Updatesnin

Baccarat has a higher minimum bet than most games, and it differs from casino to casino. Make sure you are aware what it is before placing your chips!. Place bet after bet on a tie. Ties only occur about once every 9.5 hands so you could waste a lot of money waiting for this outcome. The highest baccarat payout is 30 to 1 for a non-natural winning hand that wins by nine points. Keep in mind that the Dragon Bonus bet has to be made before you make a standard baccarat bet and on the same side – player or banker. These are the Dragon Baccarat Bonus payouts that apply to both the banker and the player.

Thread Rating:

Please let me introduce myself.
I'm aprox. 55 years old.
I've been visiting Reno and Vegas casinos since the late 1970's.
But I have never lived in Nevada. (I want to someday)
Betting on sports is the easiest.
I prefer the NFL, The NHL and MLB
Craps... If I play it, I will marty the don't pass line when the shooters are somewhat cold. (easy money!)
Hold'em high - love to play it but there are LOTS of easier ways to make money in Vegas.
Now we get to Baccarat...
I live in a state close to Nevada that has several Indian Casinos.
To protect my identity I'm not going to mention the state.
I'm a 'hit and run' gambler! AKA Gorilla Gambler!
Casino's hate people like me because we win and then we high tail it! (with their $$$)
I over heard a Baccarat Pit Boss tell a customer once...
'If everybody as soon as they got ahead, they quit playing for the day, then we would soon be out of business.'
I use marty's in order to beat Baccarat.
I never sit down when I play Baccarat.
All my bets are placed standing up in back of the seated players.
I play from 'the gallery' as they call it.
I go from table to table looking for that table where Player or Banker is dominating the scene!
At the Gold Coast Casino I would be in Hog Heaven.
Follow me so far?
When I go to Vegas I always stay at Harrah's and I play my Baccarat there and at The Flamingo.
But sports betting is where I always tear them up!
Now back to Baccarat...
I mainly like to bet Player but if Banker is dominating then I will obviously bet Banker.
For example...
I walk up to a table in which Player is dominating Banker...
My Marty is $25 - $50 - $100 - $200 - $175 - $225/or IC (bet Player each time)
If I lose 5 times in a row, I stop and book a $550 loser. (minus my other marty wins for the day)
Then I go home for the day.
If I lose 4 in a row and win on my 5th bet then I'm down $200 and can then
make a $225 bet later on or do an 'increment catchup' to try and get even.
For example a $50 - $100 - $200 marty is a $50 'increment catchup' when won.
My goal everytime I go to the casino is a $100 - $200 win with a $1,000 bank roll.
Once I reach my goal I leave the casino and immeditely go home!
John Patrick once said it best... Go for small wins!
My record is 46
That's 46 straight winning trips to the casino!
46 x $150 = $6,900
It usually doesn't take me long to win $100 - $200 then I'm gone.
If I play for long periods I will eventually go on tilt like poker players do.
Get in and get out and don't get greedy!

That's awesome Martyman. 46 x $150 = $6,900 Sounds like easy money!!! Congrats.

How To Play Baccarat Video

Just one question, and believe me, I'm not a professional gambler, nor a mathmetician.
How do the numbers know that there are pauses between your plays?

Not understanding your question?

Martyman
I love your negative progression. Risk 500 to get back 25. Must be another class next to Golden Touch. Las Vegas university - world famous school, our graduates go broke faster than anybody else.

I highly DO NOT recommend trying this but give the guy props for catching a winning run. $6900 covers the next 12 losses not including future wins of $150.00

I highly DO NOT recommend trying this but give the guy props for catching a winning run. $6900 covers the next 12 losses not including future wins of $150.00

BUT 'If it ain't Broke, Don't fix it' RIGHT?

Wizard Recommends

• €1500 Welcome Bonus
• €100 + 300 Free Spins
• 100% Welcome Bonus

Introduction

Introduction

I don't like to accept articles by other writers. Few writers out there freelance at the kinds of standards I expect of myself for this site. Until now, I believe the only outside page I have accepted is the one on Flip It, by Michael Bluejay.

