Baccarat Glossary & Dictionary

Also called: 1-3-2-6 Progression

The 1-3-2-6 betting system is a four-step positive progression where a player wagers 1 unit, then 3 units, then 2 units, and finally 6 units across four consecutive winning hands, returning to 1 unit after any loss. Like every bet-sizing system, it reshapes short-term session variance without changing the 1.06% Banker or 1.24% Player house edge.

Action refers to the cumulative amount of money put at risk across all wagers during a hand, a shoe, or a full playing session. Casinos measure a player's total action (rather than net win or loss) when rating play for complimentary perks, table limits, or VIP rolling-chip programs, because expected house revenue equals total action multiplied by the house edge.

Also called: Next-Hand Inquiry · B? / P? Table · Man Lou

Ask-Road (問路, man6 lou6, literally 'asking the road') is the two-row inquiry table on an electronic scoreboard labeled B? and P?. Before the next hand is dealt, it previews the exact red or blue hollow ring (Big Eye Boy), solid dot (Small Road), and slash (Cockroach Pig) that will appear if Banker wins versus if Player wins.

Baccara is the French and Italian spelling meaning 'zero,' referring to the zero point value assigned to all 10s, Jacks, Queens, and Kings. See our main Baccarat entry for how the game evolved from European salons to modern Punto Banco tables.

Baccarat (百家樂, baak3 gaa1 lok6) is a comparing casino card game in which two hands—Player and Banker—receive two or three cards under automatic drawing rules, and the hand with a modulo-10 point total closer to 9 wins. In Macau, baccarat accounts for roughly 85% to 90% of casino table gaming revenue and uses a five-road electronic scoreboard.

Origin: From French baccara and Italian baccarà ('zero'), named after the zero value of 10s and court cards; in Chinese, 百家樂 translates to 'a hundred families' joy.'

Also called: Deux Tableaux · Baccarat à Deux Tableaux

Baccarat Banque (also called Deux Tableaux, 'two tables') is a classic three-deck European variant in which one participant holds the bank for an entire shoe while punters wager on two separate Player hands dealt to the left and right sides of the table. Unlike Punto Banco, drawing on totals of 5 involves player discretion.

Also called: Banco Suivi

In Chemin de Fer, calling 'Banco!' announces that a single player is wagering against the banker's entire current stake alone, superseding smaller partial bets around the table. If that player loses the coup, calling 'Banco suivi' ('following bank') exercises their priority right to challenge the full bank again on the immediate next hand.

Also called: Banker Bet · Banker Hand

Banker (莊, zong1) is one of the two primary hands in baccarat, represented by red beads on the Bead Plate and hollow red circles on the Big Road. Because Banker acts after Player under the Third Card Rule, Banker wins 45.86% of all hands (50.68% of non-tie decided hands) and carries a 1.06% house edge with a standard 5% commission.

Also called: Banker Drawing Chart · Tableau

The Banker's Tableau is the fixed rule table that dictates when the Banker hand draws a third card. When Player stands on 6 or 7, Banker draws on 0–5 and stands on 6–7; when Player draws a third card, Banker's action on totals of 3, 4, 5, or 6 depends on the exact point value of Player's third card (not Player's three-card total).

A bankroll is the dedicated entertainment budget a player brings to a session, divided into equal betting units and paired with a pre-set loss limit and time limit. Because every baccarat wager carries a negative mathematical expectation, bankroll discipline controls how long your session lasts and protects against chasing losses, but never alters the house edge.

A bead (珠, zyu1) is a single symbol placed in a column and row of a baccarat scoreboard: a solid circle on the Bead Plate, a hollow circle on the Big Road, a hollow ring on Big Eye Boy, a solid dot on Small Road, or a diagonal slash on Cockroach Pig. Columns and rows are numbered starting from Column 1, Row 1.

Also called: Bead Road · Marker Road · Chu Pan Lou

The Bead Plate (珠盤路, zyu1 pun4 lou6, also called the Bead Road) is the chronological scoreboard that places every hand in deal order: starting at Column 1 Row 1, it fills top to bottom down the six-row column before advancing one column to the right. Solid red beads mark Banker wins, solid blue beads mark Player wins, and solid green beads mark Ties.

Also called: Big Eye Road · Dai Ngaan Boy

Big Eye Boy (大眼仔路, daai6 ngaan5 zai2 lou6) is the first derived road, drawn with hollow red and blue rings. It starts on the first hand dealt at Column 2 Row 2 or Column 3 Row 1 of the Big Road. Under Rule 1 (Row 1), it compares the finished depths of the two columns before the new one; under Rule 2 (Row 2+), it checks the column 1 column back.

Origin: Cantonese 大眼仔 ('big-eyed boy') refers to the hollow circular rings used to draw this road on scoreboards.

Also called: Dai Lou

The Big Road (大路, daai6 lou6) is the primary scoreboard among the five standard casino boards and the foundation for all derived roads. Hollow red circles mark Banker wins and hollow blue circles mark Player wins: consecutive wins by the same side stack downward in the current six-row column (turning right into a dragon tail past Row 6), while a side switch starts a new column at Row 1.

