Baccarat Tips

Many of the side bets I analyze on this blog are small-time opportunities that are unlikely to get much action from card counting APs. That is not the case with UR Way Egalite (URE) baccarat side bet or its first cousin, Super Pay Egalite (SPE). The ordinary Tie bet allows the player to wager that the result of the hand will be a tie.

The Dragon side bet and Panda side bet for EZ Baccarat have known card counting issues. Recently I received an e-mail from an employee in surveillance at a major casino asking if this was still the case, or if I had retracted my work. I discussed this surprising e-mail in this post.

Yet another side bet that can be counted in California card rooms:  the Total Shot Bonus (TSB). Formally, this side bet is for the baccarat variant known as Supreme Baccarat. This variant is simply the commission free version where a Banker winning total of 6 pays 1-to-2.  Like ordinary baccarat, the main game is not vulnerable to card counting.

The Tie bet is among the safest side bets in baccarat. Various approaches have been tried in developing a strategy to defeat the tie (see this post and this post).

The Dragon Bonus baccarat side bet (DB) is the most popular proprietary side bet for baccarat on the market. Only the "Pair" side bet is more common, perhaps because it is in the public domain. I describe card counting DB in this post. My conclusion was that DB has at most a minimal vulnerability to card counting.

All that glitters is gold Led Zeppelin, "Stairway to Heaven"

U.S. patents expire 20 years from the date of filing. At G2E (2013), I learned about the expiration of the following patent on September 8, 2013: Patent 05362064

Recently I became aware of a very unusual baccarat promotion when details about it were posted on the Wizard of Vegas website (see this thread). What was especially odd was that the post was made by a well-known high-level advantage player (who goes by the moniker ssho88).

One ongoing method to beat baccarat is to use the knowledge of the rank of exactly one card in the shoe to gain an edge on one hand per shoe (see this post). One card out of 416 may not seem like a lot, but to the "known-card" AP it's a pot of gold.

Card games have always been favorites among casino players, and blackjack has led the way as the most popular table game for more than 50 years.

You don’t have to be rich to play baccarat and you definitely do not need to wear a tuxedo or evening gown when you play. Baccarat has come out of the ritzy, high-roller tables and into the casino proper.