Casinos stay in business because of the house edge. Put simply, this is an indication of how much a casino expects to win on any particular game in the long run. It is calculated as the ratio of the average loss to the bet. For example, in a game with a house edge of 6%, the casino expects that for every £10 bet it will make a profit of 60 pence.
Winning (other than by being lucky) depends on lowering this edge and having a suitable betting strategy.
One game has attracted the attention of gamblers for centuries, due to the peculiar nature of its gameplay.
That game is Baccarat (also known as Punto Banco). Along with Sic Bo, Pai Gow and Keno, Baccarat / Punto Banco is one of the Big Four Chinese gambling games and, as such, can be found in the separate Asian areas of casinos worldwide.
The aim of the game is to predict whose hand, the Banker’s (Banco) or the Player’s (Punto), will be closer to the value of nine. You can also bet on the possibility of a tie.
The point values of the cards are very simple to follow. All 10′s and picture cards have a value of zero, and all other cards (Ace through 9) are worth their face value (Aces are always worth 1). When the total of two or more cards is greater than 10, the point total is reduced by 10. For example if a hand is dealt an 7 and a 5, resulting in a total of 12, 10 is subtracted, leaving a point total of 2 for that hand.
The important point to bear in mind when playing Baccarat / Punto Banco is that winning depends on the hand you bet on, not the hand you play.
If the hand that you bet on wins, you are paid double your bet, unless you bet on a tie. If you bet on a tie, the payout is eight times the amount you bet. If you bet on the Banker’s hand, and win, the House charges a 5% commission.
If you bet on a hand, and the hand loses, you lose your bet.
But what makes this game unique – and therefore attractive – is the rule that if you do not bet on a Tie, and the hands tie, your bet is returned to you.
So, in any calculation of house edge, the Tie bet can be effectively disregarded. Were it not for the vigorish, the probability of winning on Banker would be over 1 in 2 ie better than a coin toss. Even allowing for the vigorish, the house edge on the Banker bet is just over 1%.
Seeing Baccarat / Punto Banco as close to an evens chance then allows the gambler to use one of the many systems invented over the years – progressive betting, Martingale, Fibonacci, d’Alembert etc. Each of these is described – and tested – in detail at Fortune Palace.
My preferred strategy for Baccarat / Punto Banco does not look for massive wins, nor expect you to stake a fortune in order to win a little, as any ‘doubling’ system does. Instead, my strategy works on the principal that the Banker bet can occur four times in a row with some frequency, but allows insurance against it not doing so – the most common occurrence!