Baccarat Tips and Strategies - Learn the Best Tips to Win

Best Baccarat Tips and Tricks

Baccarat is a somewhat underrated casino game that’s often overshadowed by more popular online casino UK games like blackjack and roulette, but it can be a really fun card game that also happens to be very easy to play!

You might have heard about this casino card game and seen it represented in popular culture, such as in Hollywood movies, where it’s often portrayed as glamorous and elegant. Today, it’s a popular choice at many online and land-based casinos because it has a relatively low house edge, and it’s easy to learn how to play it too.

Before diving into our top baccarat tips to help you elevate your game, let’s start by getting a few facts about the game right. Baccarat is 100% a game of chance, just like roulette, slot machines, and other casino games like virtual scratch cards or online bingo. This means there aren’t any strategies you can use to predict or influence the game's outcome. However, you can use a few tips to ensure you’re not lowering your odds of winning and avoiding rookie mistakes.

We’ve prepared a quick guide with the best baccarat tips and tricks to help you make the right betting choices in the game, avoid bets where the odds aren’t in your favour, and understand how the odds of the game work.

Check the Odds

One of our top baccarat betting tips is to check the odds of the game before you place your wager. First of all, there are many different baccarat variations available, both for online baccarat and live casino baccarat, which means that the house edge can vary.

There are also baccarat games with different rules, such as Punto Banco, Baccarat Chemin de Fer, Mini Baccarat, and so on. Therefore, if you want to choose the best baccarat games for you, we strongly suggest reading the game rules and finding out the odds first. It might seem obvious, but many rookie players make the mistake of choosing random baccarat games without checking the odds because they’re unaware of the fact that these odds vary from one game version to another.

The easiest way to check the odds before you play baccarat is to look at the house edge. Every casino game, whether it’s a game of luck or skill, has a house edge, which refers to the casino’s advantage. This means that the lower the house edge, the lower the casino’s advantage on the player and the better your odds will be.

To understand the odds in baccarat, you’ll first need to understand the three types of bets on which you can place your stake in the game. The most common bets are the player bets and the banker bets. The game aims to predict which side will win by placing your stake on it; if you think the player will win, you choose the player bet, and vice versa.

The other bet option is the tie bet, which means you’re betting that the player and the banker will have the same hand value, and the game ends in a tie. This is the least common type of bet because of the low winning odds, which we’ll look at in further detail in our other tips for playing baccarat.

The banker bets have the lowest house edge and, therefore, the best winning odds. The player bet has comparable odds, although slightly lower, while the tie bet has the worst odds for the player.

Let’s compare the odds of winning, the house edge, and the payout you would get for each bet type:

As you can see from the table above, each bet has a different payout, particularly the tie bet, which pays out the most. We can also see that the banker bet has the lowest house edge out of all three bets, which means it’s the bet with the best winning probability for the player.

This is why one of our most important baccarat betting tips is to look not only at the odds of the game variant you’re playing but the odds of each baccarat bet. Choosing a bet by weighing the odds versus the payout is often the best way to go about placing your stake when playing at online casinos, a live casino, or even in a land-based casino.

The banker and the player bets are technically both even money bets, but as you can see from the table above, the banker pays 0.95:1 instead of 1:1 like the player bet. The reason is that casinos take a 5% commission on banker bets, which means that if you wager £10 on this side, you get £9.50 in winnings. On the other hand, if you wagered £10 on the player and your bet won, your winnings would be £10. Casinos don’t deduct a commission from bets placed on the player or a tie.

Avoid the Tie Bet

The next tip in our list of the best baccarat tips is about the tie bet. Any baccarat games guide will tell you to avoid this bet when you play baccarat, much like the insurance bet in blackjack. By placing this bet, you’re betting that the banker and the player will get a tie by having the same hand value. In this case, neither side wins and only players who bet on the tie will be awarded a payout.

The main problem with this bet is that it’s highly risky because it offers the worst odds for the player. A tie is an unlikely scenario in baccarat, and it’s easy to see this when you look at the house edge. Compared to the low house edge of just 1.06% for the banker bet, this bet has a house edge of 14.36%, which means the casino has a much bigger advantage.

The odds are not in your favour with this type of wager, so it’s best to steer clear or tie bets entirely and avoid taking such a huge risk. Many players are tempted to place their money on this wager because it has a high payout of 8:1, significantly higher than the payouts you can win for the other two types of bets. Even so, if you want to ensure the best odds of winning live baccarat at online casinos, you’re better off avoiding it.

Banker is The Best Bet

Several baccarat strategies, like the Martingale System or the 1-3-26 betting system, can be used to play card games like baccarat, but the most recommended baccarat strategy is to bet on the banker. Betting on the banker and sticking to it is also one of the common Mini baccarat tips because it applies to any baccarat variation.

Betting with the banker is the best bet because this bet has the lowest house edge. As mentioned earlier, the casino only has a statistical advantage of 1.06%. If you look at it in terms of RTP rate, which refers to the return to player percentage, this bet has an RTP of 98.94%.

Now, this doesn’t mean that if you were to bet £1 on the banker for 100 rounds, you would get £98.94. Statistics like house edge and RTP are all theoretical, so they can’t be taken literally. However, they can certainly be used to inform betting decisions and determine where the odds might be in your favour and where they’re not.

Consider Claiming Bonuses

If you’re interested in playing online or live dealer baccarat at Britain Play, you might want to consider taking advantage of the bonuses available at our casino! Claiming bonuses is one of the baccarat game tips that should be kept in mind for any casino games you might wish to play at Britain Play.

