Baccarat Strategies Everyone Should Know

Card games are avidly played at many of the best real money online casinos. Baccarat is particularly popular among gamblers due to its low house edge and super easy rules. It is possibly the easiest-to-master card game and does not require much skill to play. However, there are a few strategies that players can readily use to have some advantage against the house and secure better wins.

The online casino world has now come to a point where they are looking forward to the first-ever live casino automation project called Roba – a Robot croupier developed by CreedRoomz, which would not require a physical dealer to conduct a live table game such as baccarat, poker, roulette, or blackjack.

Enough of theory; let us now get a little more detail on what this article has for you. We have covered all your common questions and have laid out a detailed baccarat strategy guide. You will find the following information in the article below:

• General rules of baccarat.
• Tips and Tricks for playing baccarat.
• Popular baccarat strategies.
• Benefits of using strategies in baccarat games.
• Common ways of cheating in baccarat by players and casinos.

Looking For The Best Baccarat Strategy? Familiarise Yourself With The Rules First!

Before we rush directly to baccarat strategies, we must acquaint you with the standard rules to understand the game well. Baccarat is played with two cards each in the player’s and dealer’s hands, and the bets are only evaluated against the dealer. Like most card games, this one is also a game of how many points you have on the cards in your hand.

So the points are calculated as below:

• All Face cards, including 10’s- 0;
• A’s – 1 point;
• 2-9 – their face value.

There are broadly three types of bets you make, and you make them with chips or tokens that you buy by depositing money on the online baccarat site. These bets are:

• Player wins;
• Banker wins;
• The game ends up in a tie.

The points from the two cards dealt are totalled, and the one whose total is the closest to 9 wins between the dealer and the player. If the total exceeds 9, 10 is deducted to calculate the points value in any baccarat variant.

However, if the player’s total is less than 5, they have the option to get one more card. If the total is exactly 5, the player can choose to Hit or Stand, i.e. get more cards or not. Similarly, if the dealer’s total is less than 3, they can have one more card from the deck. However, these rules are subject to change depending on the baccarat variant you are playing.

The winning player bets give a 1:1 payout in most versions, while the winning banker bets cut a 5% commission and payout 0.95:1. The tie bet pays 8:1 or 9:1. Some modern developers also offer side bets called egalite, which involve betting on a tie with a specific number such as 2:2 and 5:5 that payout quite well.

Software developers keep experimenting by offering different versions of baccarat games and side bets. Pragmatic Play, a popular developer, recently introduced two new baccarat variants in July 2022 – Fortune 6 Baccarat and Super 8 Baccarat, with unique side bets.

Why Should Use Baccarat Strategies?

You would, of course, use baccarat strategies to win, and they help make a pattern for your bets to get you better payouts. Blindly Betting might let you win on a lucky day, but these strategies might help you work well with your bankroll and give you consistent wins.

Also, a baccarat strategy helps break away from the game’s monotony and establish a sequence of the bets you would make. In any case, you should expect them to churn payouts for you consistently. Ultimately, baccarat is a game of chance, and you must give due respect to the fact without going overboard.

Baccarat Tips and Tricks

Apart from the more complex strategies, which we will discuss a while later, some baccarat tips help you optimally bet and get the best out of your money. You can use the following tips and tricks while playing real money baccarat to bet with prudence:

1. Decide your bankroll – if you plan to play multiple casino games, it is better to set your baccarat budget aside before you start betting.
2. Prefer not going for Tie bets – it is better to avoid tie-bets as it has the maximum house edge of 14.36%. Bankers’ bet has the least house edge of 1.06%, but there is a 5% commission that the casino explicitly keeps for all dealer wins. The player’s bet has a house edge of 1.24%.
3. Set Limits – you should set your own win/loss limits and leave the table as soon as you reach them, as gambling is notorious for making you push your boundaries. You should be disciplined and stick to the win/loss limits to protect your money.
4. Avoid chasing losses – you might feel the next round will stop your losing streak and keep on increasing your bet for the outcome you so dearly desire, but that rarely happens. So all wise gamblers suggest not to try chasing your losses.
5. Choose your strategy well – some baccarat strategies need a lot of calculations, while others are relatively simpler. You should choose one that fits you well and not treat them as a sure-shot winning formula.

Types of Baccarat Betting Strategies

We will now introduce you to all the famous baccarat game strategies that players have tried and tested during the long history of the game. These strategies are meant to decide the value of your next bet with each previous bet you have made.

