar. Rather the hitting piece sits on top of the hit piece forming a block, i.e. the same rules apply as if the point was occupied by two or more pieces of the same colour. The checker which has been hit is ‘imprisoned’ and cannot be moved until the opponent removes his piece: hence the name of the game. Sometimes a further rule requires that a player must bring his first checker to the opponent’s home board before moving any other checkers. Whether or not this rule is applied, a rapid advance to the opponent’s side of the board is desirable as imprisoning the opponent’s checkers on his home table is highly advantageous.
An interesting feature of backgammon as played in some Arab countries is that Persian or Kurdish numbers, rather than Arabic ones, are called out by a player announcing his dice rolls.
People in Iranian plateau and Caucasus region, especially in Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, are very fond of playing Narde. In Georgia they play mainly the “short Narde”, a slightly simplified version of ifranjiah. In Iran it is called “Takhte Nard”. In Armenia and Azerbaidjan experienced players prefer to play “long Narde”, which requires more skill and even “knowledge” of some non-written strategic methods. As in ‘mahbusa’ all 15 checkers of a player are initially positioned on his 24-point, but there is a principal difference. One is forbidden to put his checker at a point occupied by opponent’s checker. So there is no “hitting” and no “imprisonment” in the long Narde game. The main strategy is to secure playing “big pairs” by one’s own checkers and prevent as much as possible doing the same by the opponent.
Other variants
Brädspel
A Swedish variant of backgammon, also called Swedish Tables in English.
The main difference compared to other backgammon variants is the method of winning. You can win by bearing off, but there are also several other ways to win, such as to arrange all your checkers in certain pre-determined patterns or by hitting so many checkers that your opponent can not bring them in again.
Brädspel is played without the doubling cube.
Gul Bara
Gul bara is also called ‘Rosespring Backgammon’ or ‘Crazy Narde’ and mistakenly called ‘Gul Bahar’ in some Arab countries.
Old English Rule
This rule limits the number of checkers to a maximum of five on each point, thus restricting some moves that might otherwise be made. This variation of backgammon is popular in England (as well as other regions), and is viewed as making the gameplay more interesting.
Runte Rule
The Runte Rule allows the player to move his checkers both backwards and forwards within his own home board. The player cannot move the checker in such a way that it lands outside of his home board. The rule was created to increase the possibility of scoring backgammons and gammons, because it allows one to trap the opponent for longer.
Tavli
In Greece, backgammon is called tavli (related to the word tavla ‘board, table’, and cognate to the Latin Tabula). It consists of three main styles, Portes, Plakoto and Fevga. Portes resembles the standard game, with minor variations: There is no doubling cube and backgammon counts as a gammon (called diplo – greek word for a double). Plakoto is very similar to mahbusa or Tapa, while Fevga is similar to Narde or the Turkish variant Moultezim. The three are normally played consecutively, one after another, in matches of three, five or seven points.
Tabla
In Republic of Macedonia the game is called tabla (табла, meaning ‘board, table’). It also consists of three main styles, very similar to the Greek tavli: Tabla, Gjul Bara and Tapa. They are played consecutively (in that order) in a match of five. The first game Tabla (Табла) is the standard backgammon, with few differences: there are no doubling cubes and there is no backgammon (it’s the same as gammon). Gjul Bara (Ѓул Бара) and Tapa (Тапа) are played the same way as described before. Gammon is called mars (марс) and it’s the only situation when a player can win 2 points with a single game. Mars is present in all three styles. When starting the match, each player rolls one die, to determine who will start. If it’s a tie, the players roll again. But, unlike the regular backgammon, the already-rolled dice are disregarded and the player that won the first turn, rolls both dice to begin. In the next game in the match, the player that won the previous has the first turn.
LongGammon
LongGammon is a variant of backgammon, the sole difference being that all fifteen of the players’ checkers start on their opponent’s one-point. All other rules of the game are the same as regular backgammon.
Nackgammon
A variation invented by Nack Ballard. It differs from the regular game in its initial setup: each player starts with two checkers on their 24-point, two checkers on their 23-point, three checkers on their 8-point, and five checkers on their 13-point and on their 6-point. This setup places more emphasis on positional play.
Nackgammon is played using the doubling cube and the Jacoby rule, so gammons and backgammons count only if the cube has been turned.
