Online Baccarat Strategy – Beating Baccarat

When considering online baccarat strategy, it’s important to understand the difference between “strategy” and “system.” Online baccarat strategy relies on using the game rules and odds to determine the optimal course of action. Baccarat systems are different in that they try to alter the game’s outcome by managing wagers and changing strategy based on the resulting wins or losses.

Strategy decisions take place at different times depending on the game being played. For instance, when playing blackjack, decision making comes into play when determining whether or not to hit or stand. When playing video poker, players must decide which cards to hold and which ones to cast aside. With these games, the only decision making needed involves the outcome one bets on. Online baccarat strategy that entails varying bet sizes solely based on intuition or previous game history is no strategy, it’s a system, and systems simply do not work.

Ideal Online Baccarat Strategy

American Baccarat requires the player or the banker to draw or stand according to the rules of the game. The rules are strict and they leave no room for any strategy. The only online baccarat strategy one can employ in a game of American Baccarat is to always bet on the banker. This provides the house with the lowest edge possible. Because there are only three different bets available to players in baccarat it leads players to believe that changing bets based on wins and loses is an effective strategy. But the truth is that each win occurs independently of the outcome of the hand played before and after.

Online Baccarat Strategy and Card Counting

Famed gambling strategist, Edward O. Thorp, claims to have had success by applying card counting to the game of baccarat. Card counting is more often associated with the game of blackjack, a game that is considered to be similar to baccarat. While both games involve comparing cards, baccarat has complex rules and a unique point system which essentially prevents card counting from being an effective strategy in Baccarat.

How Good Online Baccarat Players Play

Players need only make a few simple decisions: how much they should wager and who they should bet on. The best baccarat players follow a very basic set of rules. The first rule is to avoid betting on ties.

Casinos will pay 8 to 1 or 9 to 1 for tie bets, but this carries a house advantage of more than 15%. The two other bets have only slightly higher odds making them better options than a tie bet. Ties only occur 9 times in 100 wins, making it a sucker’s bet.

Betting on the banker has a house edge that is approximately 0.2% less than the winning bet that is placed on the player. Therefore, effective online baccarat strategy suggests that it is better to keep to banker bets over any other as they tend to produce more wins.

Because it is such a simple game with little to no opportunity to apply betting strategy it is somewhat surprising that baccarat is so widely played throughout the world. But this is quite likely also a big part of its appeal. There are no complex rules to learn and if you stick to betting on the banker, and manage your bankroll appropriately, there is a chance that you can experience some rewarding wins.