No progression Baccarat System

It is one of the baccarat basic strategies which involves no progression in your bets, whether positive or negative. In other words, it simply means that the next bet is nowhere associated with your previous bets. It is a risk-free way of betting as you are not increasing your bets and instead making them in a consistent manner.

Flat betting

There isn’t a defined baccarat winning pattern that would make one type of betting strategy better than the others. And so some cautious bettors like going with Flat betting by placing the same type or amount of bet in each subsequent round. Such bettors might always bet on the dealer’s hand or bet the same amount on each hand, irrespective of whether they win or lose.

This betting system is great for working within a budget and playing for a long. However, this type of betting pattern is boring as it can never give you out-of-the-way wins to cherish. Moreover, skilled gamblers would like to use some sort of skill that a flat betting system does not require at all.

Negative Progression Baccarat System

The baccarat betting techniques suggest players increase their bets after incurring losses and reduce or make the same bets after winning. The idea behind these strategies is to progressively bet in case of a negative outcome, as there could be an increased chance of winning after each losing bet. And once that happens, all the losses made until then would be recovered since the amount of bet would have substantially increased.

Martingale

This betting system is popular in baccarat and other table games such as Roulette. The Martingale baccarat betting strategy involves doubling the bet by one chip after each loss and reducing the bet to your initial bet amount after each win.

For example, you get 1 chip by spending €/$2. The betting progression would look like below:

As you can see, at the end of these four rounds, by following the Martingale strategy, you have managed to get a net win of €/$4. But since baccarat is a game of chance, the win might come way later in an actual game, and you might have enormously raised your bets by then.

So, this strategy is only suited for those with a large bankroll to spend and can wait until the win comes. Also, you have to find a baccarat table that does not have any table limits. It is because you might end up losing your money and heart in the hope of getting a win which you eventually don’t, as you have already reached the table limit.

d’Alembert

This baccarat gambling strategy entails reducing your bet by one chip after every win and increasing it by one chip after every loss. To bet carefully with the d’Alembert baccarat strategy, you would want to start with a nominal initial bet amount which is not too high or too low. A winning streak in the first few rounds with a low starting bet would quickly reduce your bet to one chip, while a losing streak, in the beginning, can spiral your gambling budget out of control.

Let us apply the d’Alembert strategy to our initial example with a starting bet of 7 chips.

Following this system, you will have a net win of €/$4 in hand, but again this is possible only when you strike a win during the initial rounds; otherwise, you might end up having heavy losses.

Fibonacci

This one is probably the best baccarat betting strategy which gets its betting sequence from Fibonacci – a famous Italian mathematician. The betting goes in the order of the Fibonacci number sequence. The sequence is made by adding two consecutive numbers to get the third entry to the sequence. You can construct the sequence as high as your bankroll allows.

Now, regarding the betting, this is again a negative progression system where you will increase your bet to the next entry when you incur a loss and reduce it to two entries on the sequence when you incur a win. Here is how it goes.

Let’s say we start with 1 chip, and the sequence looks like 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, and 55.

At the end of five rounds, as you can see, betting with the Fibonacci system has made €/$10 of profit. However, you might not always secure it with a series of losing bets.

Labouchere

This is probably the most difficult to comprehend baccarat technique. It gets its name from the famous French Roulette player – Henry Labouchere and is also called American Progression, Cancellation system, or Split Martingale. You choose a set of random numbers going from low to high. You would start your first bet by the total of the first and the last number on your sequence. If you lose, you would add the number to the sequence and again bet in the same way with the newly added number. However, if you lose, you would strike the two end numbers and again bet on the first and the last number of your sequence.

Let us explain through an actual sequence for better understanding. We take the following sequence – 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and the first bet starts from 10 chips (8+2), and with a loss, the next sequence becomes 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10. The second bet will be 12 (10+2). The next bet will be 14 chips with the new sequence – 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12.

Now since in round 3, you have won, the new sequence would be 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12. The next bet will be 14 (10+4). With a win again, the next bet will be 13 (5+8) after striking 4 and 10. Subsequently, the last number remaining will be the last bet.

Oscar’s grind

This baccarat betting system is named after a person named Oscar, who explained this progression in an interview for a 1956 book – Casino Gambler’s Guide, written by Allan Wilson. This baccarat strategy involves keeping the bet the same after each loss while increasing the bet by one chip after every win. The ultimate aim should be winning just one chip in each round. If raising the bet after winning will increase your winning chips to more than one, you should adjust your bet.