Computer backgammon
The first strong computer opponent was BKG 9.8. It was programmed by Hans Berliner in the late 1970s on a PDP-10 as an experiment in evaluating board positions. Early versions of BKG played badly even against poor players, but Berliner noticed that the critical mistakes the program made were always at phase changes. He applied basic principles of fuzzy logic to smooth out the transition between phase changes, and by July 1979, BKG 9.8 was ready to play against then current world champion Luigi Villa. It won the match, 7-1, becoming the first computer program to defeat a world champion in any game, although this was mostly a matter of luck, as the computer happened to get better dice rolls than its opponent in that match.
Beginning in the late 1980s, creators of backgammon-playing software began to have even more success with a neural network approach. TD-Gammon, developed by Gerald Tesauro of IBM, was the first of these computer programs to play at or near the expert level. This program’s neural network was trained using Temporal Difference learning applied to data generated from self-play.
This line of research has resulted in two modern commercial programs, Jellyfish and Snowie, the shareware BGBlitz (implemented in Java), and the free software GNU Backgammon, that play on a par with the best human players in the world. It is worth noting that without their associated “weights” tables which represent hours or even months of tedious neural net training, these programs play no better than a human child.
It is interesting to compare the development of backgammon software with that of chess software:
For backgammon, neural networks work better than any other methods so far. For chess, brute force searching, with sophisticated pruning and other refinements, works better than neural networks.
Every advance in the power of computer hardware has significantly improved the strength of chess programs. In contrast, additional computing power appears to improve the strength of backgammon software only marginally.
For both backgammon and chess, it is at present unclear whether the best computer or the best human is best overall. For most other games, one or the other is unambiguously stronger.
Real-time on-line play began with the First Internet Backgammon Server on July 19, 1992. This server is active to this day, remains free, and enjoys a strong international community of backgammon players. Several commercial websites also offer on-line real-time backgammon play
Caesars Palace is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Harrah’s Entertainment. Caesars is located on the west side of the Strip, between the Bellagio and the Mirage.
Caesars has 3,348 rooms in five towers: Augustus, Centurion, Forum, Palace, and Roman. The Forum tower features guest suites with 1,000 square feet of space.
History
In 1962, Jay Sarno, a cabana motel owner, used ten million dollars that had been lent to him by the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund to begin plans for a hotel on land owned by Kirk Kerkorian. Sarno would later act as designer of the hotel he planned to construct.
Building of the 14-story Caesars Palace hotel began in 1962. That first tower would have 680 rooms on the 34 acre (138,000 m²) site.
Sarno struggled to decide on a name for the hotel. But he made the decision of calling it Caesars Palace with his thinking that the name Caesar would evoke thoughts of royalty because of Roman general Julius Caesar. Sarno thought that people should feel they were at a king’s home while at his hotel. The name of the hotel is often spelled “Caesar’s Palace”, although the real name is “Caesars Palace”, making everyone that stays there a “Caesar”.
Sarno contracted many companies to build the hotel, from the Roman landscapes it presents, to the water fountains that have been stages of various events and the hotel’s swimming pools.
On August 5, 1966, the hotel was inaugurated, with Andy Williams and Phil Richards providing entertainment; they both played Julius Caesar at a play that night. Two days later, Latin musician Xavier Cugat and salsa dancer Charo became the first couple to marry in the new establishment.
Soon after the hotel’s opening, Sarno bought the land from Kerkorian for five million dollars.
On December 31, 1967, Evel Knievel unsuccessfully tried to jump the hotel’s water fountain with his motorcycle.
On July 15, 1969, executives lay ground on an expansion area of the hotel, and they buried a time capsule in the area, but the time capsule was stolen days later.
In 1973, Del Webb company was contracted to make a 16 story building to add to the Palace’s number of rooms. That project was finished in 1974.
In 1980, Gary Wells gained much media coverage, and much physical suffering, when he unsuccessfully tried to leap over a water fountain at the Caesars Palace. He sustained injuries in many different parts of his body.
