Baccarat Patterns: How to Read All Five Roads on the Scoreboard

When you play baccarat, you will probably notice a grid-like chart on screen below the table. This is the baccarat scoreboard, which records the results of the previous rounds.

What You Will Learn

• The baccarat scoreboard lets you follow the streaks and swings of the game.
• Using the scoreboard does not improve your chances of winning.
• The scoreboard shows five roads: the Big Road, Big Eye Boy, Small Road, Cockroach Pig and Bead Plate.

This article takes about 14 minutes to read.

What Is a Baccarat Scoreboard? The Basics

The scoreboard is a chart of past results at a baccarat table. It is reset every time a new shoe (the box that holds the cards for dealing) begins, so as a rule it shows only the results from the current shoe.

In baccarat, cards are dealt to two hands, called “Player” and “Banker,” and you bet on which hand will win. “Player” is simply the name of a bet and does not refer to you. To keep the two apart, this article uses “the Player hand” and “the Banker hand.”

Many baccarat players enjoy studying the results on the scoreboard, looking for trends in the results, and using it to decide which side to bet on next.

Is There Any Point in Reading the Baccarat Scoreboard?

The scoreboard is nothing more than a summary of past data, and many players say it is meaningless.

The scoreboard cannot change the return to player (RTP). It is a record of past results and does not indicate what the next result will be.

You bet on either the Player hand or the Banker hand. The house edge is about 1.06% on the Banker hand and about 1.24% on the Player hand, so over the long run, Banker bets lose money more slowly. This does not mean the Banker hand is more likely to win.

The scoreboard records results and gives no basis for predicting the next one. Some players use it as a guide for setting their own betting rules (when to bet and on which side) and sticking to them.

The Five Baccarat Roads and How to Read Them

The baccarat scoreboard shows five roads: the Big Road, Big Eye Boy, Small Road, Cockroach Pig and Bead Plate.

The Bead Plate is easy to follow because it simply records each result in order. The other roads, however, are hard to make sense of unless you know how to read them.

• The Big Road: Rules and Features
• The Big Eye Boy: Rules and Features
• The Small Road: Rules and Features
• The Cockroach Pig: Rules and Features
• The Bead Plate: Rules and Features

The Big Road: Rules and Features

The Big Road is the most basic of the roads. Many players who use the scoreboard look only at the Big Road, so it is the one to learn first.

On the Big Road, a Player win is recorded as a blue circle () and a Banker win as a red circle ().

The Big Road records each result as it happens, so it shows the pattern of the current shoe directly. A streak appears as a vertical column of circles, while alternating wins spread the circles out horizontally.

How to Read the Big Road

Results are recorded starting from the top left of the grid. When the same side wins again, a circle of the same color is added in the next row down in the same column. When the other side wins, the result is recorded at the top of the next column to the right.

A tie is shown as a green slash drawn over the circle.

The Big Road lets you see the pattern of the shoe directly. For example, if a pattern of two Player wins followed by two Banker wins keeps repeating, you could plan to bet on the Player hand once the second Banker win appears. There is no guarantee, however, that the pattern will continue.

Betting with the pattern you see on the scoreboard (or against it) is the most common way to use the scoreboard. The appeal lies in planning your bets around past results; the scoreboard does not tell you what the next result will be.

The Big Eye Boy: Rules and Features

The Big Eye Boy is the road shown below the Big Road. It compares the latest result on the Big Road with the column immediately before it and records whether the Big Road is following the same pattern or a different one.

Players refer to it when the Big Road shows no distinctive pattern. The usual approach is to bet with the pattern when the Big Eye Boy shows something like alternating blue and red circles or runs of three circles of each color. There is no guarantee, however, that the pattern will continue.

Note that blue and red do not represent the Player and Banker hands.

How to Read the Big Eye Boy

A red circle () means the same pattern, and a blue circle () means a different one. Ties are not counted.

In the sequences below, arrows show the order of wins. “Same pattern” and “different pattern” work like this: Banker win → Banker win extends a Big Road column downward, while Banker win → Player win moves the Big Road to the next column on the right. When the movement of the latest result matches the movement at the same point in the previous column, a red circle is added; when it differs, a blue circle is added.

Suppose, however, that after Banker win → Player win, the Banker hand wins three in a row. The Player column holds only one result, so from the third Banker win onward there is nothing in the previous column to compare with.

In that case, a red circle is added if the streak continues (here, another Banker win), and a blue circle if it is broken.

