Baccarat shouldn't be
monotonous, so say readers
17 January 2005
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
Since the Banker bet in Baccarat is slightly
more favorable than the Player hand, what are
your thoughts about sitting at the game and
continually making Banker bets? Also, what do
you think of tracking play by using a scorecard?
Larry L.
Yes, Larry, the Banker hand is a bit more likely
to win than the player hand, and for that reason
the house takes a 5% commission on winning
Banker wagers. Even in spite of the added
commission, the house edge is still lower with a
Banker wager at 1.06%, opposed to 1.24% on
Player bets. Therefore, if the house edge is
lower on a Banker wager, you should bet it every
time, right? Yes, Larry, mathematically you
should, but according to some readers of this
column, their take is different. When in a past
column I advocated just betting the Banker hand
and dismissed scorecards figuring the numbers
support the Banker bet as the statistically
better wager, even if the difference is ever so
slight, many readers wrote in describing that
form of gaming action as just plain BORING,
enough of them for me to take note to what
they're saying. Does anybody really want to sit
down at a Baccarat table and bet the Banker hand
all night long, trading the fun of gambling for
a minuscule statistical gain? Probably not.
There is a "fun factor" to guessing, and betting
consistently on the Bank hand is akin to
watching paint dry. So, with both wagers having
such a low casino advantage, you really can't go
wrong betting either way.
As for scorecard use, most casinos do offer
Baccarat players a scorecard for tracking the
Player and Banker wins. Many Baccarat players
believe various methods of tracking
Player-Banker patterns predict future outcomes.
Unfortunately, there is no statistical basis for
the notion of finding predictable patterns in a
shoe of well-shuffled cards.
Nevertheless, even if there is no advantage to
doing so, keeping score does add some excitement
(once again, that fun factor) to the game of
Baccarat, and lately even I started the practice
of jotting B-B-B-P-B-P-P-B's on a Baccarat
scorecard, wearing my patented omniscience grin
and pretending that scribbling P's and B's makes
me all the more clairvoyant.
Dear Mark,
Would a Q-K-A-2-3 ever be considered a straight
in poker? Melvin H.
In a straight, the ace can rank either high or
low, depending on the card sequence. The ace is
low in the sequence A-2-3-4-5 and high in the
sequence 10-J-Q-K-A. You cannot use the ace to
wrap a higher sequence with a lower one, as in
your example.
Dear Mark,
If two players have a Full House, how is the
winning hand decided? Is the player with the
highest pair the winner, or does the winner have
the highest three-of-a-kind? John B.
For starters, John, let's break down the Full
House hand; a three-of-a-kind and one pair.
Three-of-a-kind is three cards of the same rank,
such as three kings. The higher-ranking three
cards always win against another three-of-a-kind
hand. Three aces would be the highest obtainable
three-of-a-kind hand; three deuces the lowest.
One pair is any two cards of the same rank, two
kings for example. The hand with the
higher-ranking pair always wins against another
hand of one pair. If both hands have the exact
same pair, the highest-ranking unmatched card in
the hand determines the winner. If the
highest-ranking unmatched cards tie, the next
highest-ranking unmatched cards are compared,
and so on, and so on.
As to your question, the Full House (again,
three of a kind and one pair) with the
highest-ranking three of a kind wins against the
other Full House.
Gambling quote of the week: "The gambling known
as business looks with austere disfavor upon the
business known as gambling." Ambrose Bierce
(1842-1914)
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