Understanding Baccarat Bets: The Expert Guide

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Baccarat Bets

Want to take your Baccarat gameplay to the next level? Learn the essential Baccarat betting tricks and get our expert advice on playing Baccarat like pros. You will be able to immediately take what you read and improve your gaming sessions on the best UK Baccarat casinos.

What Are the Main Baccarat Bets?

The-basics

Regardless of the Baccarat variant you choose to play, the basics of the game are the same: during the game, you play with two hands. The hand that has the highest total becomes the winning hand. It is possible to pick a good hand among the three types of baccarat bets, including banker, tie, and player bet.

Learning the basics allows you to play across variants present at all the top-rated casinos. Moreover, when players gamble on the right bet for their situation, they may raise their winning odds by up to 28%.

Casinos have taken steps to ensure that each type of wager is well-labelled such that gamblers do not confuse one type with another. Although iGaming platforms help players understand how the baccarat game works they do not give all the relevant details, so before playing, some research is in order.

The three varieties of wagers have different probabilities and pay-outs. Before going into details, here are some short facts about each one:

Type of bet Pay-out House Edge
Banker 1.1 1.06%
Player 1.1 1.26%
Tie 8:1/9:1 14.4%

What Is the Baccarat Player Bet – Playing Against the Banker

Player-Bet

The player bet is the second-best choice for gamblers. This gamble is usually the opposite of a banker’s wager. It also has a more favourable house advantage than the baccarat tie option, as it stands at 1.36%.

While the rules are not as good as those of the banker, they have a high chance of success. This makes it something you may want to try; player bets pay 1:1 like every baccarat banker gambles.

How to do it

  1. At the start of a baccarat betting round, player bets are dealt two cards.
  2. You may request a third card if you have met all the rules that allow you to get the card.
  3. After the wagering, the gambler goes first. If the gambler does not want to draw a card, the bank then plays but follows the player’s rules.
  4. You are allowed to place the three-bet types at the same time.
  5. In such a case, you may have to wager on every shoe in the live casino, especially when you have the said table all to yourself.
  6. In most types of wagers, there is no commission on baccarat Player bets.

What Is The Most Common Bet? The Banker Wager Explained

Banker-Bet

Baccarat banker is usually the default option for most gamblers, and for a good reason. Theoretically, baccarat betting on this strategy gives you odds of 45.84%, while some games push it closer to 50%.

Therefore, you are more likely to succeed when you place the banker play than any other variety of strategies. Casinos do cash in on these high pay-out odds by applying a 5% commission on baccarat betting made with the banker.

Depending on your strategy, you can consider baccarat betting with banker wagers by having the commission in mind. Our experts uncovered the secrets of baccarat banker betting to give you a better edge over the house.

One of the best types of wager

Like the baccarat player gamble, you will be dealt two cards at the start and subsequent rounds. However, you may still get a third card, but that depends on what rules the game has in the specific variant you are playing.

Ideally, if your sum of card numbers exceeds 9 or is below 8, you can get another card. However, 8 and 9 players do not get any cards. Likewise, the dealer can draw a third card depending on the outcome of the second card.

There are several reasons why every baccarat banker bet is usually the best. First, this wager determines the finalist of a bet.

This is because it comes after the wager has been played. Second, it has a house advantage of just 1.06% on Punto Banco against the player bet house edge of 1.24%.

Why Isn’t the Baccarat Tie Bet More Common?

Tie-Bet

A baccarat tie wager is the third most used option when playing the game. Essentially, you are betting that both the player and the baccarat banker will have the same value. Most strategies do not focus on this variety of bets as the chances of equal hands are quite low.

This bet pays 14 units for every 100 that you wager (and a house advantage of 14.4%), making it a poor strategy from the very start. It also has a 10% chance of occurring, making it not worth it.

Another thing worth noting is that you bet on either a baccarat player or a banker, and the result turns out to be a tie. That bet is considered a push. Therefore, you won’t lose your cash, but rather, the hand gets delayed.

Pay-out

A baccarat tie bet pays either an 8:1 or a 9:1, which is quite high compared to 1:1 for other types of wagers. However, since it happens after every 11 hands, you might have lost so much before you get to experience it.

In a live casino, the baccarat tie bet is usually at the second table after the player and baccarat banker sections.

