Last updated: September 12, 2023
Welcome to the Casino Today player guide, teaching you how to win at baccarat, here we cover everything you need to start playing games of baccarat smarter. The information we include here will help you understand how to improve your winning chances when playing at casinos or playing online baccarat. This complete player guide has been expertly curated to help players get the most out of this adrenaline-filled gambling game while also sharing a vast knowledge of the game’s more intricate details.
As always, our team at Casino Today has players covered with another helpful gambling resource for learning how to win at baccarat. If you are a seasoned player wanting to fine-tune your gameplay or a beginner just starting, be sure to read through this guide before playing your next round.
Behind every successful gambler is a set of foundations used to ensure they always maintain control of their gaming habits. These foundations can be as simple as understanding how to practice correctly, or as detailed as following specific rules when managing your bankroll.
We start things off in this player guide on winning at baccarat with a handful of tips on improving your chances of winning – tips that are straight from our team of experts.
For the most part, playing baccarat is like flipping a coin. The winning hand will (and your bet) will either be the player bet or the banker bet (the tie will not often occur). This ‘here-or-there’ gameplay will mean that the rounds are played fast, and the win and loss streaks could come hard and fast.
Therefore, it is vital to manage your bankroll to ensure that you can play for longer. Because playing for longer means more chances at winning and coming out with a profit.
Our next chapter in this guide discusses managing your bankroll, so we shall leave this topic here for now.
The banker bet will win just over 50% of the time. Although a winning banket bet will be subject to a 5% commission payable to the house, it is still the best option if you want to win at baccarat.
Go with the banker bet; you won’t have much else to lose when you compare it with the other bets.
Players are blessed with a very low house edge on two of the three bets that are available in baccarat. These bets are the player and the banker bets, offering a 1.24% and a 1.06% house edge, respectively.
These sound fantastic overall, but players are often tempted to place their wager on the available third bet – the tie bet. This temptation is because of the much higher payouts; however, the house edge on this bet is ridiculously high at about 14.4%, yes, that is not a typo.
The tie bet provides players much higher payouts, but it comes with a significantly higher house edge.
If you care about your chances of winning at baccarat, you will avoid the tie bet. It is not worthwhile in any aspect.
Baccarat is a straightforward game, but playing with the best strategies for optimal performance will typically require practice to get it together. We recommend that players practice their gameplay, especially when trying to learn how to play by using the winning strategies that we share later in this player guide.
It can be a little hard to practice when you play at a traditional casino because you’ll need to risk your money when learning to play. However, there is a better way to go about this – one that saves you a lot of money, too, as it allows you to play free games.
When you decide to practice playing baccarat, we recommend that you start playing with online casinos like those we feature. These sites are safe, secure, and reputable and allow you to play free baccarat games online.
The benefit of playing free baccarat games online is that it allows you to practice in your own space. Better yet, playing free games will enable you to avoid losing significant amounts of money if you make mistakes or lose.
There are a few different strategies in baccarat which revolve around riding streaks. These also consider when to jump on and when to jump off, they are relatively easy to understand, and we will discuss these later on but in a fundamental sense – when you get onto a winning banker bet streak, stick with it and ride it out.
Just remember that streaks really don’t have any impact on future results, so don’t get overzealous with your betting.
There are particular outcomes to look for when betting on a winning streak. If you are betting on a banker streak, don’t immediately swap to the player bet on a loss. Sit out a round, watch to see what outcome appears, and then go with that bet in the round after.
You should take everything in moderation, and playing baccarat should be no different. In a game like this, where the outcomes are pretty cut and dry, it can be easy to get lost and extend your playtime.
Especially when you are on the right end of a streak or hoping to find one.
What you need to do, though, is take an approach based on the understanding that fewer is better. Slow down your gambling and play for shorter periods, taking breaks or moving to a new table in between sessions.
This will hopefully cap the potential losses that you might experience with losing streaks.
Look, we get it, patterns and habits are common in determining strategies for games like baccarat, but they aren’t everything. It is essential to understand that every round is wholly independent and won’t affect the future.
While this does, in a sense, go against some of the more common betting patterns or strategies that are popular (and that we discuss here), you will need to take it with a grain of salt.