By the 1980s, Caesars Palace had become a boxing and gambling Mecca. Joe Louis, the former world Heavyweight champion boxer, worked at Caesars Palace as a greeter until his death in 1981. A statue of him would be erected soon after inside the hotel. Another professional boxer, South Korean Duk Koo Kim, went 14 rounds with Ray Mancini at the Palace in 1982, then collapsed in a coma and died. As a result, the number of rounds in a boxing title match was reduced to 12. Fights were (and still are) particularly beneficial to the casino, with high-rolling boxing fans hitting the gaming tables and slot machines before and after bouts, as well as wagering large sums at Caesars’ large sports book. Among the Caesars Palace’s most famous fights were The Battle of the Little Giants, the Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns fights, the Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney battle, Marvin Hagler versus Thomas Hearns, the fight in which Mike Tyson became world Heavyweight champion by knocking out Trevor Berbick and the fight between Leonard and Hagler. Most boxing fights were held at the hotel’s parking lot. Extra security measurements had to be taken for the fight between Holmes and Cooney, as both the KKK and black groups had threatened to shoot the boxers before the fight began; there were police snipers at the roof of Caesars Palace and adjacent hotels on the fight’s night.
Also during the 1980s, the hotel opened an Atari game room that had over 60 Atari video game arcade machines.
In 1989, Robbie Knievel successfully completed what his father could not do years before.
The hotel’s management wanted it to have a new, family-oriented atmosphere as the 1990s approached, a trend mirrored by many of the big Las Vegas resorts. This move was not strange to Las Vegas hotel owners, as most hotels there were planning to modernize anyway by adding more children features and making Las Vegas hotels seem more family friendly and less gambler oriented. As a consequence, big time boxing was one of the first things to leave Caesars Palace.
In 1992, The Forum Shops at Caesars opened; it was one of the very first venues in the city where shopping, particularly at high-end stores, was an attraction in itself. The fourth phase opened on October 22, 2004. It now has the 2nd built circular escalator in the USA. The other one is at the Westfield San Francisco Centre.
In 1994, the NBC game show Caesar’s Challenge was taped here.
Over the years, the hotel has been owned by various companies, including Sheraton and The Hilton International Corporation. Caesars Entertainment (originally known as Park Place Entertainment) bought the property in 1999, before the merger with Harrah’s.
Caesars has just opened the Roman Plaza, an open-air area with a cafe on the corner, and the Colosseum theater, where Céline Dion and Elton John are regular performers. The Colosseum was specifically built for Dion’s show, “A New Day,” a spectacular produced by former Cirque du Soleil director Franco Dragone. Dion’s show was also notable for having some of the highest ticket prices for any show in the city, with seats as high as $200 each; nonetheless, the show regularly sells out.
Many star performers, such as Liberace, Julio Iglesias, David Copperfield, and Gloria Estefan have performed at the hotel.
On October 2, 2004, big-time boxing returned to the Caesars Palace hotel, as Jeff Lacy, a former Olympic boxer, knocked out Syd Vanderpool in eight rounds in a fight between Super-middleweight world title challengers that was televised on Showtime.
WrestleMania IX, one of the periodic World Wrestling Federation spectacles promoted by Vince McMahon, was held here.
Currently, Caesars is in the process of another expansion, including a new hotel tower.
In 2005, Harrah’s Entertainment acquired Caesars Entertainment and became the owner of Caesars Palace.
On May 4, 2006, Mike Metzger became the first person to ever backflip on a motorcycle over the fountains.
In May of 2007, Bette Midler was announced as Dion’s formal replacement. Midler will reportedly only perform about 100 shows a year, with Elton John continuing to perform his popular Red Piano show 50 nights a year while Midler is on hiatus. After taking a three-year hiatus, Cher, following her Farewell Tour, is also returning to the stage with a three-year contract to perform 200 shows beginning May 6, 2008.
As of December 2007, Harrah’s Entertainment runs some of their corporate offices inside the Caesars Palace Resort.
Future
With the success of the Augustus Tower, Harrah’s Entertainment is planning a $1 billion expansion and upgrade to the famed resort. The expansion will include another hotel tower and a sports complex replacing the events center. The timeline for construction was undisclosed.
New features include:
A new 29-story, 1,017-room hotel tower adjacent to the Palace Tower, which will frame the pool area at the back of the property along with an extension of the existing Convention Center.
An additional 37,000 sq ft (3,400 m²) of casino space and about 110,000 sq ft (10,000 m²) of added retail and restaurants will cover the area closest to the Strip replacing the new outdoor Roman Plaza.