At the start of a fresh shoe after the shuffle and cut, the dealer turns the first card face up and discards ('burns') a matching number of face-down cards into the discard tray based on its baccarat value: Ace burns 1 card, 2 through 9 burn 2 through 9 cards, and any 10 or face card burns 10 cards before the first hand begins.

Also called: Table Caller

In full-size Big Baccarat (12 to 14 seats), the caller stands at the center of the pit table handling the wooden palette, sliding cards between the player holding the shoe and the highest bettors, announcing two-card totals and Naturals aloud, and calling for mandatory third cards under the tableau while two base dealers settle chips.

Card counting in baccarat tracks which ranks have left the 416-card shoe using each rank's Effect of Removal. Because both Player and Banker draw from the same shoe under symmetric modulo-10 rules, removing any single card shifts the main-bet edge by at most 0.0116%, creating a countable player edge on main bets roughly once in several thousand shoes.

Also called: Non

Carte ('Card!') and Non ('No') are the classic French table calls used in Chemin de Fer when the active player decides whether to draw a third card on a two-card total of 5. In modern Punto Banco and Macau tables, third-card draws are completely automatic under the printed tableau, so players no longer make drawing decisions.

Also called: Blue Mark · Pattern Break

A blue mark (藍, laam4) on Big Eye Boy, Small Road, or Cockroach Pig means the Big Road's column shape differed from the comparison column—never that Player won. Blue appears in two exact situations: under Rule 1 (Row 1), the two completed columns before the new one had different depths; under Rule 2 (Row 2+), the column 1, 2, or 3 back stopped at the row directly above the current bead.

Also called: Chemmy · Iron Road

Chemin de Fer (French for 'iron road' or railroad, nicknamed 'Chemmy') is the classic six-deck European baccarat variant where players wager against one another rather than the house. One player acts as Banker until the Banker hand loses a coup, at which point the shoe passes counterclockwise to the next player around the table.

Origin: Named 'iron road' (railroad) in 19th-century France because the heavy card shoe glided along the felt from player to player like a locomotive on tracks.

Also called: Cheung Long · Long Dragon

Cheung Lung (長龍, coeng4 lung4, literally 'long dragon') is the Macau Cantonese call for a Dragon streak of 7 or more consecutive Banker or Player wins that fills a six-row Big Road column and bends right into a Dragon Tail. See our Dragon entry.

Also called: À Cheval

À cheval (French for 'astride' or 'on horseback') is a wager in two-table European Baccarat Banque that spans both the left and right Player hands equally. If both Player tableaux beat the Banker, the bet wins; if both lose, the bet loses; if one tableau wins and the other loses against the Banker, the cheval wager is a push.

A chop (跳, tiu3, literally 'jump') describes a stretch of a shoe where wins switch back and forth between Banker and Player after only one or two hands, producing a row of short columns on the Big Road. A steady single-win chop (B-P-B-P-B-P) produces all red marks on the derived roads because every column repeats a depth of 1.

Also called: Chu Pan Lou

Chu Tsai Lou (珠仔路, zyu1 zai2 lou6, 'little bead road') and Chu Pan Lou (珠盤路, zyu1 pun4 lou6, 'bead tray road') are the Macau Cantonese names for the Bead Plate. See our Bead Plate entry.

Chui (吹, ceoi1, meaning 'blow!') is a classic Macau Cantonese table call heard during a VIP card squeeze. When a player peeking at the edge of a third card hopes it carries fewer pips so it will not ruin a high total, players around the felt shout 'Chui!' and mime blowing extra pips off the card—pure table theater with no effect on the dealt card.

Also called: Cockroach Road · Gaat Zaat Lou · Gak Jaat Lou

Cockroach Pig (曱甴路, gaat6 zaat2 lou6, also called Cockroach Road) is the third derived road, drawn with red and blue diagonal slashes in the bottom-right grid of the scoreboard. It starts on the first hand dealt at Column 4 Row 2 or Column 5 Row 1 of the Big Road, comparing the two columns before a new column (3 columns apart) under Rule 1 and checking 3 columns back under Rule 2.

Origin: Cantonese 曱甴 (gaat6 zaat2) means 'cockroach,' referring to the diagonal slash marks (/) used to draw this road.

Column depth is the count of consecutive same-side wins recorded in one Big Road column (including any beads beyond Row 6 that turn right along a dragon tail). Under Rule 1 (when a hand starts a new column at Row 1), derived roads compare the finished depths of the two completed columns before the new one: an exact depth match produces red, and any difference produces blue.

Also called: Vigorish · Vig · 5% Commission

Commission (佣金, jung6 gam1, or vigorish) is the standard 5% fee charged on winning Banker bets in regular Punto Banco, so a winning 100-unit Banker wager pays 95 units plus the original stake. Because Banker wins 50.68% of decided hands under the Third Card Rule, the 5% commission sets the Banker house edge at 1.06%. Commission-free tables replace this fee with a push on three-card Banker 7 (EZ Baccarat) or half-pay on Banker 6 (Super 6).