When we say don’t look for patterns, we are mostly referring to the broader mindset of don’t bet your entire gameplay around what happened in earlier rounds. You can consider it, just don’t place all your chips in the one basket.
This is a little different from the strategy of sticking with a bet and then moving off under certain circumstances. This winning baccarat tip might have muddied the waters for you but don’t stress, we will clear this up throughout this player guide.
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In this chapter, we look at the importance of managing your bankroll when playing baccarat games. Whether you are riding high with lady luck or are struggling with losing streaks, having a decent bankroll, and taking care of it will make all the difference.
Especially with a game like baccarat, where the margins of profitability can be marginal.
Here we share some excellent tips that will help you manage your bankroll like using the right betting strategies, mistakes to avoid, the best way to look at your bankroll correctly, and some ways to ensure that you have more available to play with.
The goal for players who wish to improve their chances of winning at baccarat and maintaining their bankroll is to play smarter. So, it makes sense that one of the best practices to implement is to ensure that you are using the right betting strategy.
This doesn’t necessarily mean betting on the player or banker bet (you’ll read more about the bets in baccarat later in this guide). Instead, this specific aspect of the baccarat betting strategy revolves around your money and the use of positive or negative progression tactics when choosing your bets.
As you’ll read about shortly in this guide, you need to find a betting amount that you can afford and that works for you. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure.
So, what are they? Well, there are five popular betting strategies for you to remember:
These strategies vary in complexity and suitability, but it won’t matter too much at the end of the day. We suggest using a betting strategy that works for you, meaning you can understand how to use it, and your bankroll can afford it.
There are downsides to these strategies (except the flat betting method). However, we will discuss some of the more useful of these strategies with you later.
One big problem that many players fall into is sticking all of their eggs into one basket. This happens for a myriad of reasons, but greed is typically the most common deciding factor.
When it comes to maintaining a substantial bankroll, you should understand by now that there is a common theme that occurs. That theme is control.
If you take one thing from this baccarat guide, we hope that it is this – be smart and play smarter.
There is no way to guarantee a win in baccarat, and although you might be riding a lengthy banker bet streak, it can all end in an instant. This is why we recommend finding a bet that works for your bankroll (you’ll find out more about this in our next section) and sticking to it.
Never overreach on how much you can commit, and avoid going all-in and risking it all. Kick back and enjoy your gaming experience, make sure it is always about the fun.
You must look at your bankroll in portions, rather than a total amount. Especially breaking things down further and understanding what you are aiming to do and how far your cash will last you.
For example, if you are playing the slots, you could get away with having a smaller bankroll because of the ability to play lower wager spins. Whereas if you were playing strictly on a $10 roulette table with a bankroll of only $100, you set yourself up for a quick session.
You must see what your bankroll is worth beforehand. Playing on a $10 roulette table is fine, but if you only have $50 to support your playing, you will only get five bets before going bust (if you don’t win any bets).
This will also affect how long you can play. Using the $10 roulette table example again, if you set aside two hours to play and have $50 to play with, it simply won’t last. Consider this, if we estimate that a round of roulette takes approximately 4 minutes to complete, the minimum five rounds that you can afford to play will only take about 20 minutes to play through.
Which leaves an hour and twenty minutes left in your set aside playtime.
In these circumstances, it makes more sense to either play a different game or make bets smaller and more manageable.
We recommend that your bankroll should always last either an hour’s worth of gameplay or 50 bets. This gives you plenty of time to enjoy yourself while still playing with enough bank to strike large.
Realistically, this should be common sense. You’d be surprised though, especially when casinos dangle large carrots in front of players – in baccarat, those carrots are typically in the shape of an 8-1 payout on the tie bet!
It sounds lucrative, but it will be detrimental to your bankroll if you chase these ‘what-if’ wins.
In the case of the tie bet, the casino has an edge close to 14.36% over the player. This is extraordinarily high, especially compared to the 1.24% player bet and the 1.06% banker bet.
This really speaks for itself, though; if you want to play for longer and improve your chances of coming out on top, you must stick to bets with the low house edge. The payouts may be smaller, but they will be more frequent then waiting for a hail mary racking up losses.
