Bodog’s Five Best Baccarat Tips
There are times when people want to play a challenging casino game, like online blackjack, where you need to figure out the proper strategies to succeed at the tables. Baccarat, however, is not one of those games. In fact, you don’t need any baccarat strategy at all to play at Bodog Casino, your No. 1 destination for the best baccarat games on the web. Does that mean can’t give you our five best baccarat tips? Absolutely not!
The punto banco version that you’ll find online makes all of the plays automatic, so you can sit back and enjoy playing baccarat without having to overthink it.
This doesn’t mean you can’t be smart about how you play. If you follow our top five best baccarat tips and tricks, you’ll get the maximum returns possible from your baccarat sessions at Bodog Casino – and the most fun as well.
1. Always Play at Bodog
This isn’t just us blowing our own horns here. If you play baccarat at a live casino in North America, there’s a good chance you’re only going to get an 8-to-1 payout for the Tie bet. That’s a house edge of 14.4%, a steep price to pay for playing a simple card game.
On the other hand, when you play baccarat at Bodog Casino, you always get a 9-to-1 payout for your Tie bets. That higher payout translates to a much more reasonable house edge of 4.85%. It’s even lower than the 5.26% house edge for American Roulette, making it more appealing to bet the Tie.
It’s easy to overlook the house edge when you’re at the casino, but if you want the most bang for your baccarat buck, Bodog is the place to be.
2. Stick with the Banker Bet
The previous point is the ideal place to start with our best baccarat tips. Having said all that, the Tie bet still carries the highest house edge of the three baccarat bets available at Bodog Casino:
Banker: 1.06%
Player: 1.24%
Tie: 4.85%
Aside from choosing how much you want to bet, this is the only decision you’ll face when you play the punto banco version of baccarat. The house edges for the Banker and Player bets are some of the lowest you’ll find at any casino; again, if you want to maximize your returns, Banker is the best choice of the three.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t place the other two bets. Baccarat is still a game of pure chance, which means it should be played for entertainment purposes only, and you’ll have more fun playing Baccarat at Bodog if you mix up your bets a little. You can find the “sweet spot” between maximizing your returns and your fun levels by playing the Banker bet slightly more often than the Player bet, and sprinkling in a Tie bet every now and then.
3. Don’t Fall for Progressive Betting Schemes
Because the Player bet pays out at even money, it can be tempting to use the same “progressive” betting systems that some people try with the roulette wheel, betting on Red/Black or Odd/Even. But these systems are fool’s gold; they won’t improve your odds of winning at roulette or baccarat, and they can do some damage to your bankroll in a short period of time.
Let’s take a closer look at the most (in)famous betting strategy of them all: the martingale. This is where you double your bet every time you lose, expecting to eventually recoup all of your money plus a small profit once you finally win.
The logic seems bullet-proof, until you realize that a bad enough losing streak will leave you in a spot where you don’t have enough money left to double your bet. These streaks are inevitable if you play long enough.
Many players prefer to use a progressive system that increases the bet size a bit more gradually, like the D’Alembert system, where you simply add one unit (1, 2, 3, 4…) instead of doubling your bet (1, 2, 4, 8…). This will preserve your bankroll for longer, but it still delays the inevitable.
4. Play Within Your Bankroll
No matter which game you’re playing, keep the health of your bankroll in mind every time you log in at Bodog Casino. As we mentioned earlier, you’ll be choosing how much to bet when you play baccarat, so pick a bet size that’s reflects the amount of money you have in your Bodog account – and stick with it. Don’t chase down losses or attempt to ride a hot streak by making bigger bets.
If you really want to get the most value out of your time at the baccarat tables, plan your sessions in advance so they’ll last a certain amount of time, and pick a bet size that will accomplish that goal for you given the size of your bankroll. As long as you know the house edges listed above, and how many hands you tend to play per hour, you can use a little math to figure out your ideal bet size.
Baccarat is still a game of chance, so most of your sessions will find you either above or below your expected return once you’ve reached your time limit. Whatever happens, don’t keep playing beyond what you have scheduled – there will always be another game waiting for you at Bodog.
5. Bet with Bitcoin
Our final baccarat tip is just as important as the other four: Use cryptocurrency to play at Bodog Casino. This will help you maximize your returns by dramatically lowering the fees you pay on your deposits and withdrawals compared to other methods, especially credit cards.
Bitcoin is the most popular (and reliable) of the digital coins out there, and highly recommended if you’re relatively new to the world of crypto. Check out our Bitcoin video tutorials to find out how easy it is to use cryptocurrency at Bodog, then hit the baccarat tables with confidence, knowing that you’ve already mastered the game that James Bond made famous.