2 Steps to Becoming a Better Baccarat Player

Whether you grew up watching James Bond outwit opponents in the occasional casino scene, or simply enjoy fast-paced gambling action, the classic card game of baccarat is a fan favorite.Casinos everywhere spread baccarat at all stakes, from the exclusive high limit parlors to mini-baccarat tables in the pit, and players from every walk of life enjoy the game’s simple yet elegant design.

To play baccarat, learning the kind of complicated rules associated with other casino card games isn’t necessary. Players simply wager on which two or three card hand – the “Player” hand or the “Banker” hand – will reach the total closest to 9.Of course, baccarat adds a unique system of rules – known as the “tableau” – to dictate how and when those two-card starting hands receive a third card. This element of the game adds a certain level of window-dressing to the whole affair, creating genuine drama when a third card is drawn.

But as the player, you don’t really need to know how the tableau is applied, as the dealer will assess Player and Banker hand totals on the fly before dealing out a third card when necessary. This part of the game plays out automatically, so once you’ve placed a bet, baccarat gameplay enters into autopilot mode.Baccarat is also a game of pure chance, meaning players have no ability to influence the outcome of a wager. This is gambling distilled to its very essence, with two nearly even sides to choose from before fate takes over.

For this reason, you may hear fellow gamblers claim that baccarat is a “sucker” game, offering wagers that depend on luck alone rather than skill.Considering the extremely low house edge offered by baccarat (more on this to come), that assessment couldn’t be further from the truth.Sure, baccarat depends largely on luck, but any pursuit that people put their mind to can be performed at a higher level. For that reason, this page presents seven steps to becoming a better baccarat player.

1. Steer Clear of Systems and Strategies

Baccarat players the world over are constantly searching for the secrets to succeeding at this casino classic. And that’s to be expected, as every gambler wants to win more than they lose by night’s end.Unfortunately, the gambling industry’s seedier side has attempted to take advantage of baccarat players by peddling “surefire” systems and strategies designed to crack baccarat.

A quick search online will bring up hundreds of these systems.

The ubiquitous 1 3 2 6 betting sequence system involves alternating your wager size precisely after wins to create a breakeven or profit scenario.The “Predictor System,” “Train Spotting,” and any number of silly systems and strategies are floating around out there – and all for the low, low price of blah blah blah.If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m not a fan of these systems. In fact, I’m 100 percent against them, and for one basic reason: they don’t work.

After all, how could they?

Betting sequences like the 1 3 2 6 method aren’t all that bad, as they’re ostensibly designed to mitigate losses over the long term. But you could try an endless array of wagering units, in different orders, for the rest of your life – and it wouldn’t make one lick of difference when it comes to the cards.A 52 card deck – or more precisely, a shoe containing six or eight decks – is thoroughly randomized via hand or automatic shuffling. Players have no control over the cards dealt out, and those cards always come randomly. Therefore, you’ll never be able to influence whether the Player or Banker bet wins and for systems that are predicated on tracking the patterns in those cards, the same fatal flaw in their logic remains.

Every deal represents an independent event, just like every flip of a coin. Coins may fall on heads five times in a row, but you would never take less than even money on a sixth flip, right? Those odds remain fixed at 50/50 every time the coin is flipped, and the same reasoning applies to baccarat as well.Both the Player and Banker hand can randomly put a run of consecutive wins together, and sure enough, you’ll see plenty of those streaks during the average baccarat session. But even after five straight Banker wins, the odds remain fixed (see entry three for more details on baccarat odds) on the sixth deal.

These are cold, hard facts, and despite the best wishes of players all over the world, baccarat is beholden to these logical rules.
Strategies and systems for baccarat are designed to trick players into abandoning logic altogether – and that’s the most dangerous thing a gambler can do. If you believe deep down that a certain pattern of hands, or string of wagering increments, will somehow change immutable mathematical laws, you’ll be prone to unhealthy habits at the table.

Nobody can play baccarat well enough to move past break even, but playing the game poorly can certainly cause losses to mount more quickly than they should.If you want to avoid that pitfall, which manages to trap so many baccarat beginners, remember to stay away from every system and strategy somebody tries to sell you.

2. Use Common Sense

On that note, think about the motivations of a baccarat strategy salesperson.They were ostensibly players before they stumbled upon the secret to baccarat success – so why aren’t they reaping their profits at the table? After all, if I created a “can’t miss” system for beating baccarat, I’d damn sure be at the casino beating it for all I could.Instead, these snake oil artists package their strategic advice with gimmicky titles, using books and websites to widen their reach. Their goal is still the same as any other gambler – to make money – but they’ve realized that snookering unsuspecting players pays better than baccarat itself.

When something sounds too good to be true, it almost always is, so apply common sense as a baccarat player to avoid becoming a victim.Common sense can also be applied to the game itself.When you sit down for a session of baccarat, recognizing the game for what it is – a pure game of chance where skill need not apply – offers the best shot at eventual enjoyment.Sure, you’ll always hope to see the right card come up, and part of any gambling game’s entertainment value lies in attempting to beat the odds. With that said, separating hope from desperation is crucial in this game.

If you find yourself thinking about which hands have won more often lately, or how to guess the outcome of the next deal, take a moment for a common sense refresher course. Think about the game you’re playing, and how it works from the inside out, to remind yourself that nobody can control the outcome of a baccarat hand.