Unlike positive and negative progression systems where you have to alter the amount of your bet, a flat betting strategy for Baccarat means that you will be repeatedly placing the exact same wager in successive rounds of play, regardless of whether you lose or win. The Wizard’s Simple Strategy Blackjack Odds & Strategies. One of the most popular casino games, Blackjack can have a variety of proper strategies depending on your casino’s rules. Baccarat Strategy When it comes to card games, baccarat is underrated. All the glory seems to have gone towards poker and blackjack variants, whereas baccarat is a simpler game and provides the player a chance to earn cold, hard cash while making substantially fewer decisions than he or she would at a blackjack table, for example. Martingale baccarat strategy: This strategy was made popular in the 18th century in France. You can also use this strategy to play other table games like blackjack and roulette. The Martingale strategy says that a particular hand is bound to win at some point and you should double down on. Ever wanted to try online baccarat? Read our guide to learn baccarat rules, how to apply useful betting strategies and get the ultimate tips & tricks on winning.

Baccarat seems like a very simplistic game as its objective is very clear – bet on either Player or Banker and hope your hand is the winning one. However, if you go the whole nine yards and dive deep into the intricacies woven in by both experience and superstitious players, you will see there’s much more to it. Some players will try to predict their outcome based on previous results, while others will employ betting systems – both logic and superstition are equally influencing the game. In this article, we will explain the basic rules for drawing cards and how to use score boards, but before we begin, let’s have a look at the basics – card values and hands.

Baccarat Card Values

A fun fact you need to know about Baccarat besides that the “t” is silent – yes, it’s pronounced [bakaʀa] – is also the fact that the word means “zero” or “nothing”. This piece of trivia is all you need to go “Ahh!” when you learn that Tens, Jacks, Queens, and Kings have zero value in Baccarat. Ace counts as one and all other cards count as their face value 2 – 9. Total hand values cannot exceed 9, so ten is subtracted if the hand totals more than 9. If the hand is, say 4 – 9 – 5 the total would be 8 or 18 minus 10. Two 10s is a zero. A total of 8 or 9 is called a natural.

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Player’s Hand

The Player’s hand is always the first one to be acted upon. It’s dealt two cards initially. They are turned over by the dealer and if the total is between zero and five, a third card is dealt. If the total is between six and nine, the Player stands, which means that no cards are dealt. A “natural” is a hand of eight or nine and it’s automatically a winner against any Banker hands except 8 or 9. If the Player has a total of 8 and the Banker – 9, the Banker wins and vice versa. The house edge on Player hand is 1.24 percent and the payout is 1:1.

Banker’s Hand

The Banker’s hand is also dealt two cards and if the total is 7, 8, or 9 no additional cards will be dealt. If, however, the two-card total is between zero and three, and a three if the Player’s total is 8. Depending on the Player’s total, the Banker may still hit some 4, 5, or 6 totals. Lucky for you, you don’t need to memorize all of those as the dealers have already done it for you and will do all the hitting. And also, because you can use our handy Baccarat drawing guide that you can download for your perusal. The Banker is considered to have a slight advantage over the Player because it’s dealt second and some experts advise betting on it as they believe it will win slightly over 50 percent of the time. It does have a lower house edge – 1.06 percent and although it pays 1:1, there’s a 5 percent commission on Banker bets.

Rules for Drawing Additional Cards

In certain instances, additional cards will be drawn to either the Player or the Banker hand. These complicated rules certainly add to the sense of mystery that still surrounds the game. Which tends to give it the cachet of a more sophisticated game than it really is.

If either the player or the banker has a total of an 8 or a 9 they both stand. There is no exceptions and this rule overrides all other rules. And here are the other instances:

• If the player has total of 6 or 7, the player stands.
• If the player stands, the banker hits on a total of 5 or less.
• If the player has total of 5 or less, the player automatically hits and the banker gives the player a third card.

If the player gets the third card then the banker draws a third card according to the following rules:

• Banker has total of 0, 1, 2: Banker always draws a third card.
• Banker has total of 3: Banker draws if Player’s Third Card is 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-9-0 (not 8)
• Banker has total of 4: Banker draws if Player’s Third Card is 2-3-4-5-6-7
• Banker has total of 5: Banker draws if Player’s Third Card is 4-5-6-7
• Banker has total of 6: Banker draws if Player’s Third Card is of 6-7
• Banker has total of 7: Banker always stands.

You don’t really need to understand why these rules are as they are, and why they need to be so complicated, as this is simply how the game is played and that is that. To be fair, if the winner of the game was determined solely on the first two cards dealt then it would be more like a game of hi-lo than anything else.

