Unless you are new to baccarat, the chances are you have heard that you “should always wager on the Banker.” This isn’t just one of the most cited gambling quotes.
Betting with the Banker is not only the simplest but also the safest baccarat strategy. And it all boils down to pure math.
First of all, the theoretical house edge for betting on the Banker, as mentioned earlier, is 1.06 percent. By the same token, the return to player (RTP) or payout percentage for Banker bets is a staggering 98.94 percent. 메이저사이트
If we assume that you made a hundred $1 bets on the Bank hand, then you will get $98.94 back. It’s worth keeping in mind that this metric is theoretical and it only tells you whether a specific bet is better or worse than another.
The RTP of a bet on the Bank hand of 98.94 percent suggests that it’s slightly better than a Player hand wager, which has an RTP of 98.76 percent. Similarly, a bet on a tie is worse than either because of its relatively low RTP of 85.64 percent.
The reason betting on the Banker is always a good idea goes beyond the house edge and RTP, though. Let’s take a closer look at the math of the Banker betting baccarat strategy:
Assuming that the casino is using eight standard 52-card decks; Tie bets pay at 8:1; Banker bets pay evens minus 5 percent commission; and that there’s a 1:1 payoff for Player bets, then the math says:
If we remove all hands that tie from the equation, then the Bank hand loses 49.32 percent of the hands, while it wins 50.68 percent. On the flip side, 50.68 percent of Player hands lose, while 49.32 percent win.
Against this mathematical background, it’s clear that Bank hand bets are more likely to win than lose, while Player hands lose more frequently than win. To correct for this, there’s a 5 percent commission on all winning Banker bets.
Even when you include the 5 percent charge and ignore hands that tie, the Banker hand’s house advantage is still a very favorable 1.17 percent. In other words, every $100 worth of Banker bets will result in a theoretical loss of $1.17, while similar Player hand wagers will result in a loss of $1.36.
Numbers don’t lie: you’re more likely to win if you trust your money with the Banker!
Don’t get it wrong, though. Betting solely with the Player has an almost equally low house edge of 1.36 percent, which means it can also be a viable baccarat strategy.
In addition to eliminating the tie bet and always betting with the Banker, some advanced betting systems can work perfectly into your baccarat strategy.
Perhaps one of the most widely leveraged betting strategies is the Martingale System.
Made popular in the 18th century in France, the Martingale System is a common system of progressively adjusting bets in casino games that is particularly conducive to baccarat. It can also work like a charm when it comes to playing other table games like roulette, blackjack, and even craps.
Beyond gambling, the system has been employed in trading FX, securities, and other investment vehicles that call for long-term profit expectancy.
The Martingale System was devised by one French mathematician by the name Paul Pierre Levy, although some people think it was introduced by an unscrupulous casino owner called John Martingale.
How does it work? The Martingale System borrows from the theory of Mean Revision, which says that historical returns and asset prices (such as Gold, Oil, Stock, FX, etc.) will revert to the long-term average or mean.
In the game of baccarat, in specific, the system assumes that the payout will get as close to the bet’s RTP in the long-run. In layman terms, a particular hand is bound to win at some point.
When you get down to brass tacks, the traditional Martingale System says that you should double down on the next wager if your last bet lost.
For instance, if you place a $10 bet on the Bank hand and it loses, then you should put a $20 wager next on the same hand. But it doesn’t end there.
This theory suggests that you should continue until you win. So, if the next bet of $20 loses, you should double to $40 on the subsequent bet, meaning it’s four times the original wager.
When you make a win, then you take your winnings and revert to the original bet. From our example, if your $40 wager on the Banker wins, then you should go back to your original $10 bet.
The big idea behind the Martingale system is that the bettor will win the biggest bet of the cycle. In our case, the Player won a total of $80 (inclusive of the stake) for a total bet of $70 ($10+$20+$40).
As you can see, the system has a near-100 percent success rate in the long-run. Despite looking like a sure-thing, however, the Martingale System comes with a few risks and shortcomings that include: