Baccarat Odds Explained

Baccarat Odds may seem complex and difficult to understand but they really are quite simple. Before playing one needs to realise that the rules of the game have been carefully constructed to produce a relatively small (but mostly consistent) house edge for Player and Banker bets and a considerable edge for Tie Bet. Check out the table below for the exact advantages:

Understanding the Calculation of Odds

Complex odds calculations are employed to determine the Banker will win 50.68% of all non-tie hands and the Player 49.32% of those. This means that if you have 100 credits you can expect to lose 50.68 of them and win in the region of 49.32. The house edge is calculated by working out the difference between the two amounts which is of course 1.36 (50.68-49.32 = 1.36). This means that there is a 1.36 house edge against the "Player" bet.

Your next question would probably then be whether the Banker bet offers no real house advantage if it wins more than half of the time. And that's a good question! Casinos are of course aware of this and if they allow a game to be played with no edge, they would be out of business before long and that's exactly why a commission is levied on winning banker bets. This is usually around 5% but may vary from casino to casino.

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In order to calculate the Banker Bet Odds you can use the following calculation on 100 credits:

50.68% (expected win) x 0.95 (win per credit taking 5% commission into account) = 48.15

This means that you should expect to lose 49.32, so the difference is 1.17 (49.32-48.15=1.17) which equates to a 1.17% house edge.

According to game statistics and odds, Tie bets occur about 9.55% of the time, which make the odds 9.47 to 1. Confused? Don't be! 100 credits divided by 9.55 = 10.47, but keep in mind you will get your original wager back (1) so you'll end up with 9.47 and in reality 9 credits. If you divide the difference:

1.47/10.47 = 14.4% which is the house advantage.

So don't be tempted by the 8:1 payouts advertised at both land based casinos and those online, the odds as you can see are unfavourable compared to the Banker and Player options in spite of the 5% commission levied on these.