A popular and fun alternative to other casino games!
One of the more popular online casino games is baccarat. Baccarat has a great tradition as a casino game and is as much a part of a casino as is roulette. However there are some very interesting features to baccarat that make it very different from its roulette cousin.
In roulette the payouts bear a close resemblance to the probability of that particular outcome of the game. For instance, the probability of a red or a black is very close to 1 on 2 (not quite as there is also a green coloured zero) and the payout is 1 to 1. The chances of correctly predicting a single number is 37 to 1 (on a European wheel) and the payout is 35 to 1.
Odds in Baccarat
In baccarat the situation is very different. There are three possible bets; a win for the player, a win for the bank or a tie. As is analogous to roulette, the chances of a player win and a bank win are very close to 50% (in fact they are approximately 46% and 45 % respectively). Both of these pay out at 1 to 1, which is fair and means that (after charging a small commission on banker wins) there is a house edge of 1.24% on a player win and 1.06% on a banker win.
However, things are very different with tie bets. The chances of a tie are on average around 9.52% but the payout is often only 8 to 1 (though at some of the more generous casinos this is 9.1) which gives the house a much greater edge of up to 14%.
Thus, if you want to maximise your chances of winning then you should restrict your bets to a win for the banker.
So why doesn’t everybody just do that? Well, if they did it would all be rather boring. Although the chances of a tie are not that high, the prospect of winning 9 times your stake can be very appealing.