Every symbol on a casino baccarat board has one job: compress a dealt hand or a column-depth comparison into a shape you can read from across the pit. Once you know why the display uses solid circles in one grid, hollow outlines in two others, filled dots in the fourth, and diagonal slashes in two different colors, no electronic tote board in Macau, Las Vegas, or an online live-dealer studio will ever look cryptic again.
Below is the complete visual key to every baccarat scoreboard symbol, demonstrated on a single 14-hand shoe you can inspect live in our free Baccarat Calculator & Road Decoder.
Every symbol on one 14-hand board
Here is our 14-hand reference sequence (7 Banker wins, 5 Player wins, and 2 Ties on Hands 3 and 11):
BBTPBPPBBBTPPB
Bead Plate
Big Road
Big Eye Boy
Small Road
Cockroach Pig
Master symbol reference table
Use this lookup table whenever you spot an unfamiliar icon on a table display:
| Symbol | Where It Appears | Exact Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Solid Red Circle (B) | Bead Plate | Banker won that hand in chronological deal order. |
| Solid Blue Circle (P) | Bead Plate | Player won that hand in chronological deal order. |
| Solid Green Circle (T) | Bead Plate | Tie hand in chronological deal order (claims its own cell on the Bead Plate). |
| Hollow Red Circle (Large) | Big Road | Banker win grouped into a streak column. Consecutive Banker wins stack downward (and bend right on Row 6 as a Dragon Tail). |
| Hollow Blue Circle (Large) | Big Road | Player win grouped into a streak column. Consecutive Player wins stack downward in the same column. |
| Green Diagonal Slash (/ or Number) | Big Road | A Tie occurred immediately after that Big Road circle. Multiple consecutive ties show a small green count (2, 3, …) on the same circle. |
| Small Hollow Ring (Red / Blue) | Big Eye Boy (L=1) | Compares the active Big Road column against 1 column back. Red = pattern repeating; Blue = pattern breaking. |
| Small Solid Dot (Red / Blue) | Small Road (L=2) | Compares the active Big Road column against 2 columns back. Red = pattern repeating; Blue = pattern breaking. |
| Small Diagonal Slash (Red / Blue) | Cockroach Pig (L=3) | Compares the active Big Road column against 3 columns back. Red = pattern repeating; Blue = pattern breaking. |
| Red Dots on Top-Left / Bottom-Right Corners | Bead Plate & Big Road (Optional) | Top-left red dot = Banker Pair on that hand; bottom-right blue dot = Player Pair on that hand. |
| Yellow / Hollow Center Dot (N) | Bead Plate & Big Road (Optional) | Marks a Natural 8 or Natural 9 two-card win on electronic Macau displays. |
1. Primary outcome symbols: Solid Beads vs Hollow Circles
Why do casinos use solid filled circles with letters on the Bead Plate but switch to hollow outlines on the Big Road?
- Bead Plate beads are solid because each coup—Banker (red), Player (blue), or Tie (green)—stands alone in its own six-row chronological box. In our 14-hand shoe, Hands 3 and 11 appear as full green
Tcircles at Row 3 of Column 1 and Row 5 of Column 2. - Big Road circles are hollow so the center of the ring stays open to hold green Tie slashes (and tie counters when two or more ties land back-to-back) without starting a new streak column. In our 14-hand shoe, Hand 3 draws a green slash inside Column 1, Row 2, and Hand 11 draws a green slash inside Column 5, Row 3.
2. Derived road symbols: Ring, Dot, and Slash
All three derived roads record the exact same binary answer—Red (repeating shape) or Blue (breaking shape)—so casinos give each grid a distinct geometric icon so they can sit side by side without labels:
- Hollow Ring = Big Eye Boy (Lookback 1): Big Eye Boy starts earliest (at Column 2 Row 2, or Column 3 Row 1 if Column 2 had only one hand). In our 14-hand shoe, Column 1 is 2 deep and Column 2 is 1 deep, so Big Eye Boy opens on Hand 5 (Column 3, Row 1) with a blue hollow ring via Rule 1 (depth 1 vs depth 2 = different) and finishes Hand 14 with 9 total entries (
B R B B R B B R B). - Solid Dot = Small Road (Lookback 2): Small Road waits until Column 3 Row 2 or Column 4 Row 1 so it can compare two columns back. In our shoe, it opens on Hand 6 (Column 4, Row 1) with a blue solid dot (comparing Column 3 depth 1 against Column 1 depth 2) and records 8 entries (
B B B B R B R R). - Diagonal Slash = Cockroach Pig (Lookback 3): Cockroach Pig waits until Column 4 Row 2 or Column 5 Row 1 to compare three columns back. In our shoe, it opens on Hand 7 (Column 4, Row 2) with a red slash via Rule 2 (Column 1 depth 2 reaches Row 2, so both cells exist) and records 7 entries (
R R B R B B B).
3. The Ask-Road (B ? / P ?) preview symbols
In the corner of every electronic scoreboard—and directly above the B / P / T buttons in our free Baccarat Calculator—you will see two rows labeled If Banker (B ?) and If Player (P ?), each followed by a tiny hollow ring, solid dot, and slash.
Those three mini-symbols preview the exact color Big Eye Boy, Small Road, and Cockroach Pig will record on the next decided hand:
- After Hand 14 of our shoe (
BBTPBPPBBBTPPB), Column 7 sits at Row 1 with 1 Banker win, while Column 6 has depth 2. - If Banker wins Hand 15 (continuing down Column 7 to Row 2 under Rule 2), Columns 6, 5, and 4 all have depths of at least 2 (depths 2, 3, and 2), so all three derived roads will draw Red · Red · Red (hollow red ring, solid red dot, red slash).
- If Player wins Hand 15 (starting Column 8 at Row 1 under Rule 1), Column 7's finished depth of 1 is compared against Column 6 (depth 2), Column 5 (depth 3), and Column 4 (depth 2)—all different—so all three derived roads will draw Blue · Blue · Blue.
Test every symbol live in the free Baccarat Calculator
Click Continue this shoe in the free Road Decoder inside the interactive sandbox below to step through all 14 hands of BBTPBPPBBBTPPB, toggle ghost-bead previews on and off, and see why every ring, dot, and slash landed on its exact cell.