The Small Road: Rules and Features

The Small Road compares the latest result on the Big Road with the column two places back and records whether the Big Road is following the same pattern or a different one. It is used in basically the same way as the Big Eye Boy, when neither the Big Road nor the Big Eye Boy shows a pattern.

How to Read the Small Road

A red circle () means the same pattern, and a blue circle () means a different one. Ties are not counted.

The rule is almost the same as for the Big Eye Boy. If the column two places back on the Big Road was moving vertically (a streak) at the same point, a red circle is added when the latest Big Road result also moves vertically, and a blue circle when it moves horizontally. Cases that cannot be compared are handled the same way as on the Big Eye Boy.

The Cockroach Pig: Rules and Features

The Cockroach Pig compares the latest result on the Big Road with the column three places back and records whether the Big Road is following the same pattern or a different one.

It is used in basically the same way as the Big Eye Boy and the Small Road, and players often turn to it when no pattern appears on the Big Road, the Big Eye Boy or the Small Road.

How to Read the Cockroach Pig

A red slash means the same pattern, and a blue slash means a different one. Ties are not counted.

The rule is almost the same as for the Big Eye Boy. If the column three places back on the Big Road was moving vertically (a streak) at the same point, a red slash is added when the latest Big Road result also moves vertically, and a blue slash when it moves horizontally. Cases that cannot be compared are handled the same way as on the Big Eye Boy.

For this reason, the Cockroach Pig does not start until the Big Road for the shoe reaches its fourth column.

The Bead Plate: Rules and Features

The Bead Plate is the simplest road: a chart that shows the game results in order, exactly as they happened.

Each column records six games. A Banker win is shown as a red circle with “B” (Banker), a Player win as a blue circle with “P” (Player), and a tie as a green circle with “T” (Tie). Unlike on the Big Road, a tie takes up its own cell.

The Bead Plate is useful when you want to check the record quickly. It also shows, for example, how often the Banker and Player hands have won overall.

Common Pattern Terms on the Baccarat Scoreboard

When one of the patterns below appears, many players expect the same trend to continue in the next round. These patterns are mainly read on the Big Road, but Ping Pong and the Two-and-One pattern can also be applied to the other roads.

All of these terms come up often on social media and in conversation at the table.

• Streak
• Ping Pong (Chop)
• Two-and-One Pattern
• Dragon

Streak

A streak is a run of consecutive wins by the Banker hand or the Player hand. On the Big Road, it appears as an unbroken line of red or blue circles.

In most cases, three or more wins in a row count as a streak. Betting that the same side will win again is called following the streak (betting with the trend), and betting that the other side will win is called betting against the streak.

Because a streak extends downward on the Big Road, players often talk about the column “running” or “going long.” It is the opposite of Ping Pong, in which wins alternate.

Ping Pong (Chop)

Ping Pong refers to the Banker and Player hands winning alternately. On the Big Road, it appears as red and blue circles lined up in a straight horizontal row.

Once Ping Pong runs to four or more alternations in a row, many players treat it as a Ping Pong trend and lean toward betting on the side that did not win the previous round. Some players bet against a streak, but betting against Ping Pong is less common, and most players keep following the pattern.

Two-and-One Pattern

The Two-and-One pattern is a repeating sequence in which one side wins twice and the other side then wins once, such as Banker → Banker → Player.

It is hard to say exactly where a Two-and-One pattern begins, but players usually start to watch for it once the sequence has repeated twice, for example: “Banker → Banker → Player / → Banker → Banker → Player / → Banker.”

Dragon

A dragon is a run of seven or more consecutive wins by the Banker hand or the Player hand. At many live casinos, a single Big Road column can display only six circles, so from the seventh consecutive win the circle is placed in the bottom row of the next column to the right.

From the eighth win onward, circles continue along the bottom row to the right, and the name is said to come from the way this bent line resembles a dragon’s tail (the turned section is often called a “dragon tail”).

When a dragon appears, some players keep following the streak while others bet against it, convinced it must end soon, so it tends to be a lively moment at the table.

Practice: Simulating Each Baccarat Road

To show how the roads move, we follow five consecutive games from the middle of a shoe and look at how each road is filled in.

Once you feel you understand the roads, try drawing the Bead Plate, Big Road, Big Eye Boy, Small Road and Cockroach Pig in that order, and check that your versions match.

Starting Point

The Cockroach Pig cannot be drawn until the Big Road reaches at least its fourth column, so we start in the middle of the shoe.

