Baccarat Card Counting Edge
added 03.08.2011, 9:21PM
People have always had an obsession with beating the gambling house edge that casinos hold, so it's no surprise how baccarat players are constantly searching for a way to lower the house advantage. As it now stands, casinos have a 1.06% house edge when players make the banker bet every time. This being said, people have used everything from tracking player vs. banker wins, to spreading bets based on win streaks.
Unfortunately, none of this stuff changes the slight edge that casinos have, which is why people have gone to more extreme measures, which includes baccarat card counting. As you may have guessed, baccarat card counting is just like blackjack card counting, where players try to keep a count on high and low cards so they can predict when one side gains an advantage. And when either the player or banker has a edge, the person is supposed to bet more money based on this information.
But the problem with baccarat card counting is that players never get much of an edge with this practice. In fact, even if you manage to perfectly keep a running count in baccarat, you're only going to have an edge about once every 350 hands. And even then, you've only got an edge, so it's not like you are a guaranteed winner in these situations.
Blackjack expert Peter Griffin once did an experiment with baccarat card counting, and discovered that an excellent counter would only make a few nickels each day when all of their hard work was done. Contrast this to blackjack card counting, where good counters expect to make thousands of dollars on average when everything is said and done.
Long story short, baccarat card counting is not a very profitable activity, and you'd be better off directing your energies at learning blackjack card counting rather than waste time on a game that doesn't yield much of an advantage to players. Furthermore, baccarat already has a fairly low house edge, so even if you just want to relax and enjoy the game, this is entirely within the realm of normal baccarat strategy.
