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2014 Winter Olympics odds: The 2014 Winter Olympics are just about here! Before some of the best athletes on the planet get together to go to battle for their country, we here at BookMaker Sportsbook are going to be looking at one of the best events to bet on the Olympics odds in Sochi, Curling.
Curling is one of these sports which really has never taken off in the United States, though the Americans do have teams of curlers going to the Winter Olympics every four years.
The sport of curling is essentially a form of human shuffleboard. The goal is to get as many stones into the center circles as possible to get as many points as you can for your team. There are "ends," which consist of eight stones per team. Teams are in competition against just one other team at a time. There are 10 "ends" per game. Think of an "end" as an inning in baseball. It's more beneficial to be the second team going in an end, which is known as having the "hammer," as then, you have the last shot in a game.
One of the concepts that bettors have to understand on the Olympics betting odds in curling is that most ends produce no scoring whatsoever. The maximum number of points is eight, but you'll never see one team get eight points in a round at this level. The team with the hammer attempts to get at least two points in an end, because once you score when you have the hammer, the hammer goes over to the other team. Often times, it's more beneficial to end up with no points in an end than one point, knowing that your opponents will get the hammer in the next round if you score. If you don't score, you keep the hammer until the next end.
It is very difficult to score any points when you don't have the hammer; think of scoring when your opponent has the hammer as a break in tennis. It happens at times, but it isn't all that often.
To score and make your way closer to beating the Olympics gambling odds, you have to have the stone closest to the center of the target. If you have the closest stone, the second closest stone, and the third closest stone ( and how many ever subsequent stones are closer ), you get as points as you have stones closest to the target.
This is definitely a thinking game, and most believe that the Olympians who play curling are some of the most intellectual in the world. There is a tremendous amount of strategy involved in the game, not the least of which is the 74-minute time limit you have to make all of your shots in a match.
Curling action on the Olympics wagering odds begins with qualifying on Monday, February 10th at the Ice Cube Curling Center in Sochi. After 12 sessions of curling in which each team will play every other team in the pool, four semifinalists will remain. The nine round robin matches for the men and women will take place over just eight days. The women's final is played on Thursday, February 20th, while the men's final will be complete on Friday, February 21st.
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CURLING EVENTS
MEN'S EVENTS
WOMEN'S EVENTS
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