Baccarat Betting Systems


It is important to differentiate between baccarat systems and baccarat strategies. Baccarat strategies are how you will play the hands, whereas baccarat systems determine how you will bet. Strategies are designed to cut the house’s advantage, and systems are designed to cut your losses. Before covering baccarat systems, it is important to explore basic baccarat strategy. Namely, the percentage advantages of each hand and how understanding them can help you to play baccarat more successfully.

First, the house always starts with an advantage. This is true of most gambling room games, and the best way to combat that advantage is to understand the game. If you are a beginner, then the safest strategy is to bet on the Banker’s hand. Why?

The house has a 1.29% advantage when you bet on the Player hand. They have a nearly 16% advantage on a tie hand. And they have a 1.01% advantage when you bet on the Banker’s hand. This makes always betting on the Banker’s hand the safest and simplest foundation for basic strategies, especially because the Banker’s hand wins more often than the Player’s as a general rule.

This is a helpful strategy for new baccarat players until they are prepared to move on to a more advanced one. Regardless of which method you use, once you have chosen a playing strategy you are ready to move on and optimize it by selecting a baccarat betting system.

The Martingale System

The Martingale system is one of the oldest and most popular systems in baccarat. It is also one of the easiest to understand. The basic strategy of the Martingale system is to double your bet after every loss, so that the next eventual win will put you at even again.

As with other game strategies, the Martingale system works under the premise of basic odds. The law of averages dictates that any instance where there are two equal choices, you have an equal (or 50%) chance of getting either one. Therefore, you have a 50% chance of winning each hand. So if you lost the last hand with a wager of $1, then winning the next hand with a wager of $2 results in a $1 profit once losses are restored. As soon as the player wins, they are to return to betting the minimum $1 until losing again.

The Martingale system requires a healthy bankroll, as a losing streak quickly raises the bet from $1 to $2 to $4 to $8, etc., and yet because you are only making $1 at a time, it is not a system designed for players that want to win big. If you have the money necessary to play this system, it is great for insuring you come out a little ahead, but if you have a limited bankroll, you could lose it all as your bets double indefinitely without a win.

The Fibonacci Sequence System

The Fibonacci system is based around a series of numbers known as the Fibonacci sequence. These numbers are also frequently referred to as the “Divine numbers.” Early proponents of the Fibonacci sequence related it to natural events and proportions, but as it applies to baccarat betting systems it is just a good way for players to bet similar to the Martingale system but with higher profits when they win.

The Fibonacci number sequence starts with zero and proceeds to one. After this, the next number in the sequence is always the sum of the previous two, yielding: 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55, etc. For the sake of betting minimums, the 0 is dropped and you start betting at the $1 minimum. As with the Martingale system, your bets progress through the sequence with every consecutive loss. If you would like to bet higher, then you may use the Fibonacci sequence as multiples (for example betting $5 then $5 then $10 then $15).

The Fibonacci system yields higher profits than the Martingale system when the player wins, but may also be very destructive to a bankroll when they get on a losing streak.

Other Systems

Many other baccarat betting systems exist, including but not limited to: the 1-3-2-6 system, the Labouchere system, and the D’Alembert system. When searching for systems online, you will see many advertisements boasting of amazing “secret” systems that will help the player to win every hand. Beginning baccarat players are better off avoiding these systems in favor of the more conservative and tried and true baccarat systems covered in this article.

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