The commission box is a set of numbered rectangles printed on the felt in front of the dealer corresponding to each player seat at a full-size or Midi-Baccarat table. Instead of making small-coin change on every winning Banker hand, the dealer pays even money and places a marker in the seat's commission box, collecting the accumulated 5% vigorish at the end of the shoe.

Coup is the traditional French casino term for one complete round of baccarat—from placing wagers and dealing the initial two cards to each side, through any mandatory third-card draw, to the final outcome of Banker win, Player win, or Tie. Every completed coup places one bead on the Bead Plate and updates the Big Road.

Also called: Dealer

A croupier (or dealer) is the casino staff member who operates the baccarat table, administers the shuffle and burn procedure, applies the Player and Banker third-card rules automatically, and pays or collects wagers. At Mini-Baccarat tables one dealer handles the entire game; at full-size Big Baccarat pits, three croupiers share caller and base-dealer duties.

The cut card is an opaque plastic card used twice during every shoe: first handed to a player after the shuffle to cut the 416-card stack, and then inserted by the dealer near the rear of the shoe (typically 14 cards from the back in Macau and Las Vegas). When the cut card emerges during a deal, the current hand completes and one final hand is dealt before reshuffling.

Also called: Shoe Penetration

Shoe penetration (and the cut-card effect) refers to the fraction of the 416-card shoe dealt before the plastic cut card ends play. Placing the cut card 14 cards from the back after burning 1 to 10 cards yields roughly 70 to 85 hands per shoe (77 to 86 hands, median 81, across our 1,000 locked shoes) and prevents end-of-shoe card depletion.

Also called: Single Jump

Daan Tiou (單跳, daan1 tiu3, literally 'single jump') is the Macau Cantonese table term for a Ping-Pong run where Banker and Player alternate single wins (depth-1 columns). See our Ping-Pong entry.

Dai Lou (大路, daai6 lou6) is the Macau Cantonese pronunciation of Big Road, the main streak scoreboard at the top of a baccarat display. See our Big Road entry.

Also called: Dai Ngaan Zai

Dai Ngaan Boy (大眼仔, daai6 ngaan5 zai2, literally 'big-eyed boy') is the Macau Cantonese name for Big Eye Boy, the first derived road that compares the Big Road 1 column back. See our Big Eye Boy entry.

Also called: Derived Road · Secondary Roads

The derived roads (衍生路, hin2 sang1 lou6, or 下三路, 'lower three roads') are Big Eye Boy (comparing 1 column back, starting at Column 2 Row 2 or Column 3 Row 1), Small Road (comparing 2 columns back, starting at Column 3 Row 2 or Column 4 Row 1), and Cockroach Pig (comparing 3 columns back, starting at Column 4 Row 2 or Column 5 Row 1). Red and blue show pattern repetition versus pattern break, never Banker or Player.

The discard tray is the transparent acrylic rack mounted to the dealer's right where initial burn cards and completed hands are stacked face down after each coup. In high-limit squeeze games where single-use paper cards are bent by players, cards from the discard tray are sealed and destroyed after the shoe rather than reshuffled.

Also called: Double Jump · Seung Tiou

A double streak (or double jump, 雙跳, soeng1 tiu3) occurs when Banker and Player alternate two wins at a time (BB-PP-BB-PP), creating a row of two-bead columns on the Big Road. Because every finished column has a matching depth of 2, a sustained double streak produces solid runs of red marks on Big Eye Boy, Small Road, and Cockroach Pig.

Also called: Long Dragon · Cheung Lung

In baccarat scoreboard reading, a Dragon (長龍, coeng4 lung4) is a long streak of 7 or more consecutive wins by either Banker or Player. Because a standard Big Road column has 6 vertical rows, the 7th consecutive win cannot go further down and turns right along Row 6 to form a Dragon Tail.

Also called: Dragon 7 · EZ Baccarat

In EZ Baccarat, the casino removes the 5% commission on all winning Banker hands by making a three-card Banker win totaling 7 ('Dragon 7') a push (tie) on main Banker bets, which sets the main Banker house edge at 1.02%. Players can also place an optional Dragon 7 side bet that pays 40 to 1 if Banker wins with a three-card 7 (carrying a 7.61% house edge).

Dragon Bonus (龍寶, lung4 bou2) is a popular side bet available on either the Player or Banker side that pays 1:1 on a Natural win (and pushes on a Natural tie) or pays on a tiered schedule from 1:1 (4-point margin) up to 30:1 when a non-natural hand wins by 9 points. Under standard 8-deck payouts, the house edge is 2.65% on Player Dragon Bonus and 9.37% on Banker Dragon Bonus.