When it comes to setting limits on our play, it is quite hard to stick to. Rightfully so, it is always going to be challenging to limit yourself when doing something that you enjoy – especially when it includes you coming out on top with some tidy profits.
Unfortunately, this is also one of the most pivotal aspects of managing your bankroll during your time playing baccarat games.
It comes down to setting limits and making sure that you stick to your guns and enforce them. There is no point setting yourself up with a plan and specific restrictions, only to have you fall at the first hurdle and not stick to them.
There are a few of these limits in baccarat that you can look at implementing into your gameplay:
If you set limits like those above, you will be much better placed to keep control of your gaming and reduce the risk of putting yourself (and potentially your family) in a bad situation.
Enjoying gambling as a hobby can be a smooth or bumpy ride. Making it smooth can be easily achieved by ensuring that you have enough bankroll to compliment your hobby. This can be harder for some people, but there are specific ways that you can allow yourself more time to enjoy gambling your games by allowing yourself to create a more affordable bankroll.
Follow these helpful tips to set yourself up with an affordable bankroll.
Bankroll Specific Bank Account
If possible, open up a savings account with your bank that is only used for supporting your gambling entertainment. Look for an account that doesn’t have fees; otherwise, you’ll lose out on a bet or two each month.
Consistent Affordable Portions
The best habit to get into is to take a small portion of your salary or paycheck (after you have paid your bills first) and move it to your bankroll account or deposit to your online casino account.
This removes the desire of wanting to take out more money as you know that each paycheck you get, you will be supplementing your bankroll. It also forces you to think hard about what you can afford to gamble with – by making you think about how much to set on transfer each time.
We recommend that you think about what we mentioned earlier about breaking down your bankroll and consider how long you want to spend gambling.
Baccarat may be simple and easy to learn the game, but that doesn’t mean players don’t run into some roadblocks along the way. These roadblocks aren’t anything to be concerned with though, as typically players struggle with understanding three aspects of the game:
In this chapter, the good news is that we are going to explore each of these aspects and unpack them for you.
In baccarat, the game’s objective is to place a wager on a particular hand, with the goal being to be the hand that has a value closest to nine. Very simple as you know, there are only three bets to choose:
But, really, there are only two because if you’ve picked up anything so far, it would no doubt be that the tie bet is a lost cause and never worth the time or money.
So, to refresh your memory, what are these bets?
Player Bet
Banker Bet
Tie Bet
As you can see, there is not a lot splitting two of the bets here, but from a pure odds and house edge perspective, the banker bet is ahead of the player bet. That is with the 5% commission payment too.
If the house edge doesn’t ‘speak’ to you, then look at it this way. The odds of a player’s hand coming out as a winner in baccarat is 44.62%, and the odds of a player losing is 45.85%. There is also the chance of the round ending in a tie being 9.53%.
However, if you take this tie out of the equation, you will end up with the banker having a 51% chance to win.
We looked at the bets in baccarat and touched on the house edge and odds in our previous section. As you would remember, of the three bets, one of them is just plain out of the question in terms of being viable for players, while the other two are slightly apart.
If you struggle to understand what the house edge means to you when playing baccarat well, don’t worry because it isn’t just you.
Most players get lost when it comes to the edge in casino games.
Even though the house edge shows that the casino has a better chance of winning, it isn’t something that you need to take personally and avoid. Unfortunately, all casino games have an edge towards the casino – it’s how they make their money.
But just remember that this isn’t the casino making it unfair or rigged. This is merely a mathematical advantage to the casino. More or less, it’s not that the casino has that percentage chance of beating you. Instead, in a baccarat sense, it is more of that’s the chance the casino will win the hand, or the player will lose the hand (including the tie as a ‘win’ for the casino).
There is further detailed math that considers the payouts, the number of decks, and the 5% commission. Rather than going into detail with the actual figures, we will share this key information with you (using the standard shoe of eight standard 52-card decks):
Therefore, a difference of 1.36%. Once you include the 5% commission, you will have a difference or the edge of 1.17% (banker hand winning 50.68% multiplied by 0.95 is 48.15, and then take this from 49.32).