However, when Eliot Jacobson mentioned he had found the Dragon Bet in EZ Baccarat easily countable I was eager to cover it. As far as I know this topic has never been covered before. So I was quite happy when Eliot agreed to share the results of his analysis with my readers. Enjoy! — Wizard

Card Counting the Dragon Side Bet in EZ Baccarat

By Eliot Jacobson Ph.D., © 2011

The Dragon Side Bet for EZ Baccarat is simple to describe. This side bet pays 40-to-1 if the dealer’s three-card total of 7 beats the player, otherwise the bet loses. Analysis of the wager consists of a straight forward cycle through all possible hands. Table 1 gives the analysis for eight decks, with the house edge of 7.611% appearing in the lower right cell.

Table 1

EZ Baccarat Dragon Side Bet

Event	Pays	Combinations	Probability	Return
Winning Dragon	40	112,633,011,329,024	0.022530	0.901350
Losing Dragon	-1	4,885,765,264,174,330	0.977470	-0.977470
Total	4,998,398,275,503,360	1.000000	-0.076110

I first considered if the Dragon Side Bet was susceptible to a card counting methodology several months back. Intuitively, it seemed as though the wager was more probable to hit if there was an excess of 7 and 10 valued cards in the deck. In this case, the dealer would be more likely to draw 10-10 and hit to a 10-10-7 = 7. Later, as I read several Internet discussion boards, it became clear that others thought as I did. The conclusions were that if there was any vulnerability at all, it would come when 7’s and 10’s were in excess in the remainder of the shoe. It turns out this is not the case. The Dragon Side Bet is vulnerable to a card counting methodology, but the answer is surprising.

The key is that in order for the player to win the Dragon bet, the dealer has to draw a third card. This requirement trumps everything else. The cards that keep the dealer from drawing that third card most often are the 8 and the 9. As these cards are removed from the shoe, the edge moves quickly towards the counter’s favor. An excess of smaller cards is also helpful. The cards 1-7 are each cards that can move the dealer’s final total to 7 if he draws. Determining which of these low cards result in a final total of 7 most often is the key.

The methodology used in this study is familiar. The overall house edge for the game dealt from eight decks is 7.611%. By removing each card in turn from an eight-deck shoe, its effect on the house edge can be determined. This allows card counting systems to be developed. After arriving at candidate systems, computer simulations are run to see if these systems can generate an edge in practice. If there is an edge, the question then becomes if this is significant enough to become an opportunity for the advantage player.

Table 2 shows the number of winning and losing hands that result from removing one card from an eight-deck shoe, along with the house edge after removing that card.

Table 2

House Edge by Card Removed

Card Removed	Winning Dragon	Losing Dragon	Total	House Adv.
1	111,068,343,867,648	4,815,237,648,815,950	4,926,305,992,683,600	-0.075620
2	110,900,807,733,248	4,815,405,184,950,350	4,926,305,992,683,600	-0.077010
3	110,879,201,710,336	4,815,426,790,973,260	4,926,305,992,683,600	-0.077190
4	110,686,449,371,648	4,815,619,543,311,950	4,926,305,992,683,600	-0.078790
5	110,691,915,602,560	4,815,614,077,081,040	4,926,305,992,683,600	-0.078750
6	110,618,934,007,296	4,815,687,058,676,300	4,926,305,992,683,600	-0.079360
7	110,577,900,912,896	4,815,728,091,770,700	4,926,305,992,683,600	-0.079700
8	111,654,703,169,536	4,814,651,289,514,060	4,926,305,992,683,600	-0.070740
9	111,583,436,417,536	4,814,722,556,266,060	4,926,305,992,683,600	-0.071330
10	111,112,191,215,104	4,815,193,801,468,490	4,926,305,992,683,600	-0.075250

Table 2 allows us to compute the effect on the house edge for the Dragon bet by removing each card. Table 3 gives these results. The middle column (EOR) shows the change in house edge when the indicated card is removed. The final column (EOR x 1000) indicates potential card-counting tags to use in an optimal system.

Table 3

Effect of Removal

Card Removed	EOR	EOR x 1000
1	0.000500	0.5
2	-0.000900	-0.9
3	-0.001080	-1.1
4	-0.002680	-2.7
5	-0.002630	-2.6
6	-0.003240	-3.2
7	-0.003580	-3.6
8	0.005380	5.4
9	0.004790	4.8
10	0.000860	0.9

Table 3 indicates the extreme importance of ridding the shoe of 8’s and 9’s. Also, the 7 is the most important card, as expected, to remain in the shoe. The other cards diminish in value as their pips go down, presumably because they are used in fewer and fewer situations to draw to a dealer total of 7. Working against intuition, the counter’s situation improves as zero-valued cards are removed from the deck.