A Dragon Tail (龍尾, lung4 mei5) forms whenever a vertical run of beads on the Big Road or any of the three derived roads exceeds the 6-row grid—or reaches a row where the spot directly below is already occupied by an earlier tail—and turns 90 degrees to the right. Importantly, derived-road comparisons always use the column's true logical depth (total wins in the streak), never its visual bent row.

Edge sorting is a controversial technique in which a player identifies tiny, unintentional bevel or pattern asymmetries along the long edges of certain factory-cut playing cards and asks the dealer to rotate high-value cards (6, 7, 8, 9) 180 degrees during play. Following landmark UK and US court rulings (Ivey v. Genting Casinos and Borgata v. Ivey), casinos use one-use pre-shuffled cards and asymmetrically masked borders to prevent it.

Effect of Removal (EOR) measures how much the house edge on Banker, Player, or Tie shifts when one card of a specific rank (Ace through 10/face) is removed from an 8-deck shoe. Because third-card drawing rules treat low cards (especially 4s for Player and 6s for Banker) slightly differently, removing a single 4 shifts Banker's edge by only ~0.0116%, explaining why main-bet card counting is practically ineffective.

Also called: L4 Road · L5 Road · L6 Road

Extended Roads (L4, L5, and L6) apply the exact same Macau-standard Rule 1 and Rule 2 algorithm as Big Eye Boy (1 column back), Small Road (2 columns back), and Cockroach Pig (3 columns back), but compare the Big Road 4, 5, and 6 columns to the left. They start at Column 5 Row 2 / Column 6 Row 1 (L4), Column 6 Row 2 / Column 7 Row 1 (L5), and Column 7 Row 2 / Column 8 Row 1 (L6) inside the Road Decoder.

Also called: Court Cards · Picture Cards · Tens

In baccarat, all Tens and face cards (Jacks, Queens, and Kings—often called picture cards, court cards, or 'Monkeys' at the table) count as 0 points. Because 4 of the 13 ranks in every 52-card deck have a value of zero, 16 of every 52 cards (30.77%, or 128 of the 416 cards in an 8-deck shoe) contribute zero to a hand's modulo-10 total.

Also called: Fibonacci Progression

The Fibonacci betting system sizes wagers along the mathematical Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21...), moving one number right after a losing hand and two numbers left after a winning hand. While it escalates more slowly than doubling every loss in a Martingale, long losing streaks still hit table limits or bankroll caps, and the 1.06% Banker or 1.24% Player house edge remains unchanged.

Also called: Flat Bet

Flat betting means wagering a constant, unchanging unit amount on every hand you play, without raising stakes after losses (negative progression) or after wins (positive progression). Because flat betting keeps your total action proportional to the number of hands played, it produces the lowest session volatility and prevents rapid bankroll exhaustion against the casino's house edge.

Also called: Gak Jaat Lou

Gaat Zaat Lou (曱甴路, gaat6 zaat2 lou6, often spelled Gak Jaat Lou in English) is the Macau Cantonese name for Cockroach Pig, the third derived road that compares the Big Road 3 columns back. See our Cockroach Pig entry.

Also called: Monte Carlo Fallacy

The gambler's fallacy is the cognitive mistake of believing that past outcomes in a sequence of independent or near-independent trials force an immediate reversal to 'balance out' the averages. After 8 consecutive Banker wins on the Big Road, Player is not 'due' on Hand 9: the remaining shoe still favors Banker by roughly 50.68% to 49.32% on decided hands.

Also called: Preview Bead

A ghost bead is a semi-transparent B or P preview bead rendered directly on each derived-road grid in our free Road Decoder calculator (/calculator) alongside the Ask-Road (If B / If P) strip, showing the exact cell and color (red or blue) where the next Big Eye Boy, Small Road, and Cockroach Pig mark will land.

Also called: Haak · Hahn

Haan (閒, haan4, meaning 'guest' or 'leisure,' sometimes heard in English pits as 'Haak' from 客) is the Macau Cantonese call for the Player side. See our Player entry.

In baccarat, a hand refers both to the two or three cards dealt to the Player or Banker box and to a single completed round of play (coup). Cards are dealt face up at Mini-Baccarat tables and face down for the player squeeze at Midi and VIP tables, with only the ones digit of the sum (0 to 9) counting.

Also called: VIP Player · Whale

A high roller (or VIP / whale) is a player wagering in high-limit salon tables where single-use paper cards are dealt face down so the largest bettor on Player and Banker can squeeze the edges. While VIP rooms offer private tables, player-controlled dealing pace, and rolling-chip turnover rebates, the underlying 8-deck drawing rules and scoreboard math are identical to the main casino floor.

The house edge (賭場優勢, dou2 coeng4 jau1 sai3) is the long-run statistical cost of a wager per dollar bet. In standard 8-deck baccarat with a 5% Banker commission, the house edge is 1.06% on Banker, 1.24% on Player, and 14.36% on an 8:1 Tie (4.85% on a 9:1 Tie). Earlier hands change the next one only through the cards they used up, and by far too little to act on; no road pattern changes the house edge.

