Wimbledon Tennis Championships
For two weeks a year, SW19 is the place to be. Wimbledon is where dreams are made and also where they are shattered.
There are four grand slam tournaments. In order: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. But what is it about Wimbledon that makes it the best? The answer is everything. To win Wimbledon is the crown jewel in any tennis player’s collection.
Not only is Wimbledon the oldest tennis tournament on the tour (it dates back to 1877), but it is also considered the most prestigious. Each grand slam has its own quirks, but none more so than Wimbledon.
The importance even the greatest tennis players place upon this noble event was illustrated when Ivan Lendl, a former men’s singles number one, said ‘not winning at Wimbledon is going to bother me forever.’
Monaco Grand Prix
Since its inception in 1929, the Monaco Grand Prix has grown to become one of motor racing’s greatest events—on par with the 24 Hours of Le Mans (est. 1923) and the Indianapolis 500 (est. 1911).
It is not only the slowest and most difficult of all the World Formula One Championship races, but also one of the premier highlights of Europe’s annual social calendar.
The Monaco Grand Prix is conducted over the streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine, a circuit notorious for its snakelike layout and tight turns. Its famous tunnel is unique among racing challenges, and its winding streets leave little margin for error.
The Monaco circuit is such a test of drivers’ skills that safety concerns would prohibit it from being added to the Formula One schedule if it were not already an established Grand Prix.
How to Play Blackjack
Blackjack, also known as twenty-one, among all casino games is the one card game known to be the easiest for a novice to learn, play and win.
Unlike most other “games of chance,” such as Roulette or Craps, everything that happens at a Blackjack table is influenced by preceding events, so a player who remembers what has occurred can apply that knowledge for a winning advantage.
Besides a good memory, it is useful for a Blackjack player to have a clear knowledge of the rules of the game and a good grasp of Blackjack basic strategy.
Blackjack has many variations so it is appropriate to begin by mastering the most common version, before progressing to more complicated forms.
How to Play Roulette
Roulette is one of the easiest casino games to learn and play. It also offers excellent opportunities of winning to those who are willing to make a study of it. The centerpiece of the roulette table is a rotating wheel that contains 37 or 38 numbered slots.
A croupier spins a small ball in the direction opposite to the wheel, and it will eventually slow and drop into one of the slots. Your task as the player is to predict where the ball will land. You do so by placing a bet on a field of corresponding numbers.
If you are right, you will win at fixed odds. If not, you will lose your wager. Nothing could be simpler, or potentially more frustrating.
One early form of roulette was called “Roly Poly.” Popular in England in the 1720s, it involved rolling a ball around a wheel with slots, two of which were marked for the banker. Players wagered on which slot the ball would land in, losing their bets if the bank’s slot came up.
How to Play Baccarat
Baccarat is a two-hand card game well known and respected in the casinos of Europe, but much less popular in North America and Asia. It is somewhat similar to Blackjack, in that the object is to win by getting cards with a higher combined value than your opponent’s.
However, in this case Aces count only as one point (not eleven), tens and face cards have no value at all, and the best possible total for a hand is nine, rather than twenty-one.
In fact, for totals of ten or more, only the last digit counts, so a hand of 6+5 is not eleven, it is one (ignoring the tens place), and a total of 7+9 is just six, not sixteen. Newcomers are often confused by the game’s strict rules of play as well as its similarity to other games with the same roots, such as Chemin-de-fer and Punto Banco.
But as expert card players know, Baccarat is one of the few forms of gambling in which the house advantage is extremely low. The secret of success is to know the rules, carefully watch what cards have been played, and apply that knowledge to your bets.