Understanding Baccarat Roadmap Scorecards

When playing Baccarat online, Roadmap Scorecards become a fantastic addition to your overall gaming experience. The casino game is one of the most popular to play and can be even more beneficial to you once you have got the hang of how to understand and use Baccarat Roadmap Scorecards. In this article, we take a look at the differences between these scorecards and give you some ideas of where you can potentially play online Baccarat games. Continue reading to learn more.

Baccarat is one of the most played casino games at brick-and-mortar casinos and at online gambling sites. It sits with Blackjack and Roulette as one of the three traditional card and table games. In this article, we take a look at Baccarat Roadmap Scorecards and how you can use them to your advantage. Continue reading to learn more.

An Introduction to Baccarat

When playing Baccarat, there are many similarities that you will find with Blackjack. The games are both easy to learn and have a low house edge. Additionally, the best online Blackjack casinos tend to have a diverse selection of Baccarat games as well.

Baccarat has something called Roadmap Scorecards. These are similar to Roulette scorecards and Blackjack ones, however, they are slightly more complicated. To help you out, we have put together a list of these Baccarat Roadmap Scorecards and broken them down for you in simple terms. Keep reading to learn how you can use them.

Baccarat Roadmap Scorecards

Many Baccarat players enjoy looking at past rounds to try to identify trends and predict future results. Roadmaps were created to help these players gain an overview of the state of play and what has been happening as quickly as possible. At first, the roadmap scorecards can look extremely confusing. However, they really are very straightforward and it won’t take you long to understand them.

Trends in Baccarat are known as ‘Roads’ and these are visual representations of the results and patterns from the current shoe. In most online Live Baccarat games, you will be able to view five standard roadmap scorecards:

The Big Road
The Bead Plate
The Big Eye Boy
The Small Road
The Cockroach Pig

The Big Road

Initially, all Baccarat results were simply marked on the Big Road. It is the primary road and the other four roads are derived from it. The Big Road is very easy to understand. It is a grid that has six rows and many columns. When recording results on the Big Road, a hollow red circle is used to show a Banker win and a hollow blue circle is used to show a Player win. At the start of a new shoe, the first result is entered in the top left corner of the Big Road. If the second result is the same as the first, then it goes directly underneath it.

As long as the winning position remains the same (Banker or Player), the same colour circles are entered in that column. When the other position wins, a new column is begun, and the process continues this way through the entire shoe. This means that the Big Road is a series of columns of alternating blue and red hollow circles, with each column containing at least one circle and there being no maximum.

Ties are not displayed as a separate circle on the Big Road; rather, a green line is entered across the most recent circle. If there are multiple ties, then a small number next to the green line will show how many there have been. If a pair is dealt, then it is shown with a dot on the edge of the circle, a red dot for Banker pair and a blue dot for Player pair. A natural winner (8 or 9) is shown with a yellow dot in the middle of the circle.

Ping Pong

You may hear the expression ‘Ping Pong’; this refers to an alternating run of Banker and Player wins. Occasionally a run of two Banker wins alternating with two Player wins is called a ‘Double Ping Pong’.

Another phrase you need to know is ‘Follow the Dragon’. As mentioned, the Big Road has six rows and if there are more than six consecutive Banker or Player wins, the streak turns right when it hits the bottom of the grid and then continues along the bottom row. This pattern is known as ‘The Dragon Tail’. If a winning streak (coming down the column) bumps into a dragon tail, then the streak also turns right, regardless of what row it is in, and crates a new dragon. This is sometimes called a Double Dragon.

The Bead Plate

The Bead Plate shows an exact representation of every hand played. It uses red for Banker win, blue for Player win and green for Tie. The symbols used are solid colored circles with Chinese characters on them that represent the results. The Bead Plate is a grid and the first symbol is placed in the top left corner, the road is then filled vertically down through a column of six rows and then it moves on to the next column. A new column is never begun until the last one is finished. The Bead Plate does not show naturals or pairs, but unlike the Big Road, it does show ties as a separate symbol.

Big Eye Boy

The Big Eye Boy is a derived from the Big Road to show a certain type of pattern. It uses hollow red and blue circles, but this has no relationship to the Player and Banker hands. Rather, a red circle indicates repetition while blue means that the shoe is chaotic.

The Big Eye Boy does not start at the beginning of the shoe; rather it begins after the first hand in the second column of the Big Road. You then look one row left and up in the Big Road, if the move does not result in a change, then it is marked with red on Big Eye Boy, otherwise it is marked with blue.

Small Road

This is very similar to the Big Eye Boy. However, it jumps over the column to the left of the current column in the Big Road. The Small Road begins with the hand after the first hand in the third column of the Big Road, which means that nothing will be entered on it until the entry after the first entry in the Big Road’s third column. A red circle is used if the first and third columns to the left of the new column in the Big Road are the same depth; otherwise, a blue circle is used.

Cockroach Pig

The Cockroach Pig skips two columns to the left of the current column in the Big Road, in all other ways it works in exactly the same way as the Small Road. The Cockroach Pig begins after the first entry in the fourth column of the Big Road. You then compare the first and fourth columns to the left of the column in the Big Road. A red circle is used if they have the same depth; otherwise, it is marked with blue. To mark the Cockroach Pig, look at the most recent entry in the Big Road, move three cells left and then up. If there is no change as a result of the move, mark it in red, otherwise, in blue.

The Bottom Line

When playing Baccarat online, you can always refer to the Roadmap Scorecards. This will give you a better idea of what is going on. Understanding Baccarat Roadmap Scorecards is no easy task. With the details about each one listed above, we are sure you will manage.

If you want to put this new knowledge to good use, visit some of our best online Blackjack games. Blackjack casinos are known to have a selection of Baccarat variants. These two games are highly similar and both incredibly popular. You may also enjoy playing these games and boosting your advantages of winning as well.