For new baccarat players, a great Welcome Offer is available on the first deposit. New members can enjoy a 100% match bonus of up to £50 when depositing a minimum of £10.

New players only, £10 min fund, £50 max bonus, 65x Bonus wagering requirements, max bonus conversion to real funds equal to lifetime deposits (up to £250). Full T&Cs apply.

The Welcome Offer isn’t the only type of bonus that can be found at Britain Play; players can also claim several bonuses and join promotions for a chance to win some extra funds for the baccarat table at online casinos!

Manage Your Bankroll

The fifth of our casino baccarat winning tips is about your bankroll and how to manage your money properly. Contrary to what some players might think, you don’t need to have a huge bankroll to play online baccarat. You don’t need to spend a huge amount to play most casino games unless the table limits are very high.

The key is to manage your bankroll properly and choose a baccarat table with low betting limits to preserve your bankroll more easily. The first thing you need to do to manage your money well is to allocate a budget for the game. For example, you might decide to spend £50 on baccarat. This can be any amount, but please ensure it’s an amount you can afford to lose comfortably should you not be fortunate enough to win.

Next, take your time to pick the right baccarat strategy for you if you want to use one. For example, you can go with the baccarat strategy of betting on the banker on every round or try out a more complex baccarat strategy like the Martingale betting system, the 1-3-2-6 baccarat strategy, or the Fibonacci betting system.

None of these baccarat strategies can guarantee a sure win, and some require a higher bankroll than others, so if you’re going to pick a baccarat strategy, make sure you know exactly how it works before you do so. If used correctly, these strategies can help you manage your bankroll well.

Another crucial tip is to set win and loss limits before you start playing. Decide how much you can afford to lose and a goal for how much you would like to win. You can continue playing when you’re relatively far from either of these limits. However, if you reach either one of these limits, quit the game and take a little break from the game before you start playing again.

Finally, avoid going ‘all-in’. Whether you’ve been on an unfortunate losing streak or even a winning one, never go all in by betting whatever is left in your bankroll at one go, unless it’s a very small amount. For example, if you’ve been betting £2 per round and have £20 left in your bankroll, you should never go all in and wager it all at once.

Play Player Bet Until It Loses

This tip might seem a little contradictory, considering we’ve been telling you to stick to the banker bet, but it will all make sense very soon. The idea is to start betting on the banker, especially as your first bet. This is the bet with the lowest house edge, so it makes sense to bet on the banker until you lose.

Once your banker bet loses, switch to the player’s side and keep betting on the player’s side until it loses. This is a popular baccarat strategy designed to make the most of your casino deposits but do note that it won’t work every time.

Avoid Betting on Streaks

Some of our tips baccarat online suggest taking advantage of streaks, which is why one of the most common baccarat strategies is to bet on the banker until it loses, then switch over to the player’s side until that loses. What’s crucial to understand here is that although streaks do occur in the game, these occur entirely randomly, and there is no predicting them!

Although streaks can occur, each round in baccarat is 100% independent from the previous game and has no effect on the next round. For this reason, it will be a waste of your time to study streaks in the game and try to take advantage of them by predicting when the next streak will occur, as this is impossible to do.

This tip applies to any baccarat game, so whether you’re playing classic baccarat, live baccarat, or multi-bet bacarat, it’s always pointless to analyze streaks and try to take advantage of them because the game is random.

Read Terms and Conditions

Finally, the last of our baccarat tips is also related to our previous tip of taking advantage of casino bonuses and offers. Before you claim any bonus that might give you extra funds for your baccarat games, make sure to read the full T&Cs carefully before depositing to get the bonus.

It’s also necessary to read the general terms and conditions at Britain Play, too. Before you start playing, you’ll want to make sure you know what the terms and conditions are, especially regarding the minimum deposit allowed, any wagering requirements, game limitations, bonus expiry, and so on. Reading the terms and conditions will be the least exciting part of your casino journey, but you’ll be able to avoid disappointments if you know how our casino operates exactly.

FAQs About Baccarat Tips

1. Is There a Trick to Baccarat?

   No, there’s no such thing as a baccarat sure win formula because the game’s results are always random. The best ‘trick’ you can keep in mind when you play baccarat is to avoid the tie bet because it has a very high house edge, meaning it will be a losing bet most of the time.

2. What is The Secret to Playing Baccarat?

   Unfortunately, there are no secret baccarat tips to win consistently or a baccarat strategy that can promise a win, but you can use our tips to make sure you’re choosing bets with odds that are in your favour. Once again, the obvious way to do this is to avoid bets with a high house edge like the tie bet.

3. What is The 1-3-2-6 Strategy in Baccarat?

   The 1-3-2-6 baccarat strategy is similar to the Fibonacci sequence because it uses a sequence of numbers to determine the size of your next bet. If a bet wins, you move to the next number in the sequence, meaning if you start with a £1 wager, your next bet will be £3. If your bet loses, you bet the same amount if you’re still on the first number or return to the start if you’ve progressed further in the sequence. You return to the start if you get four consecutive winning bets and complete the sequence.

4. What is The Most Popular Baccarat Pattern?

   The pattern in baccarat refers to the pattern created when marking the winning side on your card. When you play in a land-based casino rather than online casinos, you’re given a scoreboard to mark the result after each round. The most popular baccarat pattern on these cards seems to be the zig-zag pattern.