However, gambling experts recommend avoiding the tie wager as a basic method when using a strategy since it has the lowest chances of success compared to other tactics.

What Are Some Side Baccarat Bets Worth Considering?

Side Baccarat Bets

The three types of baccarat bets above are the main ones. However, there are several other side wagers that you can place that do not necessarily link their pay-out on the hand with a higher value.

Here are a few of the popular ones.

Paid wager

A pair-side play is not available for demo gaming. You should make a real money gamble to try it. In this case, you wager that the first two cards allocated to the dealer or yourself will be a pair.

This wager is settled during the first two dealings at any kind of casino table.

The pair bet has a high house edge of 10.361% and a hit frequency of just 7.470%. However, it comes with a high payout of 11.1 concerning the dealt pair.

You can also wager on the baccarat player or banker so that you get the dealt pair to use in the results.

Dragon bonus

You may make a dragon bonus (DB) side wager before dealing with any cards. This wager is for the straight baccarat bets, player, and banker. The side bet allows you to wager on what hand you pick will have the highest score.

Here is an example. If you make a player bet, you wager that the player’s hand will have the highest score. This side play comes with an extended pay-out table.

It means that you will get a bigger payoff with a higher margin of victory, except in the natural case.

If your earning hand receives a score of 8 or 9 on the initial wager, you will get a pay-out of 30:1. However, if you draw a natural (a 10), this result is said to be a baccarat tie and the casino will push the bonus bet.

Successful outcome pay-out

For any other outcome with a successful margin of four points or more, you will get a payout. Here is a table that shows the exact pay-outs resulting from successful hands with this side wager:

Type of Result Pay-out
Four points 1:1
Five points 2:1
Six points 4:1
Seven points 6:1
Eight points 10:1
Nine points 30:1

House edge for the side bet with an eight-deck game is 1.24% for the player wager and 1.01% for the banker.
The hand standard house advantage for this bet type differs drastically, with the player’s bet having 2.65% and the backer having 9.37%.

Dragon 7 and Panda 8

Dragon and Panda

These two strategies have restrictions on what amount you can use for maximum wagers. This is unlikely since the known card playing against the Dragon 7 or Panda 8 will take that table with a maximum of $25.

Dragon 7

The Dragon 7 side wager pays the bet 40:1 when the banker’s hand is a three-card successful 7. Otherwise, you get a loss.

The house edge for the Dragon 7 side wager is a whopping 7.611%. You should make the Dragon 7 side wager during the following situations:

  • Ace in any position 2 or 4.
  • 2 in any position 2, 4, or 5.
  • 3 in any position 2, 4, or 5.
  • 4 appearing in any position 5 or 6.
  • 5 in either location 5 or 6.
  • 6 into either location 1, 3, 5, or 6.
  • 7 into either location 5 or 6.
  • T, J, Q, K in either location 2 or 4.

Overall, if you make a Dragon 7 wager with a known card edge, your average edge will be 29.3343%. There are different house edges for other cards.

Panda 8 side bet

The Panda 8 side play is not very lucrative. However, the Panda 8 side bet pays a whopping 25-1 if the baccarat player hand has a successful three-card 8. Otherwise, you get a loss.

You should make a Panda 8 side bet in the following situations:

  • Ace in position 6.
  • 3 in position 5.
  • 4 in position 5.
  • 5 in positions 1, 3, or 5.
  • 6 in location 5.
  • 7 in location 5.
  • 8 in position 5.
  • T, J, Q, K in position 1, 3 or 6.

Overall, if you make a Panda 8 wager precisely when you have a known card edge, then your average will be 28.8035%.

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
Victory 25 172,660,763,262,976 0.034543 0.863580
Lose -1 4,825,737,512,240,380 0.965457 -0.965457
Total 4,998,398,275,503,360 1 -0.101876

King’s Verdict: Live Casino Baccarat Titles Can Refine Your Strategy

Conclusion

While each variety of baccarat betting approach has its benefits and disadvantages, none is perfect, and it depends a lot on context. Furthermore, keep in mind that reasonability is key in any gambling endeavour. And knowing when to stop is the safest way to play.

We recommend that most British punters use live casino bonuses to better understand each wager type with less financial commitment before trying more advanced baccarat playstyles like card counting.