Baccarat is a simple game with three possible bets that a player can make. The player can bet on the Bank, the Player or the Tie. The tie can be bet by itself or along with a bet on the Bank or the Player. This covers the betting knowledge that is needed to bet on the game. How to bet, how much to bet and when to go against the trend makes up the strategy, tips or tricks. The tie wager when won pays eight to one. The other two bets pay even money with a commission of five percent on a winning Bank bet.
One other factor that a player must consider is that Baccarat is a game of small trends. With this in mind, this sets up a strategy for betting that will help to catch these trends.
Shoe Following Strategy
The idea behind this way to bet is this, bet on the side that won the last hand. This is known as following the shoe. This will work well if the shoe is consistently winning on one side or the other in small runs of three or four winning hands or more. If this is the case, never bet against the shoe in hopes that you will catch the trend changing hand. Fighting the shoe can be very expensive and is also very frustrating to consistently lose on each hand. Many players try to do this much to their sorrow. Some do it for their ego and some do it believing that a trend cannot continue. Both thoughts are very often proven to be wrong. Winning this one hand can be very expensive to catch.
Pattern Play and the Score Card
Baccarat players keep a scorecard for keeping track of the way the hands are falling. Winning patterns do repeat and this is what the players are looking for.
You can use these patterns to raise and lower the size of your wagers. If the longest winning side is five wins, then a sixth play may be the time to cut your bet down to the minimum, but do not change the side the bet is played on. Maybe this will be one of the longer repeating wins on the side. You cannot catch 26 wins in a row on one side if you are changing sides when the trend is over-powering and you cannot believe that another hand will come down on that side.
Just because it is going against your feeling or intellect, does not mean it will not continue. The cards are going to fall as they are set up in the shoe and nothing can change that. Online with the constant shuffling this may not be true, but winning trends do develop even at online casinos. It is possible to have smaller winning hands on one side, but wins of three or four do come along.
Do not Fight the Shoe
Unless the winning hands are flipping between the two sides, the shoe should be given preference in deciding which side to play. If every other hand is won by the other side then fighting the shoe is okay to do. This means betting the side that just loss the last hand. Flip-flop trends are not as easy to play as a strong trend on one side or the other. If this is not the trend that keeps showing then it would be wise to follow the shoe. Fighting the trend can be very expensive and difficult to live with when losing every hand. It is very easy to go through a stack of chips by playing this ego driven strategy.
A Way to Catch Tie Hands
This tip is one that I have used for years when playing Baccarat. I have no idea why it works, but it has proven to be an overall winner for me. Do not bet the tie until it shows the first time. Some shoes have a low number of tie hands while others are loaded with them. By not betting the tie until it shows, the player saves a number of losing bets on the non-appearing tie. After is has shown, the player plays every third hand counting from the tie hand. I have done this and finally caught the tie on the 27th hand after the tie. If this is accompanied with a small progressive bet it is even more profitable for the player when this sequence is working. Play around with this idea for yourself and maybe you can find one that works for you. I discovered this play by experimenting and have used it for many years. However, there is no logical rational behind this play except the mystical power of three. So much for my non-linear thinking. I did this play one night and it did not work until one of the last hands of the shoe. I was a little peeved and made a bet of $150 on the tie. Up until then my bets were in the low dollar range on the tie. When it hit at eight to one, it made the entire shoe a profitable shoe when I compared what I had in my stack and what I ended up with.
Conclusions
Baccarat is a friendly game to the players, as the house edge is one of the lowest in the casino. Many very smart players, read gamblers, play this game for just this reason. Casinos throughout the world have learned the hard way that this is the one house game that can hurt them financially when a high roller gets lucky betting. A winning trend does not take betting skill or complicated pattern betting like some roulette players use to make their bets. Baccarat players just follow the winning hand and stay on that side of the betting. Couple this with a tie payoff of eight to one and the player has a recipe for a winning strategy playing the house game of Baccarat.