Dragon Tiger baccarat is a simplified version of the classic table game. In Dragon Tiger, the general premise is to bet on the left card or the right card – the Dragon or the Tiger – as having the highest value. Aces are low and kings are the highest card, and when the cards are revealed, you’ll see if you bet on the correct hand. The popular variant of the classic card game is also known as no-commission Dragon Tiger baccarat because, unlike in baccarat, both hands pay 1:1.
The game of Dragon Tiger has gained popularity in land-based casinos and at online casinos because of its simplicity. While straightforward from the view of the player, baccarat does have its complexities and extended rules. In Dragon Tiger, it’s just a battle of the high card with a few clear-cut side bets often also available.
Tracing the origins of Dragon Tiger leads you on a straight path to baccarat, which has been around since the 15th Century. Dragon Tiger, as we know it today, is rumoured to originate from a casino in Cambodia, but has gained much of its traction in the form of online live casino games.
The biggest differences between Dragon Tiger and traditional baccarat are the number of cards in play and how wins are decided. In Dragon Tiger, the Dragon hand and Tiger hand are given just one card. In baccarat, the Player hand and the Banker hand each get two cards and possibly more. As for deciding wins, Dragon Tiger is a straightforward high card wins.
Baccarat is about getting the closest to nine with multiple cards. Plus, neither hand takes a commission on wins in Dragon Tiger, while baccarat sees five percent of Banker wins get paid as commission.
The objective of Dragon Tiger is to bet on the side that ends up with the high card. Card rankings play with Ace as being low, two to ten being their standing values, and then jacks, queens, and kings being the highest-scoring cards in that order. You may also try to bet on a Tie occurring or on some of the side bets that combine numbers, suits, and the like.
The layout of the Dragon Tiger baccarat table differs between single-player or online tables to in-person physical tables. As for the single-player tables, you’ll have one half be the Dragon betting zone, another be the Tiger betting zone. Then, there’ll be a more central betting zone for a Tie bet and any side bets on offer marked nearby.
The role of the dealer is to slide a card out of the shoe face down, place it on the Dragon side, and then do the same on the Tiger side. Once the betting has closed, the dealer will reveal the cards, name the winning bets, discard the cards, and go again.
It’s fairly standard practice for casino card games, from blackjack to baccarat to Dragon Tiger, to fill the shoe with eight decks and to cut the deck when it arrives at the table. Some will use fewer decks, perhaps four or six, but usually, you’ll be playing with eight decks in Dragon Tiger.
A game of Dragon Tiger baccarat is all about betting on the highest card, be that the Dragon card or the Tiger card. Both payout the same and both have the same odds of winning, but a Tie is also possible.
First, you will place your bets, be they on Dragon, Tiger, Tie, or any of the side bets. The dealer will then draw a card for Dragon and a card for Tiger, reveal them, and then pay the winners. In the event of a Tie, in most Dragon Tiger baccarat games, players get 50 percent of their Dragon or Tiger stakes back.
Winners in Dragon Tiger baccarat are determined by the Dragon and Tiger card.
When the cards are revealed, the one with the highest value wins.
So, for example, if the Dragon side gets an eight but the Tiger side gets a queen, Tiger wins.
In this case, all Tiger bets win and Dragon and Tie bets lose. Side bets have their own intricacies to determine winners, which we’ll get into shortly.
The Dragon bet and the Tiger bet are the main bets of Dragon Tiger. Winning on either of these pays out at 1:1, which means that, if you bet two coins on Dragon and Dragon wins, you’ll get the two coins back and the two-coin payout for a four-coin win. Ties can vary in their payouts. The table will denote the exact odds, but usually, the payouts range from 8:1 to 12:1. You have to bet on a Tie to win if the card values are the same, regardless of suit.
The Big or Small side bet in Dragon Tiger baccarat has you bet on whether the card on that side of the table, the Dragon side or the Tiger side, will be above or below seven.
In the event of the card being a seven, this side bet will lose. Should it win, you can expect odds of 1:1.