Looking at the values in the last column of Table 3, and adjusting slightly to make it balanced, we get card counting “system 1” with tags (0.5, -0.9, -1.1, -2.7, -2.7, -3.3, -3.6, 5.4, 4.8, 0.9). The reader will most likely consider it daunting to use system 1 in practice. However, as a baseline counting system, it is worthwhile to see how it performs. In an effort to simplify this unwieldy system as much as possible, I also considered the card counting system with tags (0, 0, 0, -1, -1, -1, -1, 2, 2, 0). I’ll refer to this as “system 2.” This latter system is easily implemented by a counter of average skill level.

To gauge the effectiveness of each, I wrote a computer program to simulate using these two systems in live play. The game I simulated has the following shuffling and cut card rules:

• The game is dealt from a shoe with 8 decks.
• At the start of each shoe, a card is burned. Based on the value of the burn card, an additional number of cards are burned, equal to the value of the card.
• The cut card is placed 14 cards from the end of the shoe.
• After the cut card is dealt, one more round is dealt before shuffling.

Table 4 gives the results of a simulation of two hundred million (200,000,000) shoes.

How To Play Baccarat Casino

Table 4

Simulation Results: 200M Shoes

Item	System 1	System 2
Target Count	10	4
Expected Value	7.315%	8.032%
Standard Deviation	6.456	6.567
Frequency of Bet	10.698%	9.163%
Units Won per Shoe	0.6361	0.5967

Update: 10/14/2011. Shortly after this article was published, I realized that I had made an error that caused me to significantly underestimate the player advantage. This error was caused by using single-deck estimations for the remaining cards in the shoe, rather than determining the exact true count based on the fractional decks remaining. I revised my simulation program and confirmed my updated results with Steve How of discountgambling.net. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused the reader.

It is clear from the last row of Table 4 that system 2, with tags (0, 0, 0, -1, -1, -1, -1, 2, 2, 0), performs remarkably well in comparison to its optimal cousin.

The person who uses system 2 should make the Dragon bet whenever the true count is +4 or higher. If he does so, then on average he will have an 8.03% edge over the house each time he makes the bet. This counter will have the opportunity to make the Dragon bet at or above the target true count on 9.16% of his hands. Given that the average shoe yields about 80 hands, the counter should be able to make, on average, about seven Dragon bets per shoe with the edge.

How To Bet Baccarat Game

In dollar terms, if the house allows a Dragon bet up to $100 (say), then on a per-shoe basis the counter will average about $59.67 profit. The counter will earn about $8.03 per $100 wagered on the Dragon bet.

How To Win Baccarat Forum

It is worthwhile to check that the simulated results for system 2 make sense combinatorially. One way to get a +4 true count off the top is to remove eight 8’s and eight 9’s from the deck. This will leave 400 cards remaining in the eight-deck shoe, with a running count of +32, for a true count of 4.16. In this case, combinatorial analysis gives a player edge of 1.0227%. Using a single deck, one way to get a +4 true count is to remove one 8 and one 9 from the deck. This leaves 50 cards with a +4 running count, giving a true count of 4.16. In this case, combinatorial analysis gives a player edge of 1.3114%. Because the player is making the Dragon bet at a true count of +4 and above, not just at +4, these computations represent a secondary confirmation of the simulated results.

Cut card placement varies by casino, so it is worthwhile to investigate how the edge changes with the placement of the cut card. Table 5 gives statistics for all cut card placements from 14 cards to 52 cards, and then by half-deck increments up to four decks. A cut card placement at one deck, instead of at 14 cards, decreases the potential profit to the player by about 50%.