Also called: Chong · Zong

Jong (or Chong, 莊, zong1, meaning 'house' or 'dealer') is the Macau Cantonese call for the Banker hand. See our Banker entry.

La Grande (French for 'the big one') is the classic European name for a two-card Natural 9, the unbeatable highest hand in baccarat. See our Natural entry.

La Petite (French for 'the little one') is the classic European name for a two-card Natural 8, which beats every non-natural hand and loses only to a two-card Natural 9 (La Grande). See our Natural entry.

In classic European and Las Vegas Big Baccarat pits, the ladderman sits in a raised high chair overlooking the 14-player table, the caller, and the two base dealers. From this vantage point, the ladderman verifies third-card draws, monitors the 5% commission boxes, and settles any payout questions immediately.

Live dealer baccarat streams a human croupier dealing real physical 8-deck shoes from a casino studio while optical sensors read each card and update your on-screen Bead Plate, Big Road, and derived roads in real time. Because physical shoes deal at 60 to 150 hands per hour, live dealer tables preserve the pacing and road history of a brick-and-mortar table.

Also called: Comparison Distance

Lookback describes the fixed column distance each derived road steps to the left on the Big Road when comparing column shapes: Big Eye Boy checks 1 column back, Small Road checks 2 columns back, and Cockroach Pig checks 3 columns back. That single distance difference is the only mathematical distinction among all three derived roads.

The Macau Standard is the conventional scoreboard ruleset used on electronic tote displays and inside the Baccarat Smart Road Decoder. It specifies exact starting positions (Column 2 Row 2 or Column 3 Row 1 for Big Eye Boy; Column 3 Row 2 or Column 4 Row 1 for Small Road; Column 4 Row 2 or Column 5 Row 1 for Cockroach Pig), Rule 1 and Rule 2 comparisons, tie-slash handling, and 6-row dragon-tail bends.

Also called: Double-Up System

The Martingale system doubles the wager after every losing hand (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 units...) and resets to 1 unit after a win. In baccarat, exponential bet growth quickly collides with table maximums or bankroll limits during a 7-to-10 hand losing run, and the 5% Banker commission means doubling after losses does not even recover a full unit.

Midi-Baccarat (中型百家樂) sits between fast 7-seat Mini-Baccarat and 14-seat VIP Big Baccarat. Played with one dealer at a 9-seat semi-circular table, it deals single-use paper cards face down so the player with the largest wager on Player and Banker can squeeze the cards, running at roughly 50 to 70 hands per hour.

Mini-Baccarat (迷你百家樂) is played on a blackjack-sized 7-seat layout with a single dealer who handles all cards face up without player squeezing. While the 8-deck shoe, Third Card Rule, payouts, and electronic five-road scoreboard are identical to full-size Big Baccarat (which deals 30 to 50 hands per hour), Mini-Baccarat runs three times faster at 120 to 150 hands per hour.

Also called: Drop the Tens Digit

Modulo-10 arithmetic is the scoring rule that keeps every baccarat hand between 0 and 9 points: you add the pip values of the cards (Ace = 1, 2–9 = face value, 10/J/Q/K = 0) and drop the tens digit whenever the sum is 10 or higher. Thus 7 + 8 = 15 becomes 5, and 6 + 4 = 10 becomes 0 ('baccara'), making busting impossible.

Monkey is universal baccarat table slang for any zero-value card—a 10, Jack, Queen, or King (called 公仔牌, gung1 zai2 paai2, 'picture card' or 'doll card' in Cantonese). When a player already holds an 8 or 9 on one card or awaits a third card that must not change the ones digit, players call out 'Monkey!' hoping to peel a zero-value face card.

Also called: Mou Bian · No Side

Mou Bin (無邊, mou4 bin1, literally 'no side' or 'blank edge,' also spelled Mou Bian in Mandarin) is what a player sees when peeling back the long side of a face-down card during a squeeze and finding no corner pips along that edge, which narrows the card to an Ace, a 2, or a 3.

Also called: Card Wash

The muck (or card wash) refers to the eight 52-card decks (416 cards total) spread face down on the table felt and swirled in circular motions by the dealers during a manual shuffle before being squared, riffled, cut with the plastic cut card, and placed into the dealing shoe.

Also called: Natural 8 · Natural 9 · La Grande · La Petite

A Natural (例牌, lai6 paai2, or 天生, tin1 sang1) occurs when either Player or Banker receives an initial two-card total of 8 (La Petite) or 9 (La Grande). A Natural on either side stops all drawing immediately: Natural 9 beats Natural 8, a Natural beats any non-natural hand, and equal Naturals tie. At least one Natural appears on 34.3% of 8-deck hands.

Also called: Commission-Free Baccarat · Nepal Baccarat

No-Commission Baccarat (免水百家樂) eliminates the 5% fee on winning Banker wagers so regular Banker wins pay full 1:1 even money, replacing the commission with a specific rule on one Banker total: in Super 6 (Nepal Baccarat), a winning Banker 6 pays 1:2 (50%), raising the Banker house edge to 1.46%; in EZ Baccarat, a three-card Banker 7 pushes (1.02% edge).