For this example, we played Evolution’s Speed Baccarat. We joined partway through the shoe. The image above shows the Bead Plate, Big Road, Big Eye Boy, Small Road and Cockroach Pig as they stood at that point.

The results of the next five games and the changes to the roads follow. First, the table below summarizes the conditions under which each of the five roads changes.

Game 1: Tie

Game 2: Player Win

Game 3: Player Win

Game 4: Banker Win

Game 5: Banker Win

Things to Keep in Mind When Using the Baccarat Scoreboard

Do Not Put Too Much Faith in the Scoreboard, and Stay Calm

1. Do not rely too heavily on past results: Past game results and patterns cannot tell you what the next result will be. Using the patterns to set rules for how you bet is fine, but keep in mind that the scoreboard is only a record of results and gives no basis for predicting the next outcome.
2. Each result is independent: The outcome of each game is a matter of chance. Do not let short-term patterns sway you. You cannot control the result, only how much you bet and when you stop, so keep that in mind and play calmly.
3. Manage your bankroll: Avoid placing large bets on the assumption that a pattern will continue. Set a maximum for each bet in advance in case the pattern does not play out the way you expected.
4. Stay disciplined: Patterns can reverse at any time, so keep emotional reactions in check and play calmly and according to plan.

Ways to Use the Baccarat Scoreboard

This section may help if you are not sure how to use the scoreboard or want more variety in the way you bet.

What Betting Patterns Are Based on the Scoreboard?

Players use the scoreboard in many different ways.

Common approaches include following the streak, which means riding the trend when one side has won several rounds in a row; betting against the streak, on the assumption that the run is about to end; and waiting for a dragon, which means joining a streak only after seeing seven or more consecutive wins.

When the Big Road shows a neat, regular sequence, such as the Two-and-One pattern or Ping Pong, some players bet on that sequence breaking. Some players call this approach “asymmetry”: a form of betting against the trend that anticipates the end of a regular pattern.

There is no right way to read the scoreboard, but the approach players choose most often is following the streak (betting with the trend). The usual method is to keep betting on the Banker or Player hand once it has won three or four rounds in a row.

Following the streak is popular because every bet wins for as long as the streak lasts, but the expected value of each bet is the same as when betting against the streak.

No betting approach improves your chances of winning. Use the scoreboard simply as a way to make the game more enjoyable.

Combining the Scoreboard with Other Methods

Baccarat has many betting methods besides reading the scoreboard, and each of them can be combined with the scoreboard.

Combining a Betting System with the Scoreboard

A betting system is a set of rules for raising or lowering your bet, usually after a win or a loss, which changes the way your results swing. It does not improve your chances of winning.

The Paroli system, for example, is a simple method in which you double your bet after each win. Your profit doubles with every win for as long as the streak continues, but a single loss wipes out everything you have won up to that point.

For this reason, some players use the Paroli system to increase their bet when the scoreboard suggests following the streak. If you use it, decide in advance after how many consecutive wins you will stop.

Keep in mind that a betting system only changes the size and pattern of your bets and does not raise your chances of winning.

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Frequently Asked Questions About the Baccarat Scoreboard

Can the scoreboard be used for mini baccarat or Dragon Tiger?

Mini baccarat is a simplified form of baccarat without features such as the squeeze, in which the cards are revealed slowly. Most of the baccarat offered at online casinos is mini baccarat, so the scoreboard works the same way.

Dragon Tiger is different from baccarat because each side receives only one card, so its scoreboard behaves a little differently. In addition, a tie usually costs you half your stake, so ties matter much more than they do in baccarat.

For these reasons, strict bankroll management matters more than the scoreboard in Dragon Tiger.

What should I focus on when reading the baccarat scoreboard?

First, learn the Big Road, the most basic road. Checking the trend on the Big Road is the standard approach. Even when a pattern appears, the probability of the next outcome does not change.

Summary: The Scoreboard Shows the Trend but Cannot Predict the Next Outcome

The baccarat scoreboard is a set of charts that show how often the Player hand and the Banker hand have won so far. The Big Road in particular shows how long each side’s winning streaks have lasted. The more circles in a single column, the longer the streak.

Among players who use the scoreboard, the most common approach is following the streak (betting with the trend). This means betting on the side that is currently on a winning streak and continuing to do so until the streak ends.

The scoreboard cannot change the RTP, and it does not reveal the next outcome. Many players still enjoy it as a way to follow the trend of the game while deciding where to bet.

A betting system changes only how widely your results swing. It does not remove the house edge. Decide in advance the maximum you will bet on each round and the point at which you will stop.