Eliot Jacobson Ph.D.

I first considered if the Dragon 7 baccarat side bet was susceptible to a card counting methodology in mid-2011 when it was exclusively a proprietary side bet owned by DEQ that was associated with the commission free baccarat variant EZ Baccarat.

The saga of the 14 gamblers who won $1.5 million from the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City by exploiting un-shuffled cards in mini-baccarat continued this week.

The Dragon Side Bet for EZ Baccarat is simple to describe. This side bet pays 40-to-1 if the dealer’s three-card total of 7 beats the player, otherwise the bet loses. In September, 2011, I realized that this side bet was vulnerable to a card counting methodology of advantage play. I worked over the next few days to evaluate the appropriate systems and their value.

The Dragon Bonus (DB) wager is arguably the most common and popular side bet for baccarat on the market. DB allows the gambler to not only wager that either the Banker side or Player side will win, but that the winning side will crush the losing side by a significant number of points.  The larger the margin of victory, the larger the payout for the DB wager.

While looking around for what to do next, I decided to visit one of my favorite sources for interesting baccarat side bets: the website ukcasinotablegames.info . There I found the “Colour Match” (CM) baccarat side bet.

According to an article in the Daily Mail, Phil Ivey is soon going to get a chance to appeal the 2014 ruling that allowed Crockfords Casino in Mayfair to keep the $12 million Ivey won playing baccarat i