The rules of baccarat are easy to learn and play, but there’s a lot you can do in order to improve your chances of winning. You aren’t going to win every hand, but you can significantly increase the likelihood that you will walk away from the game with more money than when you sat down.
There are three strategies worth learning and employing when you play, they are:
- One-Sided Strategy
- Trend Switch Strategy
- Breaking the Doubles Strategy
We’ll briefly cover how the game is played and then go over some winning tips for baccarat players. After that, we’ll dig into each of the strategies, explaining how they work and when you can expect to use them accordingly.
Baccarat’s Origins and Gameplay
The game of baccarat originated in Italy during the 15th century. Credit is given to a man by the name of Charles VIII for bringing this game to popularity during his reign as King of Italy. It was originally played with a deck of only 48 cards; but over time, the game has evolved and gone through many changes to include decks with 52 cards in them.
The object of this game is to bet on which hand will win—the player’s hand or the banker’s. This decision needs to be made before the deal begins. You’ll notice that there are two boxes on either side of where you’re sitting, one marked “Player” and the other marked “Banker.”
To make your selection, place a bet equal to the amount you feel comfortable risking on this guess at their respective locations. When all bets have been placed (preferably in the form of chips), the dealer will begin to deal. The cards will alternate between the two hands, with one card being dealt for each and every hand until everyone has been dealt their final card (it’s possible that a player could be dealt 0 or 1 cards, depending on how things develop).
Once all betting is completed, the dealer will turn over the last card—this is the “tie-breaker.” Whoever has the higher value at this point wins, otherwise they lose. If a tie still exists between either hand and player/banker, then it’s time to break out a special deck of cards that’ll be used for determining who wins in this case. To settle ties, the following cards are added to the deck:
Joker (this will be used in place of 2s) Three 3 cards Two 0 cards Four 4s Aces (the highest value card in a deck is an Ace)
Once these five additional cards have been dealt, it’s time for another round of betting. You’ll be able to make another guess as to who the winner will be this time, though you’ll need to agree on a new betting minimum. Once all bets have been placed, the rest of the cards are dealt until there’s one left (the tie-breaker). Whichever hand has their final card worth more wins; if they’re tied, the tie-breaker card will decide which player/banker wins.
It’s important to understand that baccarat online or land-based isn’t among the more popular games played at most casinos; so if you’d like to play, make sure you find a place where this game is offered.
One-Sided
One-Sided Strategy (also known as High-Low) is a simple strategy with high probability of winning if the player is able to find a good enough bank.
The idea of this strategy is that the player bets on the hand in which they think will have less value (or low card). Therefore, if they see one-pair or three-of-a-kind, then they would bet on the opposite hand as opposed to pair and above (for example: if the player sees “two-pair” then they would bet on the hand with three-of-a-kind).
However, this strategy’s success relies heavily on good judgement of when to place a bet. The problem is that being reckless in placing bets will result in the loss of lots of money due to all these unnecessary losses. Therefore, using this strategy requires a certain level of experience in order to know when it is safe or not to place a bet.
The good thing about this low-card hand type is that most casinos will allow the player to raise their wager as many times as they want (as long as their total wager does not exceed the maximum allowed hand limit).
Therefore, this player can make an initial raise and if they see that their hand has a pretty good probability of winning (less than 10% chance of losing), then the player can just keep placing more wagers on the same hand.
This means that the casino only takes as much from each bet placed, but in total for all bets placed on the same hand can result in a good amount of money if the player is successful.
Trend Switch
Trend Switching Strategy (another name for this strategy is the “Hi-Lo” or High/Low) strategy will shift between the One-Sided Strategy and Trend Switching Strategy depending on whether or not you think a hand’s point value (or number of cards required to beat it) is higher than the dealer’s. If a player sees one pair, then they would play the One-Sided Strategy.
If a player sees three-of-a-kind, then they would switch to the Trend Switching Strategy until either they see another hand that is worth one more point than their own or until the dealer’s hand beats their own hand (at which point, this player should simply follow whatever strategy results in the most profit for them).
Breaking the Doubles
Breaking the Doubles Strategy is a really good strategy that uses basic math to determine when it is safe to place bets on a hand and in what proportion. In a nutshell, the player is to bet on the hand which will beat the dealer’s (hence “breaking” or overcoming the doubles in baccarat). This strategy goes along well with advanced math and it is said that this strategy makes use of Bayesian probability theory.
This strategy utilizes an equation that helps players determine what the value of a hand is (given the point value of another). The equation is as follows: Hand Value = Probability x Point Value. This strategy does not give an explanation on how this equation is to be used, but after doing research on it I found that you can find information online explaining its use.
Takeaway
Basic strategy can be tough to follow sometimes, since it does not apply to every situation that arises. For this reason, it might be smart to learn about the other strategies that are used in baccarat online and land-based, so that you can switch between them if need be – and hopefully turn your luck around for the better.
