From sticky-floor California card rooms to the tuxedo-laden casinos of Monaco, baccarat is a game that’s quickly gaining ground as one of the most popular casino games worldwide. According to Bill Zender, a former Nevada Gaming Control Agent and casino dealer who literally wrote the book on managing casino games, baccarat’s rise as an increasingly popular game is being driven by Asian high rollers.
The game’s simple rules involve betting on the Banker, Player, or Tie hands. Each hand is dealt two cards from a six or eight-card shoe and the winner is the one closest to nine. A winning Banker bet qualifies for a payout of 1 to 1, while a winning Player hand pays out 8 to 1. A winning tie bet wins you twice your stake.
Some advanced baccarat players develop betting systems based on patterns in the game’s shoes. These strategies prioritize anticipating the order of banker and player wins, as well as avoiding losing streaks by exiting the table after double win streaks appear.
A baccarat score sheet is a common sight at most tables and can vary from a simple tracking sheet to complex grids that record frequency of wins for both the Banker and the Player. Some players argue that a baccarat track sheet is essential to forming an effective strategy. Others disagree. In either case, the baccarat score sheets can be helpful to keep your betting and bankroll in check. They also give you a sense of the average house edge for the game, which is around 2.4%.