Also called: Banker Pair Dot · Player Pair Dot

A pair dot is a small auxiliary dot drawn on the perimeter of a Bead Plate or Big Road circle when the initial two cards dealt to a side form a pair: a small red dot at the top-left corner marks a Banker Pair, and a small blue dot at the bottom-right corner marks a Player Pair. Pair dots never affect derived-road calculations.

Also called: Player Pair · Banker Pair · Either Pair · Perfect Pair

Pairs (對子, deoi3 zi2) are optional side bets settled on the first two cards dealt to a hand. In an 8-deck shoe, Player Pair or Banker Pair occurs on 7.47% of hands and pays 11:1 (10.36% house edge); Either Pair occurs on 14.38% of hands and pays 5:1 (13.71% house edge); Perfect Pair (identical rank and suit) pays 25:1.

Also called: Palette · Ponte

At a full-size 14-seat Big Baccarat table, the palette is the long, flat wooden paddle the central caller uses to slide dealt cards and winning chips across the wide layout. Ponte (adapted into English as 'punter') is the traditional French term for any participant wagering against the bank.

Panda 8 (熊貓八, hung4 maau1 baat3) is the companion side bet to Dragon 7 on EZ Baccarat tables. It wins and pays 25 to 1 whenever the Player hand wins the coup with an exact three-card total of 8 (which occurs on 3.45% of 8-deck hands, giving the Panda 8 side bet a 10.19% house edge).

Also called: Reverse Martingale

The Paroli system (or Reverse Martingale) is a positive progression where a player starts with 1 unit, doubles to 2 units after a win, and doubles again to 4 units after a second win, locking in returns and resetting to 1 unit after three consecutive wins or any single loss. It caps single-sequence risk at 1 initial unit without altering the house edge.

Also called: Road Reading

Pattern recognition in baccarat is the descriptive skill of reading all five scoreboards together: tracking column depths on the Big Road and verifying why each mark on Big Eye Boy, Small Road, and Cockroach Pig is red or blue under Rule 1 and Rule 2. It teaches complete scoreboard literacy, never next-hand prediction or a way to overcome the house edge.

Baccarat payouts define the return on each wager relative to its true 8-deck probability: Player wins 44.62% of all hands and pays 1:1 (1.24% house edge); Banker wins 45.86% of all hands and pays 0.95:1 after a 5% commission (1.06% house edge); Tie occurs on 9.52% of hands and pays 8:1 (14.36% house edge) or 9:1 (4.85% house edge).

Also called: Single Jump · Daan Tiou · Zigzag · Sawtooth

Ping-Pong (called Single Jump or 單跳, daan1 tiu3, in Macau, and also known as a zigzag) is a run where Banker and Player alternate single wins on every hand (B-P-B-P-B-P), placing only one bead at Row 1 of each Big Road column. Because every completed column has an identical depth of 1, Rule 1 produces all red marks across all three derived roads.

Also called: Player Bet · Player Hand · Punto

Player (閒, haan4, or Punto) is one of the two primary hands in baccarat, marked by solid blue beads on the Bead Plate and hollow blue circles on the Big Road. Player acts first under a simple rule (draw on 0–5, stand on 6–7 unless either side has a Natural), winning 44.62% of all hands (49.32% of decided hands) and paying 1:1 with no commission (1.24% house edge).

The Player's Rule is the opening step of the mandatory Third Card Rule whenever neither hand holds a two-card Natural 8 or 9. The Player hand always acts before Banker: on an initial two-card total of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, Player draws one third card; on a two-card total of 6 or 7, Player stands.

Provably fair baccarat (used by crypto casinos such as Stake) commits to a SHA-256 hash of the server seed before play begins and combines it with your client seed and hand nonce via HMAC-SHA256 to deal each card. Once you rotate seeds, you can paste the revealed server seed into our free Verifier at /verify to recompute every hand and road independently.

Punter is the standard British, Commonwealth, and Asian pit English word for a casino customer wagering on Player or Banker, adapted from the French baccarat term ponte. See our Palette & Ponte entry.

Punto Banco ('Player–Banker') is the modern casino form of baccarat developed in Havana in the 1940s and 1950s and now played across Macau, Las Vegas, Singapore, and online casinos. Unlike Chemin de Fer, the casino banks every wager on both sides and every third-card draw is governed strictly by the automatic tableau.

Also called: Standoff

A push (or standoff) means a wager neither wins nor loses and remains on the layout for the next coup or is returned to the player. In standard baccarat, a Tie hand pushes all main Player and Banker bets; in EZ Baccarat, a three-card Banker win totaling 7 (Dragon 7) also pushes all main Banker wagers.

Also called: Red Mark · Pattern Repetition

A red mark (紅, hung4) on Big Eye Boy, Small Road, or Cockroach Pig indicates pattern repetition on the Big Road—never a Banker win. Red is recorded in three exact cases: under Rule 1 (Row 1), the two completed columns before the new one had the exact same depth; under Rule 2 (Row 2+), the column 1, 2, or 3 back either has a bead at this row or stopped two or more rows above.

