Baccarat – System

While some so-called experts have developed complicated card counting systems for baccarat that favour the Banker or Player, they still do not reduce the house advantage. There is, however, one perfect bet in baccarat which is guaranteed to win that involves card counting. It was developed by a baccarat supervisor in Atlantic City in the late Seventies, but is so rare that you would have to play hundreds, perhaps thousands, of games before it appeared.

The baccarat shoe is dealt nearly to the end and the players see every card. When loading the shoe, the croupier counts a cushion of 10 or 15 cards from the end and places a yellow card at that spot; that guarantees enough cards for one more hand after the yellow card appears. Since Tens and face cards are worth nothing in baccarat, this supervisor suggested that if you could count all the cards that are dealt in baccarat and determine that all the cards remaining when the yellow card appears are Tens or face cards, you know a nothing-nothing Tie will be declared on the last hand.

A player with that knowledge would then place the maximum bet on the tie – £300 at that time – and sit back and collect his winnings. With an 8-1 payout on the tie, this bet would garner a £2,400 payout. The problem is that the odds of the final 10 or 15 cards all being Tens or face cards are pretty high. But all in all, it’s not bad for a perfect bet!