Mini and Bigger Baccarat
Mini-baccarat and bigger baccarat in fact are the same game. They have the same rules, the same bets and the same house edge of 1.17 percent on bank bet, 1.36 percent on player bet and 14.1 percent on tie bet. Nevertheless, there is a difference between these games.
Those who have ever been to casinos must have noticed that bigger baccarat tables are always accompanied by glamour and high rollers style atmosphere. These tables usually are located at an exclusive railed area, where normal players are not allowed to enter and are run by 4 dealers instead of 1 at mini-baccarat table, and with all this personnel, players deal the cards themselves. As it follows from the name, bigger baccarat tables are bigger, as well as stakes at these tables. While minimum limits at mini baccarat tables start from 5 dollars or even less, you will rarely find a bigger baccarat table with less than 100 dollars minimum limit.
Not All Bad!
Nevertheless, playing bigger baccarat is not as ruinous as it may seem to be. With the intention of the
casino to attract only high rollers to the bigger baccarat table, they can expect the stakes to be far beyond the minimum limit, which will surely be very profitable for the house, but if a player at such table bets only minimum or close to minimum amounts, he may lose less than at a mini-baccarat table.
You may be asking: how is this possible when at a mini-baccarat table you bet 5 dollars and at a bigger baccarat 100 dollars or more? Well, these sums really are incomparable, but if you succeed to find a 25 dollars minimum bigger baccarat table, it can be a better choice than 10 dollars mini-baccarat. Why? Because of the game speed.
Bigger baccarat games are much slower. Actually 3 to 5 times slower than mini-baccarat games, so betting the same amount per hand at mini-baccarat and bigger baccarat tables you will profit the casino 3 to 5 times more at a mini-baccarat table or, in other words, you can bet 3 to 5 times more at a bigger baccarat table losing the same money you would at a mini-baccarat table.
However, if you can not manage to play at a bigger baccarat table, you can make a mini-baccarat table work slower, sacrificing all the luxury and the feel of superiority, but saving lots and lots of money. How to do it? Very simply, skip some games. No one can oblige you to play all the hands and you can play as few as you wish in any given hour.
House Edge:
As you have probably noticed, the lowest house edge in both mini and bigger baccarat is for the bank bet. According to the statistics, the bankers hand wins 50.68 percent of time and the players one 49.32 percent of time. Being paid even money on both bets, the player loses 1.36 percent of the money betting on his hand and is supposed to win 1.36 percent betting on the bank, but casinos do not really want to pay money to everyone who wants to get it. Therefore, in baccarat there is a vigorish that bank bet winners must pay. The vigorish is 5 percent of the winning, but as far as it is only paid when winning money (50.68 percent of the time) it becomes 2.53 percent of all bets placed on the bank, reduced from 1.36 percent advantage of these hands, the house edge of the bank bet is 1.17 percent, which is lower than all other bets in baccarat and most other casino games.