An RNG (Random Number Generator) is the certified software algorithm used in single-player digital baccarat to shuffle virtual decks and deal hands instantaneously. Because most RNG tables reshuffle a fresh 8-deck shoe before every hand or deal at user-controlled speed without a physical cut card, independent hand odds remain identical to live play.

Also called: Baccarat Calculator · Shoe Tracker

The Road Decoder is Baccarat Smart's free interactive scoreboard calculator at /calculator. Enter hands via the bottom dock buttons (B/P/T), desktop keyboard keys (B/P/T and Cmd+Z / Ctrl+Z), sequence import, or a ?shoe= link to watch the Bead Plate, Big Road, Big Eye Boy, Small Road, Cockroach Pig, and Extended Roads (L4–L6)—eight boards in all—build live with plain-English mark explanations and JSON or CSV export.

Also called: Rolling Chip · Dead Chip · VIP Rebate

In Macau and Asian VIP baccarat salons, players buy non-negotiable rolling chips (泥碼, nai4 maa5, 'mud chips' or 'dead chips') at the cage. When a rolling-chip bet wins, the dealer pays the winnings in regular cash chips while the rolling chip stays on the felt until a bet loses, allowing the casino to track exact wagering turnover and rebate a fixed percentage (typically 0.5% to 1.25% of rolling turnover).

Also called: New Column Rule

Rule 1 (the New Column Rule) applies whenever a hand switches sides and places a bead at Row 1 of a brand-new Big Road column. To color the derived mark, compare the finished depth of the column just completed (1 column left) with the finished depth of the column 2 columns left (Big Eye Boy), 3 columns left (Small Road), or 4 columns left (Cockroach Pig): exact same depth gives red; different depth gives blue.

Also called: Continuing Column Rule · Same Column Rule

Rule 2 applies whenever a hand continues down an existing Big Road column at Row 2 or lower, checking the column 1 column back (Big Eye Boy), 2 columns back (Small Road), or 3 columns back (Cockroach Pig) across three cases—never two: (1) if that column has a bead at this row, mark red; (2) if that column stopped at the row directly above, mark blue; (3) if that column stopped two or more rows above, mark red (so in BPPP, the third P is red).

Sabot is the French word for a traditional carved wooden shoe or clog, adopted in 19th-century French casinos to name the sloped wooden box designed to hold and deal multiple shuffled decks cleanly on the felt. In English-speaking casinos, sabot was translated directly as 'the shoe.'

Also called: Road Paper · Lou Zi · Baccarat Board

A baccarat scoreboard (路紙, lou6 zi2, literally 'road paper') is the electronic display or hand-marked grid that tracks every hand of the current shoe across five standard boards: the Bead Plate, the Big Road, Big Eye Boy, Small Road, and Cockroach Pig, plus the Ask-Road next-hand inquiry panel. The Baccarat Smart course teaches all five boards across 6 modules and 36 interactive lessons.

Also called: Soeng Tiu · Double Jump

Seung Tiou (雙跳, soeng1 tiu3, literally 'double jump') is the Macau Cantonese table name for a double streak where Banker and Player alternate two wins at a time (depth-2 columns). See our Double Streak entry.

In baccarat, a shoe (牌靴, paai2 hoe1) means both the acrylic dealing box that holds 6 or 8 shuffled decks (312 or 416 cards) and the complete set of hands dealt from one shuffle before the plastic cut card stops play. A standard 8-deck shoe produces about 70 to 85 hands (77 to 86 hands, median 81, across our 1,000 locked shoes) and resets all five scoreboards when finished.

Shuffle up is the pit procedure that concludes one shoe and prepares the next: the dealer clears or replaces the 416 cards, performs the table wash (or loads a fresh batch from an automatic shuffler), presents the stack to a player to insert the cut card, places the back cut card 14 cards from the rear, burns the opening cards, and resets the electronic scoreboard to blank.

Also called: Side Bet

Side bets (邊注, bin1 zyu3) are optional proposition wagers offered around the main Player and Banker boxes, including Player/Banker Pair (11:1, 10.36% house edge), Either Pair (5:1, 13.71% edge), Dragon Bonus (2.65% Player / 9.37% Banker edge), Dragon 7 (40:1, 7.61% edge), Panda 8 (25:1, 10.19% edge), and Super 6 (12:1, 29.98% edge). None of them alter the derived roads.

Siu Lou (小路, siu2 lou6, literally 'small road') is the Macau Cantonese name for Small Road, the second derived road that compares the Big Road 2 columns back. See our Small Road entry.

Also called: Siu Lou

Small Road (小路, siu2 lou6) is the second derived road, drawn with solid red and blue dots in the middle-right or bottom-left derived grid. It starts on the first hand dealt at Column 3 Row 2 or Column 4 Row 1 of the Big Road, comparing the finished depths of the two columns 1 and 3 positions left of a new column under Rule 1, and checking 2 columns back under Rule 2.

