What constitutes the game of Baccarat?

Live Baccarat stands out from other casino card games because of its unique scoring system. It is traditionally a high roller game in the casino. However, newer versions of the game, catering to low rollers also. The game is surrounded by superstition with the belief that there are a number of ways of tracking past scores and outcomes in the hope of predicting a winner. This prevails despite the fact that there is virtually no evidence to suggest that they work.

In the live Baccarat game, the cards that would normally be worth ten points (10, Jack, Queen and King) are all worth zero. Aces are worth one point and the number cards are worth their face values. There is one other thing to understand about Baccarat scores, only the second digit of a hand total is counted, as a result, the highest possible value is nine points.

Baccarat Scoreboards

Live Baccarat normally offers a number of displays that show the results for past hands. This is in order to help those that like to use past results to try and predict future hands and use the information to place bets based upon the trends and patterns.

The scoreboards are often called ‘road maps’ and there are a number of different charts that are used, as part of the Baccarat Strategy, with each having a different format and different name.

We explore some of the most common Baccarat road maps that you will encounter when playing the game online or in a casino, below.

Bead plate

The standard bead plate layout, found in the online Baccarat game is exactly a simple grid that is filled with different coloured beads, or dots, to record the result of each hand. Banker wins are marked with red; Player wins are marked with blue and Ties are marked with green.

The majority of bead plates will have six rows and at least a dozen columns, allowing to record the results of 60 hands or more. The hands are recorded starting in the top left-hand corner and move down each column one place at a time. When the bottom of a column is reached then the record starts again at the top of the next column to the right.

Big Road

The Big Road scoreboard is designed to help spot trends in the results by changing the emphasis to consecutive wins for the two main bets. It almost looks like an upside-down bar chart with alternating columns containing blue dots (for the Player) and red dots (for the Banker). Each new column represents a change in whether the Player or the Banker won the last hand. Consecutive wins are recorded by adding a mark to the most recent column.

Tie bets are recorded slightly differently. Instead of starting a new column, the red or blue mark that represents the last Banker or Player win is struck through with a green line. This is because Tie wins happen very rarely, and the chance of consecutive ties is unlikely.

Big Eye Boy

It is another method that aims to record the behaviour of the shoe. It involves recording the data from other outcome-orientated scoreboards and interpreting it in a certain way.

The Big Eye Boy is used together with the Big Road scoreboard. A mark is placed on the Big Eye Boy every time that a new column begins on the Big Road. The two charts have very similar layouts and typically they will use the same colours. However, on the Big Eye Boy red and blue do not correspond to Banker and Player, instead, red represents consistent repetition and blue represents the opposite.

Small Road

This is something quite similar to the Big Eye Boy. However, it skips the previous column on the Big Road and does not start until one hand after the first mark in the third column on the Big Road.

Cockroach Pig

This is a similar concept to the Small Road except that it skips the previous two columns on the Big Road and doesn’t start until one hand after the first mark in the fourth column on the Big Road. It is also different in that it uses diagonal lines rather dots or beads.

Summary

Name: What constitutes the game of Baccarat?
Author: Stanley Roberts
Published Date: 31/05/2019