Examining Popular Side Bets In Baccarat

The Sports Geek

14 August 2022

When it comes to the best gambles that you can get in a casino, baccarat is near the top of the list, as it features one of the lowest house advantages of any game on the floor. That low house advantage attracts some of the biggest gamblers in the world.

Baccarat is the game of choice for many of the top gambling whales!

And while baccarat is a fantastic game when it comes to getting fair value, it can get a little boring, as there aren’t a lot of decisions to make. Outside of picking which side you want to bet on, either the player or the banker, all that is really left is to watch as the cards come out and see if your bet is a winner.

That lack of player-driven decisions can turn baccarat into a bit of a repetitive and monotonous game for some players. That is where the baccarat side bets come into play! Unlike most other table games, side bets have been slow to evolve when it comes to baccarat.

Even to this day, many baccarat tables have no real side bets outside of the standard tie bet. But as more and more players start to learn the game, we are finally starting to see additional baccarat side bets becoming available.

We are going to take a look at the various baccarat side bets that are available and let you know what they are, how much they pay out, and whether or not you should be playing them. Let’s get started by examining the king of baccarat side bets, the tie bet!

Baccarat Side Bets

Below you will find some of the top baccarat side bets explained. Baccarat side bets are a great way to add some action and excitement to a classic casino game.

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Tie Bet

Some people don’t even consider the tie bet a true baccarat side bet, as the tie bet has been around for a long time and can be found on just about every bac game you are ever going to find. But, by definition, a baccarat side bet is a bet that doesn’t impact the standard play of the game and that means that the tie bet is absolutely a baccarat side bet.

All you need to do to win is have the player and the banker hand tie after all draws. Seems easy enough, right? Well, you are right, as ties do happen quite often, and this is a bet that is very easy to follow.

The problem with the tie bet is that it generally pays out at 8-1 odds. That odds-based payout might seem attractive on the surface, but when you see that the true odds of the hands tying is about 10-1, you can see that the bet is going to be a long-term loser.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t ever play the tie bet, as it can get hot and you can get paid, but just know that the house advantage of about 14% makes it a much bigger gamble than the standard player or banker bets.

Color Match

The color match side bet is another baccarat side bet that is super easy to play and follow. When you are betting on the color match, you are betting that all 4 of the initial cards, the 2 player cards, and the 2 banker cards, will all be the same color.

There are other versions of color match side bets that also incorporate the additional draw cards, but those are higher risk bets, and personally, I much prefer the lower variance color match bet that only uses the first 4 cards.

This bet typically pays out 6-1 on winning bets, and its house advantage of 13% makes it a slightly better play when compared to a typical tie bet. Normally you wouldn’t look at baccarat as a game where card counting would give you an advantage, but when you are playing the color match side bet, paying attention to the cards that have been dealt can help you gain an advantage over the house. But instead of counting cards, you are counting colors!

Has there been a ton of spades and clubs dealt already? Then a play on the all red bet shows higher value than normal. I wouldn’t go crazy counting colors, but if the deck gets heavy in one direction, you want to hammer the color match baccarat side bet!

Dragon Bonus

The Dragon Bonus is another increasingly popular baccarat side bet, as we are starting to see this bet gain traction in many markets. The Dragon Bonus bet is a bet that is based on the margin of difference between the player and the banker hands.

For example, if the player has a natural 9 and the banker finishes up with a 4, that is a difference of 5, which would be good enough for a 2-1 payout. The bigger the gap between the hands ends up being, the bigger the payout. The difference has to be at least 4 in order to get a 1-1 payout and if you hit the perfect 9-0 hand, you will be paid out a juicy 30-1.

I really like the Dragon Bonus bet, as it makes the draws even more exciting. If you go into the draw with a 4-point advantage, and the additional card reduces a hand, and now all of the sudden you have a 7 or 8-point gap, you can make some big money in a hurry.

Mathematically this one isn’t a great play, but it sure does add a lot of excitement to the game, and for that reason, I usually always play it if I see it on the layout.

Perfect Pair

The Perfect Pair baccarat side bet is a card matching bet, where you are hoping that the player or the banker’s first two cards are a pair. If they are a pair, you get paid out at 5-1 odds, not bad!

This bet is fun as no matter what the first card for each hand is, you have a shot to pair it when that second card comes out.

Where you can slowly peel the cards back when you are revealing them, this game can be a lot of fun.

Squeezing out a card to see if you have a pair adds some additional drama to the draw, and with juicy payouts if you hit, it makes the Perfect Pair a great baccarat side bet.

Super 6

The final baccarat side bet that I am going to highlight today is the Super 6 bet. Personally, I hate this bet! It’s not that it isn’t fun, it is actually somewhat entertaining.

It is that it’s very hard to win and is one of the highest house advantage bets of any game in the casino! The Super 6 bet only pays out if the banker hand ends up as a 6.

That’s it. Not both hands, but just the banker hand. It does offer a solid payout at 12-1 when it hits, but the house advantage of almost 30% makes my eyes bleed just looking at the bet on the felt.

STAY AWAY FROM THE SUPER 6!

There are other baccarat side bets that pay out bigger odds and have a much lower house advantage than the Super 6. You would be better served trying any of these other baccarat side bets, as this bet is what is known in the industry as a sucker bet. Save your money on this one, as the Super 6 bet stinks!