Pattern Spotting

Based on the gambler’s fallacy, some players believe that the sequence of results in past hands can offer some clue as to what the outcome of the hands to come will be. In order to keep track of how many Player, Banker, and Tie hands have passed, they use scoreboards to map out previous results – a practice known as pattern spotting and casinos are perfectly fine with it. Land-based gambling halls will offer a sheet and pencil, while online, developers display the results automatically in a grid. They do this because they’re aware of the fact that these patterns and chart tracing will have no effect on the game whatsoever. This is not a winning strategy because previous outcomes don’t correlate with the next hands dealt in any way. Still, if you’re interested in finding out about those, here’s a breakdown of the most popular patterns.

Bead Plate

Other English names for it are “cube road”, “dice road”, “marker road”, “bead plate road” and even “baby pig road”. On the “bead plate” players can keep track of Player, Banker, and Tie wins and mark them with differently colored cubes:

• Blue= Player win
• Red= Banker win
• Green= Tie win

Tracing begins at the upper left hand corner all the way to the bottom row. Then, it continues over one column to the right, back to the top row.

Big Road

The “Big Road” pattern details the sequence of Player and Banker wins, ties are marked with a green line through the previous Player or Banker wins. Player pairs are designated with a blue dot in the lower right corner while Banker pairs with a red dot in the upper left corner of the hand it occurred in.

Marking this pattern starts again at the upper left, with Player wins marked in blue, and Banker wins in red. However, a new column is started every time there’s a change in Player and Banker winning. Since the grid is only six rows deep, if there are more than six consecutive wins, scoring moves to the right, which creates the so-called “dragon tail.” This is the main road and all other roads are derived from it.

Big Eye Boy

The “Big Eye Boy” is not that straightforward and could be perceived as serving the purpose of keeping statistics of how repetitive the shoe is. Red marks indicate repetition, while blue means the shoe is chaotic. Keep in mind that in this pattern, unlike in the previous two, blue and red do not relate to Player and Banker wins.

The “Big Eye Boy” table begins with an entry of the hand after the first entry in the second column of the Big Road. This provides no information based on which you can tell whether a pattern is developing or not. Every entry in the Big Eye Boy table, as well as the next two tables, will refer to a specific entry in the Big Road. It may get confusing following this sequence, but to put it as simply as possible – take a look at the last entry of the Big Road. Next, move one cell to the left and then up. If the move up does not result in a change, mark red, if it does, mark blue.

Small Road

Using the Small Road is very similar to using the Big Eye Boy, however, it skips the column to the left of the current column in the Big Road. It starts with the hand after the first hand in the third column of the big road, which means it will wait until the entry after the first entry in the third column of the Big Road. Red circles mean that the first and third columns to the left of the new column in Big Road are the same in depth. A blue circle means they’re not.

The way you move in the small road is – again considering the latest entry in the Big Road – move two cells to the left and then – up. Mark red if the move up does not result in a change, and in blue if it does.

Cockroach Pig

The Cockroach is the third road derived from the Big Road and it skips two columns to the left of the current column in the Big Road. Otherwise, it works exactly the same as the Small Road. The Cockroach Pig will wait until the entry after the first entry in the fourth column of the Big Road. Here, you will compare the first and fourth columns to the left of the new column in the Big Road. Again – a red circle will mean they are the same in depth while a blue one will mean they’re different. In order to mark the Cockroach pattern, again look at the the latest entry in the Big Road and move three cells to the left. Then, move up. Again, if there’s no change as a result of the move up, mark red. Mark blue if there’s a change.

Free Practice Play with NetEnt’s Low-Limit Baccarat

When choosing an online baccarat casino, we advise that you look up the info section of RNG baccarat games – it should contain all details that are essential to your gameplay such as RTP, rules, payouts, and functions. We’ve chosen to feature a baccarat game developed by NetEnt as they have some of the most detailed explanations on how to play baccarat, third-card draw rules, payout tables, as well as all functions of each game. This release some of the highest return-to-player rates at

• Banker: 98.94%
• Player: 98.76%
• Tie: 85.64%

To avoid any confusion, the game features a chart for third card rules, scoring, and payout schedule with examples. All the features and controls are also explained in detail, so you will have no trouble playing regardless of your experience with the game. A history of previous bets stays open so you can keep track of previous results if you’re marking them down for patterns.

Is It Worth Using Pattern Spotting?

