Baccarat is the perfect casino game for playing live online.
It’s a little bit like blackjack, a little bit like craps, a little bit like slots, and it’s the simplest game in the casino.
More importantly, the house advantage in baccarat is one of the lowest.
What Should I Look for in Live Online Baccarat?
If you don’t know how to play baccarat, see our comprehensive introduction to the game.
While live online baccarat is often played in a studio rather than a casino floor, you will find the same features as casino baccarat. Pay particular attention to the size of the baccarat deck shoe, the side bets, the roadmaps, and the commission.
Baccarat is usually played with a shoe of six or eight card decks.
The size of the deck shoe changes the probabilities by a few hundredths of a percent.
A six-deck shoe increases the probability of a banker or player win and decreases the probability of a tie, so if you’re making the even money bets, play the six-deck shoe.
An eight-deck shoe decreases the probability of a banker or player win and increases the probability of a tie. If you’re betting on the ties, find an eight-deck table.
The only way to win at baccarat is to make the even-money bets.
For a lot of people, that can get old pretty fast.
If you’re looking for a little more excitement, then you want live online baccarat with high payout side bets. Check our complete guide to baccarat side bets.
Egalité (tie) bets are a particularly popular type of side bet in baccarat.
You are betting on the exact value of each hand if there’s a tie. The payouts can go to as high as 225 to 1, so egalité bets add a lot of excitement to the game.
Not every live online game offers egalité bets, so do your homework if this is the game you want to play.
Baccarat roadmaps are scoreboards that record all the wins and ties from the current shoe and describe the patterns of wins and ties. You will rarely find a baccarat table without one.
While roadmaps have no value at predicting future outcomes, many players swear by them. Even if you don’t use the roadmap, it’s fun to see how the hands are playing.
Whether played in a casino, on software, or streaming live online, nearly all baccarat tables collect a 5% commission on banker wins, so the payoff is 0.95 to 1. This commission adjusts for the higher probability of a banker win.
No-commission baccarat does not charge this 5% commission, nearly erasing the house advantage for banker bets. The side bets, however, usually have lower payouts. If you find it – and there are online streaming versions of no commission baccarat – play it.
What Version of Live Online Baccarat Should I Play?
Nearly all live online baccarat games are played in a studio. There are no live players, just a dealer. On the other hand, when you play “live baccarat” the game is streamed from a table in a real casino, and you play with a real dealer and real players.
Which online baccarat version you decide to play depends largely on how fast you want the game to proceed. As you will see below, live online baccarat tends to move faster than “live baccarat” because payouts in live online baccarat are made electronically while “live baccarat” payouts are made by the croupier.
Single player baccarat is the most common version you’ll find streaming online.
“Single-player” means there’s only one seat at the table. From your perspective, you’re the only one playing. In reality there are dozens or hundreds of people playing the same hand with you.
Multi-seat baccarat is essentially the same game as single player baccarat. The difference is simply that there are more seats at the table – sometimes up to 8. It looks and feels more like casino baccarat.
Because it’s the same as single-player baccarat, but takes up more space in the studio, you rarely will run into it. Play the single-player version instead.
Live baccarat is the real thing. Well, the most real baccarat you can possibly play online without actually being in the casino.
Instead of streaming from a studio, live baccarat streams from a real table with real players in a real casino. While you don’t see the other players, you do get to see their bets. Live baccarat is the slowest – but most realistic – version of online baccarat. Gameplay is usually 30 to 40 seconds, but another 10-30 seconds get eaten up when the dealer pays out the table bets.
For online players, mini baccarat is the exact same game as single player baccarat.
Casinos do offer a real version of mini baccarat. Normal baccarat is played on a 14 seat table. Mini-baccarat, however, is played with fewer seats, usually six. That’s why it’s called “mini.”
Therefore, when you see a live online version of “mini baccarat,” you’re really playing single player baccarat.
The name says it all.
Single player live online baccarat game play takes around 30-40 seconds, Speed baccarat is played faster, with deal-to-deal times a bit below 30 seconds.
It’s not much, but if you’re impatient, those two or three seconds really count.
If speed baccarat is about adding velocity to the game, squeeze baccarat slows it way down. Squeezing is a baccarat superstition. Many players believe that if you slowly (or VERY slowly) peel up just the top of the card, that card is more likely to win the hand. So the cards are dealt face down and then “squeezed.”
In casino play, the squeeze is always done by the player who has bet the most money on the hand.
In online live baccarat, it’s almost always done by the dealer. Some versions allow you, the player, to squeeze a computer-generated image of the cards.
In reality, squeezing does not increase the probability of a win.
Progressive baccarat is single-player baccarat with an additional side bet that pays out a progressive jackpot.
Bet On Baccarat offers side bets after each card is dealt. It’s a slower version of the game, but it adds a lot more excitement and fun to the gameplay.
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