Now that we understand the house edge and what it truly means in baccarat, it helps find out how this edge will affect your money. Most players are often blindsided by this but are often caught off guard when they find out how it really works.
When you set everything out in front of you – it is straightforward to understand how it all works.
To help it make sense, consider that you have 0 and are playing at your favorite casino and have enjoyed an evening of baccarat gaming, making 100 bets on the banker bet, and they were all worth $1 each.
This means that you will have spent your entire bankroll (the $100) and because all bets were on the banker bet, we can consider the flat edge that the casino has of 1.06% for these bets.
The 1.06% house edge means that from a mathematical standpoint over a period of play, the return to player percentage (RTP) would be 98.94% (100 – 1.06). So, the RTP is what you would expect to get back over that period, meaning that of your $100 worth of bets on the banker – you would expect to win $98.94, putting you behind $1.06 from where you started.
When you use a perfect world example like this with simple $1 bets and a $100 bankroll, it is easier to understand.
Just don’t forget that the RTP is an estimated return over time.
In chapter four, we look at the basic baccarat strategies and how to use them when playing at casinos or online gambling sites. Here we break it all down for you and make it easier to pick up one of these baccarat gambling strategies on your next session.
This baccarat strategy is simple, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it won’t work. The one-sided baccarat strategy is exactly that – pick a side and sit with it. If played correctly and with a little luck on your side, there is a good chance of you going into a profitable position.
During a baccarat game, both the player and banker bets will go through a period where they have an advantage in the shoe. It isn’t by a significant margin, but it can be enough to get you ahead. This happens in roughly eight of every ten shoes, so provided you are on the right side of the shoe at the right time, you can ride the edge of glory.
While using this strategy – If you lose three times in a row, stop betting and wait for your side to win again before jumping back in.
Streak swinging is a go-to for players who think they have the inside-feel on how the game is moving. It revolves around backing both bets until a swing is found on one of the bets. This strategy is exciting and resembles a stockbroker working the stock market; thus, it hinges on picking the right time and moving with the swings and riding highs and lows.
How Do You Streak Swing in Baccarat
Outside of avoiding going all-in and backing the tie bet, players can use betting strategies (i.e., advanced decision making used when choosing bet values) to improve their chances of winning at baccarat.
These systems can be advanced, but they can also be reasonably straightforward to use. While five systems are typically used, the three betting strategies that we discuss here are the most popular, and most suitable for baccarat players.
The Martingale strategy is a simplified method of negative progression. It follows a process of repeating bets on wins and doubling after a losing bet. This makes the strategy extremely simple and, for the most part, a lucrative method that is beginner-friendly.
It is not all positives, though, as, with all strategies, there is a downside. The problem with using the Martingale betting strategy in baccarat is that if you find yourself hitting a losing streak, then your bets can get rather high, quickly.
How Does Martingale Work
Restarting your bet sequence is the best way to keep your betting levels lower if you hit a string of losses. The Martingale Strategy will often need a larger bankroll to make it worth using.
The Fibonacci betting strategy is also a negative progression system that is based on the mathematical sequence. The basic premise of this strategy is that it treats your bet as a unit value and applies the mathematics sequence – i.e., each addition is a result of the two previous numbers in the pattern.
An example of this is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 24, 55, etc.
How Does Fibonacci Work in Baccarat
It is simple to use once you understand how it works. Start with a small, simple betting amount, and when you lose a bet, you move to the next number in the sequence; however, after a win, you must reduce your bet back two numbers in the sequence.
The Fibonacci system is known as one of the more enjoyable betting strategies to use in baccarat. It allows players to manage their bankrolls and offers flexibility in the choice of bets.
This is the most basic betting strategy, although some players would hardly call it a strategy. It is a no thrills method that doesn’t feature any increasing or reducing of bets – just a simple flat bet on every hand.
How Does Flatt Betting Work in Baccarat
Regardless of the outcome, you will always be betting the flat amount of $10. It is an effective and straightforward strategy to use that won’t go as far as to recover losses as the other strategies can.
However, flat betting does remove much of the risk that comes with gambling using the above strategies. It is the perfect starting point for beginners to baccarat.