Table 5

Card Counting Statistics by Cut Card DepthExpand

Cut Card Depth	Trigger Count	Hands per Shoe	Expected Value	Standard Deviation	Bet Frequency	Percent of Shoes Played	Profit per Shoe (units)	Profit per Hour (60 hands)
12	4	81.69	8.30%	6.575	9.31%	67.31%	0.631	0.464
13	4	81.48	8.15%	6.570	9.24%	66.54%	0.613	0.451
14	4	81.28	8.03%	6.567	9.16%	65.81%	0.597	0.440
15	4	81.08	7.87%	6.562	9.09%	65.12%	0.580	0.429
16	4	80.88	7.81%	6.560	9.02%	64.47%	0.569	0.422
17	4	80.67	7.67%	6.556	8.95%	63.81%	0.554	0.412
18	4	80.47	7.64%	6.555	8.87%	63.14%	0.545	0.407
19	4	80.27	7.48%	6.551	8.80%	62.48%	0.528	0.395
20	4	80.07	7.42%	6.549	8.73%	61.80%	0.518	0.388
21	4	79.86	7.37%	6.547	8.66%	61.14%	0.510	0.383
22	4	79.66	7.28%	6.545	8.58%	60.51%	0.498	0.375
23	4	79.46	7.20%	6.542	8.52%	59.93%	0.487	0.368
24	4	79.26	7.04%	6.538	8.45%	59.35%	0.472	0.357
25	4	79.05	7.03%	6.537	8.38%	58.77%	0.466	0.353
26	4	78.85	6.92%	6.534	8.32%	58.20%	0.454	0.345
27	4	78.65	6.88%	6.533	8.25%	57.65%	0.446	0.340
28	4	78.45	6.84%	6.532	8.18%	57.13%	0.439	0.336
29	4	78.24	6.75%	6.529	8.12%	56.64%	0.429	0.329
30	4	78.04	6.69%	6.527	8.05%	56.12%	0.421	0.323
31	4	77.84	6.61%	6.525	7.99%	55.61%	0.411	0.317
32	4	77.64	6.58%	6.524	7.92%	55.06%	0.405	0.313
33	4	77.43	6.49%	6.521	7.86%	54.53%	0.395	0.306
34	4	77.23	6.47%	6.521	7.80%	53.99%	0.389	0.302
35	4	77.03	6.38%	6.518	7.73%	53.49%	0.380	0.296
36	4	76.83	6.33%	6.517	7.67%	53.00%	0.373	0.291
37	4	76.62	6.22%	6.513	7.61%	52.53%	0.363	0.284
38	4	76.42	6.21%	6.513	7.55%	52.06%	0.358	0.281
39	4	76.22	6.18%	6.512	7.49%	51.59%	0.353	0.278
40	4	76.02	6.15%	6.511	7.43%	51.13%	0.347	0.274
41	4	75.81	6.10%	6.510	7.37%	50.70%	0.340	0.269
42	4	75.61	5.97%	6.506	7.31%	50.29%	0.330	0.262
43	4	75.41	6.05%	6.508	7.25%	49.85%	0.330	0.263
44	4	75.21	5.97%	6.506	7.19%	49.40%	0.323	0.257
45	4	75.00	5.92%	6.504	7.13%	48.95%	0.317	0.253
46	4	74.80	5.81%	6.501	7.07%	48.48%	0.307	0.246
47	4	74.60	5.80%	6.501	7.01%	48.03%	0.304	0.244
48	4	74.40	5.72%	6.498	6.95%	47.60%	0.296	0.239
49	4	74.19	5.68%	6.497	6.90%	47.19%	0.291	0.235
50	4	73.99	5.68%	6.497	6.84%	46.77%	0.287	0.233
51	4	73.79	5.63%	6.496	6.78%	46.36%	0.282	0.229
52	4	73.59	5.62%	6.495	6.73%	45.95%	0.278	0.227
1.5 decks	4	68.32	4.79%	6.470	5.37%	36.51%	0.176	0.154
2 decks	4	63.06	4.16%	6.451	4.20%	28.71%	0.110	0.105
2.5 decks	4	57.79	3.64%	6.436	3.19%	22.09%	0.067	0.070
3 decks	4	52.53	3.22%	6.423	2.34%	16.44%	0.039	0.045
3.5 decks	4	47.27	3.13%	6.420	1.62%	11.70%	0.024	0.030
4 decks	4	42.00	2.74%	6.409	1.05%	7.79%	0.012	0.017

This analysis shows that in theory the Dragon Side Bet in EZ Baccarat is an advantage play opportunity using a card counting methodology. In my opinion, however, given the high variance and low return, card counting is not a practical threat to the game.

About the Author

For more information on Eliot, or to contact him, visit http://ijmp.org/ .

Related Pages

Please also see my own card counter vulnerability study of the Panda 8 side bet in EZ Baccarat.