Baccarat Systems
If you came here looking for a surefire baccarat system that will guarantee you massive profits the next time you play in your favorite casino, bad news: no such thing exists. Unfortunately, baccarat is a game of pure luck, in which there’s very little the player can do to alter the outcome.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything at all to give ourselves a fighting chance at the baccarat table. While every bet in baccarat carries a house edge, not all of these edges are the same. The best bet on the table is the banker bet, which carries a very low house edge of just 1.06%. The player bet is also a very reasonable choice, since the house edge there is only 1.24%. The bet to avoid is definitely the tie bet; there, the house usually has a 14.36% edge, and even with a more generous 9-1 payout, it’s still far more costly in the long run than playing the banker or player bets.
Even after hearing this, many people will still insist that there are Baccarat systems that help you win, making you rich by beating the casino at their own game. Let’s take a look at a couple ideas that, while tempting, simply do not hold up to deeper scrutiny.
The Martingale and Other Betting Systems
The Martingale System is one that seems simple and foolproof. It works as follows: you start by making a small bet. If you win, simply make the same bet again. If you lose, double your bet. If you keep losing, keep doubling until you win once, then drop back down to the initial small bet.
The idea here is that at the end of any sequence, you’ll eventually win a bet, which will end up putting you ahead by the size of your initial bet. For instance, if you began with a $5 bet and lose, then make a $10 bet and lose, you’ll then make a $20 bet. Win that one, and you’ll win $20; subtract the $15 you lost on the first two bets, and you’re up $5 for that cycle.
How can you lose if you’re guaranteed to win eventually? The problem here is twofold. First of all, you’re not playing with an infinite bankroll, and while very long losing streaks are unlikely, they do happen. In fact, your losing streak doesn’t even usually have to be that long, since table maximums will prevent you from doubling your stakes forever. But more generally, from a mathematical perspective, you simply can’t make multiple bets that all have negative expectations and come out with a positive expectation in the end. No system of bets can change a game with an advantage for the house into one where the player can profit in the long run.
Card Counting in Baccarat
More experienced gamblers will immediately realize the Martingale won’t work in baccarat, just as it does not work in any other game. However, they may see another path to victory. In blackjack, a card counter can get an advantage by keeping track of which cards have come out of the shoe; when the remaining cards are advantageous for the player, the card counter can bet more, while betting the minimum (or not at all) when the shoe favors the dealer.
Similarly, baccarat hands are not entirely independent of each other, since cards are removed from the shoe after every hand. And it even turns out that some cards favor the player, while other cards favor the banker (and some even favor ties). Does this mean it might be possible to count cards and gain an advantage in baccarat, too?
Technically, the answer is yes; practically, however, it’s definitely no. Yes, it is possible to keep track of the cards being removed from the shoe, and find spots when the house edge disappears and the player has the advantage over the house. However, these situations would only come up once every several hundred hands, and it would be hard to find a casino willing to let you wait for the rare situations when you want to make a bet. And even if you did, the player edge in these situations is so tiny that it would be nearly impossible to make as much as a dollar an hour – even if you were wagering hundreds of dollars on each hand.
Apply Your Knowledge!
You’ve very likely gotten a lot of new knowledge about Baccarat after reading this article, why not put it to use? In todays online gambling environment, pretty much every online casino offers a chance to play Baccarat in at least a handful of its variations. Lets find the best casino sites, shall we?
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