Online Baccarat Betting Systems
Online Baccarat is all about betting, and it is a game that lends itself to betting systems, but what are they and are they in anyway useful if you play online baccarat?
Firstly a quick review of how we bet on baccarat. Ignoring side bets (and you should make a point of ignoring side bets, they tend to have very poor odds) you have three options: a bet on the player, a bet on the banker or a bet on a tie. The first two of these pays out at even money, the third at 8 to 1 or 9 to 1 at some online casinos.
A betting system is a way of betting that attempts to maximise your chances of ending up in profit and given no constraints it is easy to devise a system that is bound to make you money. A system that couldn’t fail in this imaginary world of no constraints is the Martingale system. Basically each time you lose you double up your bet on the assumption that you will at sometime win, and you will, but you have no idea when that will be and by the time you get there you might have run out of cash to make any more bets or hit the house limit on maximum wager size, so forget the Martingale but are there any other systems that do work?
Some players advocate the Labouchere Baccarat System. With this system you set yourself a target amount of money which you wish to win. You then write down a list of numbers that when added up equal that amount. Each time you bet you stake the amount that equals the sum of the first and last numbers in this list. If you win you cross off those numbers and your next bet is the sum of the next two outer numbers. If you lose then you add your loss to the list. When there are no numbers remaining, you will have won your target amount. This really applies to even money situations, but in baccarat the payouts on banker and player bets are near enough to evens to make little difference, but do not use this system for tie bets.
The Labouchere system is certainly a little safer than the Martingale but it is no more likely to make money than just flat betting, but it does have one important advantage. If you don’t set your expectations too high regarding your intended winnings, it is a good way to keep in control and to leave the game when you have reached your target.