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The 2008 Beijing Olympics eight-team baseball tournament preliminary round begins Tuesday night (10 p.m. ET) with two games, Netherlands vs. Chinese Taipei and Canada vs. China. Then eight hours later at 6 a.m. Wednesday the United States plays South Korea followed by Japan playing tournament favorite Cuba at 7 a.m.

Sportsbook.com currently has Chinese Taipei (-180) and Canada (-750) listed as money line favorites in Tuesday’s games and the United States (-320) and Cuba (-200) favorites for Wednesday’s games.

The competition format consists of eight teams playing a round-robin preliminary tournament, progressing to semifinals and final round games.

During the preliminary round, each team will play with every other team once. Ranking of the teams will be in accordance with the win/loss record of all the games played.

The four teams with the highest rank from the preliminary round will progress to the semifinal round. In this round, the teams will play each other in the following format:

Semifinal 1: 1st ranked team vs. 4th ranked team

Semifinal 2: 2nd ranked team vs. 3rd ranked team

The winners of these matches will progress to the gold medal match; the losers will progress to the bronze medal match.

 Betting Odds for 2008 Beijing Olympics Baseball tournament preliminary round.

Aug. 12. 10 p.m. ET

Netherlands +160 vs. Chinese Taipai -180

Canada -750 vs. China +550

Aug. 13. 6 a.m.

USA -320 vs. South Korea +260

Japan +170 vs. Cuba -200

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