Positive Progression Baccarat System

You will be increasing your bets with wins and decreasing them with each loss you make following the Positive Progression baccarat systems. These baccarat tactics are meant to restrict your losses to your initial bets and stop them from getting out of control.

Paroli

Reverse Martingale, or Paroli as it is commonly known as this betting system, would make you bet exactly opposite to how you would bet in the Martingale system. With each win, you would double your bet, and with each loss, you would bet the same amount. It won’t be wrong to call it the best baccarat betting system with positive progression as you can win big with a winning streak; at the same time, it would limit your losses if you have an unlucky day on the table. Here is how the bet goes in the Paroli system of betting.

You end up with a net win of €/$2 in this case. Even if the last two rounds did not have positive outcomes, you would still lose a maximum of €/$2 in such cases, while two consecutive wins might cover most of it.

Reverse d’Alembert

You will be increasing your bet by one chip with a win and decreasing by one chip in case of a loss. With constant losses, you will have to win a significant number of rounds to recover since a one-off win would not be able to make much of a difference.

1326 System

This betting strategy for baccarat involves betting progressively on a sequence of 1, 3, 2, and 6 chips with each win. In case of a loss, you should start with your initial bet.

1324 System

Another baccarat winning formula which is exactly similar to the 1326 system, you would be betting on a sequence of 1, 3, 2, and 4 instead of 1, 3, 2, and 6. This technique would be relatively less risky as you aren’t raising much money in the fourth round. You would move to the next number in the sequence if you win and start all over with one chip if you lose. You can see the table below:

Cheating at Baccarat

Dealers and players, while playing the game live, indulge in baccarat game tricks to play the game in their favour. Sometimes, dealers and players together indulge in these techniques to share the profits later on. As a player, you should be aware of these strategies and be careful and vigilant enough to notice their use.

So, broadly there are two types of cheating in baccarat. Some of these strategies are in a little grey area as it might be tough to categorise them as advantage play or full-fledged cheating.

Following are the ‘black’ and ‘grey’ strategies prevalent in the world of baccarat.

• Card Counting – this is one of the ‘grey’ techniques where the players estimate the high/low cards in the deck. While this technique would work better in Blackjack, it would give a little edge in baccarat gameplay of just two cards.
• False Shuffle – the dealer would not thoroughly shuffle the card deck before placing them in the shoe, instead would keep a part of the deck unshuffled. The players would identify the unshuffled part and make their bets accordingly.
• Swapping Cards – сard swapping is evident cheating in baccarat as players would swap the dealt face-down cards on the table to their benefit.
• Card Marking – this technique is used to distinguish particular cards and is done in land-based casinos in two ways. One by making a slight bend in the card, which would reflect light when the cards are dealt from the shoe. Another is applying an invisible ink called ‘daub’ on the card with slight finger touch to differentiate it from others.
• Card Cutting – the dealer would offer the players the cards to cut before the game starts. The players would fix a camera up their sleeve or finger, recording all the cards while they would fan the cards to cut them. This recording will be conveyed to the players as audio information on the player’s in-ear cellular devices.
• Past Posting – the players would simply drag some chips into the winning bet in Past posting. This technique is not exclusive to baccarat.
• Edge Sorting – the machines which manufacture playing cards have to be calibrated frequently to ensure precisely the same pattern on the manufactured cards. However, it halts production, and manufacturers would delay this process to the best they can. But this leaves a certain edge on the top card, which experienced players can identify and benefit from.

To Sum it Up

Gamblers have done quite a bit of research into the game and devised strategies to help people have a great time playing baccarat. You should understand these strategies entirely before indulging in real money betting, as a losing streak can be havoc for you.

You should know winning streaks and losing streaks are very common in baccarat. With the slightest inclination of a losing streak, you should know where to stop or use appropriate positive progression strategies to minimise your losses. Your ultimate objective should be having a fun time while betting; instead of going all-in out of impulsiveness.

Posted by: Catalina
Editor-in-Chief

With 4 years of experience in writing about online gambling, Catalina has decided to gather all her knowledge and share it with others on one platform. Her main goal is to provide detailed information so that players could gamble in a more safe way. Smart and responsible gambling is her motto.