A “pedestrian promenade”, with several decorative fountains surrounded by landscaping which will guide strip-walkers into Caesar’s domain. Underneath the promenade, Caesars will excavate a parking garage, with 389 valet-parking spaces.
Film history
Hells Angels on Wheels 1967
Where It’s At 1969
The Electric Horseman 1979
Pleasure Palace
History of the World, Part I 1981
Oh God, You Devil 1984
You Ruined My Life 1987
Rain Man 1988
Hearts are Wild 1992
Caesars Challenge 1993, a game show
Fools Rush In 1997
Friends 1999
The Strip 1999
Ocean’s Eleven 2001
Rush Hour 2 2001
Dreamgirls 2006
Category 6: Day of Destruction
Iron Man 2008
In the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Caesars Palace appears in the fictional city of Las Venturas, but with the name Caligula’s Palace. The Casino is a major part of the game’s plot, in which the main character must pull off a robbery heist on the casino, which is run by the mafia.
A&E had a reality show called Caesars 24/7 showing behind the scenes at Caesars. The jobs highlighted by the show ranged from security and concierge to “The Grape Goddess” and “Shadow Dancers.” Many visitors were documented as well. The show ran for two seasons.
During The Simpsons episode Viva Ned Flanders, Homer Simpson stays at a place similar to Caesars, but was named Octavions Palace after his adopted son and great-grand nephew.
Amenities and entertainment
Caesars offers additional attractions including:
Exotic cars showroom
Fall of Atlantis — free show
Festival Fountain — free show
Pure Nightclub a 36,000 sq ft (3,300 m²) nightclub
Free shuttle to sister property Rio Hotel and Casino approximately every thirty minutes.
The Pussycat Dolls Lounge, an adjunct of Pure nightclub.
In February of 2006, a section of the casino was themed to match the Pussycat Dolls Nightclub and is called the Pussycat Dolls Casino.
A playing card is a typically hand-sized piece of heavy paper or thin plastic used for playing card games. A complete set of cards is a pack or deck. Playing cards are often used as props in magic tricks, as well as occult practices such as cartomancy, and a number of card games involve (or can be used to support) gambling. As a result, their use sometimes meets with disapproval from some religious groups (such as a minority of conservative Christians). They are also a popular collectible (as distinct from the cards made specifically for collectible trading card games). Specialty and novelty decks are commonly produced for collectors, often with political, cultural, or educational themes. One side of each card (the “front” or “face”) carries markings that distinguish it from the others and determine its use under the rules of the particular game being played, while the other side (the “back”) is identical for all cards, usually a plain color or abstract design. In most games, the cards are assembled into a “deck” (or “pack”), and their order is randomized by a procedure called “shuffling” to provide an element of chance in the game.
Some typical Anglo-American playing cards.
Playing card symbols in Unicode
The Unicode standard defines 8 characters for card suits in the Miscellaneous Symbols block, from U+2660 to U+2667:
U+2660dec: 9824
U+2661dec: 9825
U+2662dec: 9826
U+2663dec: 9827
♠
♡
♢
♣
BLACK SPADE SUIT
WHITE HEART SUIT
WHITE DIAMOND SUIT
BLACK CLUB SUIT
♠
♠
♠
♡
♡
♢
♢
♣
♣
♣
U+2664dec: 9828
U+2665dec: 9829
U+2666dec: 9830
U+2667dec: 9831
♤
♥
♦
♧
WHITE SPADE SUIT
BLACK HEART SUIT
BLACK DIAMOND SUIT
WHITE CLUB SUIT
♤
♤
♥
♥
♥
♦
♦
♦
♧
♧
There is also a proposal by Michael Everson, dated 2004-05-18 to encode the 52 cards of the Anglo-American-French deck together with a character for “Playing Card Back” and another for a joker. [6]
References
Parlett, David. The Oxford Guide to Card Games. 1990. ISBN 0-19-214165-1.
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A typical U.S. bingo card
A typical housie/Bingo ticket
Professional boxing bout featuring Ricardo Dominguez (left) vs. Rafael Ortiz.
Sara Giauro shoots a three-point shot, FIBA Europe Cup for Women Finals 2005.
Picture of Fenway Park. Part of the “Green Monster” can be seen on the right side of this picture
Medieval tabula players, from the 13th century Carmina Burana
Medieval backgammon players
Backgammon set, 19th century
Some typical Anglo-American playing cards.
Set of 52 playing cards