Learning the intricacies of these patterns can be an arduous task. Generally, what you need to know about these charts is that red circles represent Banker wins and blue circles – Player wins. Green is for Ties. The Big Road is the main road and all other ones consider its latest entry. Luckily, these days casinos will spare you the struggle and offer digital displays of the roads, detailing all the wins, and providing more information without error as they are directly connected to automatic card reading shoes. Normally, each road is six symbols in height and in electronic displays, Big Eye Boy, the Small Road and the Cockroach Road use symbols of half a cell’s height and width, which means that three rows of cells can fit six symbols vertically.

However you choose to use these patterns, whether scoring them yourself or following the electronic display, keep in mind that they’re entirely based on superstition and the false sense of control part of the gambling psychology, so they won’t decrease the house edge and won’t give you an advantage or guarantee you more or bigger winnings. If you want to get an authentic Macau Baccarat feeling, then you can use these, as well as other rituals such as the squeeze or blowing on cards to banish bad luck with the same effect.

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Best Strategy For Baccarat

The key to winning any casino game is choosing the right strategy. Whether it is a strategy to bet or a strategy to play, the best one is to help you win more money than you lose. Some game strategies however manage to offer a player a 1% edge over the casino like in a game of blackjack.

The game of baccarat is one of the casino games that does not provide any winning method that will guarantee edge over the casino. This is due to the fact that baccarat is a game of chance and the only skills required from the player is the knowledge of game odds and probabilities that will influence the result.

Therefore this page concerns baccarat strategy of choosing the right bets as the only thing player takes part in is choosing the amount of bet and which hand to bet on.

Basic Baccarat Strategy Tips

You may find lots of baccarat strategies based on considering cards dealt previously in the game. Indeed, this strategy can be very profitable, but in blackjack only. Baccarat results can not be influenced by anything more than the bet the player makes. This is firstly due to the fact that the cards are most of the time shuffled after each deal. Moreover, the game is hard to predict as the hands change its value as soon as the hand total is over 9 and thus neither player nor the dealer can bust.

Strategy tip #1 Know the game

To win the game you must know the game.

There is no doubt that in order to be a winner in any game or any business at all you should know what you are doing. Therefore, learn everything necessary before you play the game. In order to find out you have learned enough, try playing for free at any of our casino baccarat destinations and see how good you are in the game and whether you need to study some more.
Moreover, you can go through the rules again and make sure you know all the basics and use all the strategy tips in order to minimize losses.

Strategy tip #2 Run with short win

Set a limit for your wins to quit winners.

Baccarat is a game that allows you to win nice amount of money in some bets but can make you end up losing everything if you go on playing as the odds favor the house. This is the reason why you should quit the game as soon as you win on one or a couple of bets.

Strategy tip #3 Never bet on tie

Tie bets give 14% edge to the casino.

According to baccarat odds, the tie bet gives a casino the advantage of 14.4%. This means that even with a 5% banker's commission, the tie bet is still the worst on the baccarat table.
Find out more about the odds in baccarat on the probabilities page.

Strategy tip #4 Look for lower banker's tax

The best game is with the smallest commission.

As you know, the banker bet involves 5% banker's commission. If you happen to see a baccarat game with a lower commission, go for it as this way you will increase your gaming odds.

Strategy tip #5 Check the number of decks

The best game is with the smallest number of decks.

Just like in blackjack and most other card games, the less number of decks is used in the game, the better the game is for the player.
Therefore, search for tables with minimum number of decks. However, make sure the game does not have any extra rules that could influence your odds in the game like other payouts or special rules on ties.

Strategy tip #6 Use money management systems

Mini Baccarat Strategy

Control your wins and loses.

There is no gambling game that does not require money management skills and baccarat is not an exception. Therefore, learn all about how to end up a winner and not to lose everything you came with.
Go to our money management tips in order to find out more about money management.

Strategy tip #7 Do not buy any baccarat systems

None of the baccarat strategies can be a 100% winning method.

As baccarat is a game of chance and there is no way in beating or cheating online casinos, ignore all the ads and commercials of winning baccarat systems promising you to give a great edge over the casino.

Another baccarat strategies

Online gambling specialists have created lots of methods used for varying player bets. This methods are mostly used for games with no particular gambling strategies. You have already probably heard about most of them:

• Martingale
• Paroli
• Parlay

• D'alembert
• Labouchere
• 1-3-2-6

However there is no proof these methods work for the baccarat game. Therefore we highly recommend you concentrate on the above mentioned baccarat strategy tips that will definitely help you control your loses.