Origin: Named 'Small Road' (小路) because its solid dots are drawn smaller than Big Eye Boy's hollow rings on traditional scorecards.

Also called: Card Squeeze · Mi Paai · Peeling

The squeeze (擠牌, zai1 paai2, or 咪牌, mai1 paai2, 'peeking at the card') is the signature ritual at Midi and VIP baccarat tables where cards are dealt face down to the highest bettor on Player and Banker. By bending the short and long edges with thumbs hiding the corner indices, players count the pips along the border (Mou Bin, two-side, three-side, or four-side) for pure suspense—the dealt card's rank is already fixed.

To stand in baccarat means a hand takes no third card and competes on its initial two-card total. Under the automatic Third Card Rule, both sides stand immediately whenever either hand holds a Natural 8 or 9; otherwise Player stands on two-card totals of 6 or 7, and Banker always stands on 7 (and stands on 3, 4, 5, or 6 depending on Player's third card).

Standoff is a classic English casino synonym for a Tie hand in baccarat, where both Player and Banker finish with identical modulo-10 totals and main bets push. See our Tie entry.

Also called: Third-Hand Rule · Entry Cell Rule · Starting Conditions

The Starting Rule (sometimes nicknamed the 'Third-Hand Rule,' though a shoe like BBP has no mark on Hand 3) specifies when each derived road has enough prior Big Road columns to make its first comparison: Big Eye Boy starts at Column 2 Row 2 or Column 3 Row 1; Small Road starts at Column 3 Row 2 or Column 4 Row 1; Cockroach Pig starts at Column 4 Row 2 or Column 5 Row 1.

A streak (連, lin4) occurs whenever Banker or Player wins two or more consecutive decided hands, stacking beads downward in a single Big Road column. A streak of 7 or more wins reaches the bottom of the 6-row grid and turns right into a Dragon Tail. Once a long streak passes the depth of the comparison column by two or more rows, Rule 2 Case 3 records consecutive red marks.

Also called: Lucky 6

Super 6 (幸運六, hang6 wan6 luk6, or Lucky 6) refers to two things on Macau and online tables: first, the commission-free table rule where winning Banker bets pay 1:1 except on a Banker win totaling 6, which pays half (1:2, raising the Banker house edge from 1.06% to 1.46%); second, an optional side bet that pays 12:1 (or 18:1–20:1 on a three-card 6) when Banker wins with 6.

Super Pan 9 is a baccarat variant popular in Los Angeles cardrooms that uses a 36-card deck with all 7s, 8s, 9s, and 10s removed, dealing three initial cards to both Player and Banker instead of two. Players can exercise optional drawing decisions on their three-card modulo-10 total against a rotating player-banker.

The Third Card Rule (補牌規則, bou2 paai2 kwai1 zak1) is the fixed, automatic procedure that decides whether Player, Banker, or both draw a third card. First, if either hand has a two-card Natural 8 or 9, both stand; second, Player draws on 0–5 and stands on 6–7; third, Banker draws or stands based on Banker's two-card total and the exact value of Player's third card.

Also called: Tie Bet · Standoff

A Tie (和局, wo4 guk6) occurs on 9.52% of 8-deck hands when Player and Banker finish with the same modulo-10 total, pushing all main Player and Banker bets and paying 8:1 (14.36% house edge) or 9:1 (4.85% house edge) on Tie bets. On the Bead Plate a Tie gets its own green bead; on the Big Road it adds a green slash to the most recent bead (or to the first decided bead if Hand 1 is a Tie) without advancing any derived road.

A tie slash (和局斜線, wo4 guk6 ce4 sin3) is the green diagonal mark placed across the most recent hollow circle on the Big Road whenever a Tie occurs (with a number added if consecutive Ties happen back-to-back, or attached to the first decided bead if the shoe opens with a Tie). Because a Tie does not add a Big Road bead, it never triggers a derived-road mark.

Also called: Vig

Vigorish (shortened to 'vig') is the traditional American casino term for the 5% house commission deducted from winning Banker wagers. See our Commission entry.

Also called: Wo

Woh (和, wo4, literally 'harmony' or 'peace') is the Macau Cantonese call for a Tie hand. See our Tie entry.

Also called: Yau Bian · Sam Bin · Sei Bin · Liang Bian · San Bian · Si Bian

Yau Bin (有邊, jau5 bin1, 'has side/edge,' also spelled Yau Bian in Mandarin) describes seeing pips along the long side of a squeezed card: Loeng Bin (兩邊, two pips along the edge) means a 4 or 5; Saam Bin (三邊, three pips) means a 6, 7, or 8; and Sei Bin (四邊, four pips) means a 9 or 10.

Zigzag (鋸齒, goe3 ci2) is an English synonym for a Ping-Pong (Single Jump) pattern where Banker and Player alternate single wins at Row 1 of each Big Road column, producing all red marks on the derived roads. See our Ping-Pong entry.