In this chapter, we look to find answers to all of the most frequently asked questions for winning at baccarat. You should understand by now that the game is easy to learn and possible to improve the way you play, but there are still some questions that players often find themselves asking.
Here we close out this how to win baccarat guide by specifically covering each of those popular questions.
You should play baccarat online as it provides players with a way to enjoy gambling games from the comfort of their own home, or while on the go using a smartphone or tablet. This means that there is no need to get dressed up and spend extra money on a night out.
Players will be saving your cash for your bankroll, taking advantage of the great online casino bonuses that are available to boost your bankroll, plus there are always the free casino games to test out and try before you bet real money.
Edge sorting is the most common method of ‘cheating’ in baccarat games. Unfortunately, it isn’t necessarily accepted as cheating, though, and it often comes down to where your moral compass lies. Edge sorting can be used to win, and though, it is a method at which players try to determine whether there are any differences on the back of the deck of playing cards and then figure out whether those cards are high or low-value cards.
While it can be challenging to find these issues and even harder to use them to your advantage – by requesting dealers to rotate those specific cards 180 degrees, there is a high-profile case of edge sorting with a player the name of Phil Ivey. However, Phil was found to be using an accomplice (a dealer) to mark cards.
The house edge in baccarat is generous when playing the banker bet (remember just 1.06%), but blackjack can offer a ridiculously low edge of under 0.30% when played with near-perfect strategy. That is just the problem, though, and the skill requirements are incredibly different from the outcome simply being less than a single percentage point.
Same could be said with a game of craps, the edge in this game is about 1.36% on the don’t pass and don’t come bets. In European roulette games, you can get the house edge as low as 2.7%, but the same problem exists when you compare these casino games with baccarat.
Whether it is blackjack, craps, roulette, or any other game, the skill required to play with such a low edge is much harder because of the need to play with near-perfect gameplay. However, in baccarat, the game stays as simple as picking one or the other.
It is a common misconception that baccarat games are rigged (or most casino gambling games) in favor of the casino – but this is not the case. Yes, the house does have the edge over the player, but this comes in the form of a mathematical advantage and not a sneaky, underhanded tactic used to give a complete disadvantage to players.
If you can count cards in baccarat, it can help you improve your winning chance if played correctly. However, this advantage is only a minimal increase when counting cards in baccarat and, therefore, solely relates to a slight increase in the profitability of playing with this strategy.
This might not be what you were hoping for, but understanding how to count cards in baccarat is still a great skill to have and will help out if you ever consider counting cards in blackjack games too.
That concludes our player guide on how to win at baccarat. We hope that you’ve enjoyed reading your way through this resource, during which our team of experts at CasinoToday has shared a selection of information to help players like you get a better understanding of what it takes to win at baccarat.
In this guide, we’ve covered a range of topics, including taking a look at how to manage your bankroll in games. Better yet, we took this opportunity to go one step further, sharing helpful tips on giving yourself the best start by improving the amount you can play with.
While the game is very simple, we didn’t shy away from the more pivotal aspects of the game, discussing baccarat bets and the odds’ ins and outs. Having broken down the game’s barriers, we also looked at what the house edge means for players and how it affects their gambling enjoyment.
Having looked at the underlying premises and shared our tips on how to increase your chances of winning at baccarat, we turned things up a notch and looked at some of the more detailed baccarat strategies (as well as the basics). With this, we feel comfortable that players of any skill level could show up at the table and implement various gameplay methods and betting strategies to improve their win/loss potential.
Finally, we brought it all together by sharing some of the frequently asked questions for winning at baccarat – offering our answers to these often mind-boggling questions.
If you would like to find out more about playing the exciting gambling game, baccarat, we recommend checking out our how to play baccarat guide to hash over some of the basics. There is also ample opportunity to put your skills to the test at one of the reputable online casinos that we feature, and you can also find several other casino game guides on our site.
Susan is a verified gambling support specialist who has helped thousands of problem gamblers get back on their feet through therapy and financial counseling. She’s also worked as a cage manager in four Las Vegas casinos and spent two years in Macau in her 30s, where she became extremely savvy at Sic Bo and other Asian table games. Her knowledge and expertise have and continue to play a priceless part in how we structure our content, particularly when it comes to game guides and casino reviews.
