Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesisarobot
Can anyone on this forum explain where the opportunity for an edge is in bacarat, outside of edge-sorting? I thought it was just a coin-toss game
certain decks aren't symmetrical on the back
with edge sorting, you get the casino to agree to turn certain cards 180 degrees and then agree to never rotate any cards from here on out in shuffling and dealing, by doing this, you can always know whether the next card in the shoe is of the turned or unturned variety
since you know if that card is going to player or banker, and you can choose which side to bet upon before each hand is dealt, you use this information to bet on the advantaged side whether or not it's the turned card type and whether or not that is good for your hand
in order to do this the casinos need to comply, it had to be disguised as one of the eccentric requests a whale would have for reasons of luck, ie they'd also ask for the room to smell of lavender and to be served fresh oranges every 23 minutes, they even demanded the dealers speak chinese and all gameplay occurred in that language, further making it difficult to scrutinize what was going on when the woman had to correct or remind the dealer how to handle the cards properly or who to sort them at the beginning to ensure the right cards were facing the right way
phil ivey had a reputation of a millionaire who lost lots of money in the pits, so it's most likely that he was the beard in the scheme that casinos were used to accomodating because he lost so much there
but since they were so incredibly successful at it and really pushed it, they essentially killed it, every casino in the world that spreads baccarat now knows about this so it's no longer possible, only thing to my knowledge that is possible is a rare situation mentioned in the vid where if you do a running count then you have a very slight advantage in the final hand of the shoe, but it's such a minor advantage it's not worthwhile
but then again, i didn't know about edge sorting before ivey got busted for it, there could be some leaks but it's definitely not done by someone who makes an instagram account telling everyone how he's unbeatable at baccarat and he wants you to invest in his gambling
i legit think mikki chose baccarat because it's one of the least understood table games that most people haven't played