Baccarat Roads Explained – A Simple Guide

If you have ever played online baccarat, you may have seen grids covered in red and blue circles, dots, and lines. These are known as baccarat roads or roadmap scorecards, and they can appear hugely confusing. Here we will teach you all that you need to know about baccarat roads so that you understand just what they are about.

What Are Baccarat Roads?

Baccarat roads are simply a way of spotting trends in the results of each round. There are several types of roads and each one performs a different type of analysis. They help players understand the history of the game and spot any patterns. Some players will also use baccarat roads as part of their strategy to try to extrapolate what will happen next.

Each road consists of a grid that is populated with colored dots and circles and in some cases, lines. The grids are usually six cells high, and they can be many cells wide as theoretically, a game can go on indefinitely. However, the meaning of the different colored circles changes depending on the particular road.

There are several different roads but the most common are the Beat Plate, the Big Road, the Big Eye Boy, the Small Road and the Cockroach Pig. Here we shall take you through each in turn and explain exactly what it means.

The Bead Plate Road – Recording Results

The Bead Plate Road is so named as originally, in land casinos, a tray or plate would be provided to players and they would record the results of each round by placing different colored beads into it. A winning Banker hand is recorded with red, a winning Player hand is recorded with Blue, and ties are recorded with green.

Usually, the Bead Road baccarat has at least six rows and twelve columns, meaning that it can record the result of at least seventy hands. Players begin in the top left corner and move down one row at a time. When the bottom of the column is reached, then players start again at the top of the next column to the right.

The Perfect Pairs side bet can also be recorded on the Bead Plate. If the Banker is dealt a pair, it is recorded with a red dot in the upper left corner of the cell while a Player pair is recorded with a blue dot in the lower right corner.

Baccarat Big Road – Showing Basic Patterns

The Big Road is called such as it was the first road to be used and all other roads are derived from it. Its purpose is to identify trends by highlighting consecutive wins for either the Player or Banker. In some ways, the Big Road looks like an upside-down bar chart with alternating columns of blue and red dots. The blue dots represent Player wins and the red dots represent Banker wins. Each time that the winning position changes, e.g. from Banker to Player, then a new column is started.

For example, if the Player wins the first hand in a new shoe, then it is marked with a blue dot at the top of the first column. If the Banker wins the next hand, then it is marked with a red dot at the top of the second column.

If a round ends in a Tie, then instead of starting a new column, the last entry in the Big Road is struck through with a green line. This is simply because ties are very rare and it is unlikely that there will be two in a row.

The Big Road is usually six rows high. If a position wins more than six times in a row, then the streak turns right when it reaches the bottom of the grid and continues along the bottom row. This is a pattern known as “the dragon”. Once again, Pairs are marked with dots, blue for a Player Pair and red for a Banker pair.

Baccarat Small Road – Deriving Patterns

The good news is that if you have understood the Big Eye Boy, then the Small Road is easy, as it works in exactly the same way. There is just one important difference; it skips the column to the left of the current column in the Big Road.

In order for the Small Road to have enough information, it is not begun until the entry after the first entry in the Big Road’s third column.

The Small Road is recorded as follows:

• If the hand being played leads to a new column in the Big Road, then the first and third columns to the left of the new column in the Big Road are compared. If they have the same number of entries, then a red circle is marked on the Small Road, otherwise a blue circle is marked.
• If the hand being played has the same outcome as the previous hand (not including ties), then the entry two cells to the left of the new entry in the Big Road is compared with the entry directly above it. If they are the same, then a red mark is made on the Small Road, otherwise a blue mark. In other words, look at the most recent entry in the Big Road, go two to the left and note the entry and then one up. If the entry after the move up is the same, then mark red, otherwise, blue.

The Cockroach Road – Searching for Trends

Also known as The Cockroach Pig Road, this is the last one you need to understand. Once again, it is similar to the Small Road. However, this time it skips two columns to the left of the Big Road’s current column. Before starting the Cockroach Road, you need to wait until the entry after the first entry made in the Big Road’s fourth column.

The Cockroach Pig is recorded as follows:

• If the current hand creates a new column in the Big Road, then compare the first and the fourth columns to the left of the Big Road’s new column. If they are the same depth, then mark a red circle on the Cockroach Pig, otherwise mark a blue circle.
• If the current hand has the same outcome as the previous hand (not including ties), then you need to compare the entry three cells to the left of the Big Road’s new entry with the entry directly above it. If they are the same, then mark a red on the Cockroach Pig, otherwise, mark blue. In other words, look at the last mark made on the Big Road and then move three cells left. Next, move up, if there is no change mark red, otherwise, mark blue.