Baccarat Tips

Baccarat is an easy and straightforward game. There are no confusing strategies or systems in work at the baccarat table. You only need to have a clear understanding of the game rules to play and win at a game of baccarat. However, certain simple tips can help you play this interesting game confidently.

Four Basic Tips for Beginners:

1. Set up your bankroll somewhere between 20 and 50 units, each about $5 in value. Baccarat is often a high limit game and you may have to risk at least 20 units of up $25 each, meaning a $500 bankroll.

2. When you sit down at the table, ask for and get a score card. Record every result in a readable form using standard notations of P for player and B for bank.

3. Watch the play and when you feel confident start betting at units of say $25 a hand. Do this for the first 20 or 30 hands.

4. Watch how the game is played during these first 20 to 30 hands. Look for obvious trends in the game. Watch the dealing and the play. For example, see if the shoe is "choppy", with player and banker switching back and forth many hands in succession. See if there are short-term streaks like P, P, P, B, P, B, B, B.

Four Tips for the More Advanced Players:

Card Counting, a strategy which can be used to advantage when playing blackjack has always attracted attention among Baccarat players. Many players believe that is a possible method for winning at Baccarat as well. Here's how it works:

Much as in blackjack, in baccarat the removal of cards during play creates situations where there is a change in the chances of attaining particular cards or combinations of cards. The removal of certain cards in some cases favors the Player and at other times the Banker.

If you have developed a good count strategy you will be able to recognize situations that favor betting for the Banker and others that favor betting for the Player. A good card counter may improve his or her chances and win money at the game of baccarat by the method of shrewdly alternating bets along with the count.

An accepted rule of thumb says that the high cards favor the Banker while the lower cards favor the Player. Other cards have only a minor effect and are considered as being neutral. Card counters track the removal of such cards as the game progresses and then bet for the Player when there is a higher ratio of high cards remaining in the deck.

1. Baccarat players seek out trends. The rollers watch for these trends and then consider whether to continue or reverse direction. A gambler will begin to bet on a streak taking place if the last 30 odd hands have been unpredictable. In order to do this, he will simply continue betting according to whatever the last hand was. So if the Player won, he will bet for the Player, if it was the Banker who won, then he will bet for the Banker. He may start raising his bet in anticipation of a favorable streak.

On the other hand, if the gambler notices that the shoe was streaky during the first 30 hands, he might decide that these streaks will reverse and will bet accordingly. When you notice a turn, you need to determine in which direction it is heading. Then you have to consider betting with or against it? In the end, you have to remember that this is gambling and therefore there is no way to know for certain in which direction things will go.

2. If the shoe is streaky with both P and B participating on short-term streaks, play these streaks to continue with a paroli of three. This simply means parley your bet twice, going for a win of three hands in succession. You bet $25 and win. Let it ride and bet another $50. If it wins, let that ride again and bet the $100. If you sustain a loss or after winning three hands in a row, revert to a one-unit bet. To start you paroli of three, you could either bet whichever won on the last hand. So if P wins, start with P, or go the other way, meaning that if P wins, start with B. Be consistent.

3. If you are playing in a choppy shoe, you should bet that the winner of the last hand will not win three hands in a row. If the last hand was won by P then you should bet $25 on B. If P wins again and you lose, then you should bet $50 on B. But if P were to win again, you should go all out and bet $100 on B. If you succeed in winning any of these three hands you will have won $25. If you lose all three of the hands, then your loss is $175. This would be a good time to sit out for a few hands or wait for a new shoe.

4. There are those players who see the consecutive occurrence of P wining, say after 30 hands, and then again after another 20. At that time things will even out as B becomes dominant during the next 30 hands. Note that a shoe contains about 60 hands. In this approach, you should take a conservative approach and flat-bet the second half of the shoe on the side that is now due to come up to even things out.

Winning With Card Counting:

Card counting, which is so popular and successful with blackjack players, is now being studied carefully by baccarat players in the hope that it will give them an advantage in the game. It works like this:

Reducing the number of cards from the shoe, which is what happens as the game progresses, creates situations where the chances of particular cards or combinations of cards coming up changes. This is true in both blackjack and in baccarat. The removal of some types of cards favors the Player and the removal of others will favor the Banker.

When you have learned to use a good card count strategy to your advantage, you will be able to recognize situations that favor the Banker, as well as those that are favorable to the Player. You may discern situations in which you should bet for the Banker and others where you should bet for the Player. By carefully alternating your bets as the count changes, a card counter may be able to improve his or her chances at winning when playing Baccarat.

The theory is very simple: the presence of low cards will favor the Player while high cards favor the position of the Banker. There are other cards that will have little effect. Therefore they are considered as being neutral. Those who count cards will keep track of these cards as they are removed. They will bet the Player position when there is a lower ratio and the Banker position when there is a higher ratio of high cards remaining in the deck.

Traditional Betting Strategies:

Very little decision making is required in playing Baccarat. Up to now all winning strategies have been limited to betting systems and money management techniques. Any strategies can only be based on the discernment of winning streaks, i.e., watching for trends of wins and losses. One bets with the position that seems to be winning and one adjusts his or her bet in accordance with whether or not the last hand lost or won. Several interesting approaches are available for those players who enjoy working with betting systems. Remember that any such systems will not, in any way, change the odds of the game that they may be trying to beat.

The House Advantage:

Streaks are not predictable, even though the Baccarat player is constantly hoping for a sign of a coming streak to guide him. As far as I know, there is no way that a streak can be predicted. It is also not possible to get a statistically verifiable advantage in this game. The game definitely does have streaks of luck, and like a surfer, when it comes you must be ready and able to ride it, but such streaks are unpredictable, neither for the Player nor for the Banker.

So the strategy that remains for most Baccarat players is to try to recognize these streaks or trends when they come and decide whether they favor the Player or the Banker, and then to climb on and ride along with them. Once a streak starts the players have to decide whether or not these streaks will continue or not and bet accordingly. A streak can also go into reverse. A high roller who is able to take advantage of such streaks and trends can win as much as $5 million in a single session. It is much more likely for him to lose that much, or perhaps more. A reported loss came to $20,000,000 in one session.

Here is how the house edge works. This is an advantage that will eventually affect even the most careful Baccarat player:

The house’s edge on a Banker Hand winning is 1.06%

The house’s edge on a Player Hand winning is 1.23%

The advantage to the house on a Tie hand is 14.05%