Card Counting is one of those phony ideas published in baccarat strategy books. Card counting is most often associated with the game of blackjack - and is very effected, used correctly in the right casino. It could also seem to be of real worth in baccarat as the game does work off a comparable shoe. The issue that causes the problem is that of used cards be reintroduced into the shoe before very many have been taken out, thereby flummoxing any count made up to that point! Baccarat also, unlike Blackjack, does not allow the player the right to change his bet mid-hand in play. Blackjack allows this practice in a number of specific cases, and the player can increase his bet if his count changes during play. In baccarat, card counting presents very few situations with an advantage against the house that the actual overall labours are of no value to the player at all.

Baccarat can be considered a very elaborate coin toss game. This oversimplified impression of the game lures many players to using the Martingale based system of betting which entails doubling up on ones' bet each time a hand is lost. The Logic being that you eventually have to win, and the doubling will allow you to recoup all losses made from all the preceding hands! A perfect system indeed and one that actually can't be beaten in games like baccarat or roulette, and it is because of this that casinos issued new rules. The new rules limit how much a player can bet in 1 hand.

Casinos effectively got rid of the threat of the Martingale System gambler or player by setting Table maximums (and minimums). i.e. A player bets $5 on the banker and lost. Next bet, $10 on the banker, next bet $20, etc, and he continues to lose. Before long, his bet will have doubled up to a point that it will exceed the table maximum. In this case the player can't bet any higher and his system has failed, he must quit. The Martingale System is a horrific betting system that follows a human beings panic thinking - their natural thought pattern that somehow believes that if a coin lands heads up 9x in a row, there is a greater chance than 50% that it will land tails on the 10th flip! IT DOES NOT WORK!

So - if all these strategies and systems - card counting, pattern spotting, streak spotting etc are worthless strategies for baccarat - is there any good one? Well...practically and mathematically speaking... when you analyse the numbers, the odds do seem to always be in favour when a player bets on the banker, though this is a very boring tactic to play. Perhaps throw in some pattern chasing to break the tedium, or count the scorecards!

Ryan D. has been involved in the online casino and online gambling industries for over 6 years as an operator, marketer and consultant. He can be contacted via his website at http://www.online-gambling-insider.com