Suit bets are also a form of side bet available at some Dragon Tiger baccarat tables. Here, you can bet on the Dragon card or the Tiger card being of a particular suit. Wins here pay at 3:1.
Like Big or Small bets, Odd or Even bets split the options in half, with Odd bets covering three, five, seven, nine, jack, and king, and Even bets covering two, four, six, eight, ten, and queen.
Again, you bet on the Dragon or Tiger card specifically, while an ace results in the bet losing. This side bet also pays at 1:1.
The base payout structure of Dragon Tiger is 1:1 for winning on a Dragon or Tiger bet and between 8:1 and 12:1 for a Tie bet. Probability-wise, there’s a 46.3 percent chance of being correct with a Dragon or a Tiger bet. Ties have around a 7.4 percent chance of landing.
With a tie being present and Dragon and Tiger paying out at 1:1, the house edge for Dragon Tiger baccarat comes in at just over 3.7 percent. This is marginally higher than some other classic table games like European roulette at 2.7 percent overall, but a fair bit higher than a Banker (1.06%) or Player (1.24%) bet in baccarat.
Dragon Tiger baccarat seems like a 50-50 shot on each hand with odds that accurately reflect that at 1:1, but there is the potential for a Tie. As such, the probability of winning is below 50.0 percent on each round.
The Martingale betting system is a popular strategy that can be applied to almost any casino table game. With this strategy, the player doubles the bet after every loss. As Dragon Tiger pays 1:1, the system, in theory, can work as a loss-recovery strategy.
However, Dragon Tiger baccarat is still randomized and with a house edge, so a series of losses is very likely, making the betting of the system quite extreme on a poor run of results.
Perhaps the most straightforward betting strategy is the flat betting strategy. With this, every bet you place is of the same size. This way, over the course of your designated betting amount, you’ll be hoping to win more than you lose and for, with Dragon Tiger, Ties not to come up very often.
When it comes to Dragon Tiger betting, the better risk management techniques will generally point you away from the Tie bet and some of the higher-odds side bets. Dragon and Tiger bets have the lowest house edge in the game, and while Big/Small and Odd/Even bets look similar, the house edge is close to double at 7.7 percent.
It would take a very specific set of circumstances to encourage a bet on a Tie in Dragon Tiger baccarat.
As an example, were you to have played enough rounds to be down to just a handful of cards in the shoe but know outright that you haven’t seen an ace yet, then, maybe, a bet on a Tie would be worthwhile.
Overall, however, the house edge is just too high.
Payouts of 8:1 have an edge of 32.77 percent, while the more common 10:1 payout on Ties still toes a 17.83 percent house edge.
However, 12:1 does swing the house edge down to 2.89 percent, which is better than the Dragon bet or Tiger bet house edge. Still, though, there’s only a 7.47 percent shot at a Tie occurring.
Dragon Tiger is purely a game of chance.
The deck is shuffled and the two cards are drawn face-down on the table with the winner being whichever has the highest value. On the base game, Dragon Tiger is a 50-50 shot with 1:1 payout on 94.53 percent of the games, with the other 7.47 percent chance being for a potential draw.
The best bet in Dragon Tiger for beginners is to back either the Dragon or the Tiger.
Both offer a 1:1 payout and, unlike in other baccarat games, neither is weighted by tie rules or a table commission. Plus, if a Tie occurs, you get half of your initial bet back in most games.
Dragon Tiger will tend to use a shoe of four, six, or eight decks, making it exceedingly difficult to count cards like in blackjack. Further, the shoes are replaced regularly and cut, making card counting all the more unlikely.
Despite its popularity online, Dragon Tiger isn’t exactly a commonplace game at physical casinos. Live games like Dragon Tiger Live blur the lines between in-person and online baccarat play.
Dragon Tiger is a very swift game, with many game rounds lasting only one minute and, quite often, being even quicker than that.
You can play Dragon Tiger on mobile devices, with Pragmatic Play Live’s creation Dragon Tiger Live being optimized for mobile play.
The Tie bet in Dragon Tiger varies from paying 8:1 to 12:1, and with the standard shoe having eight decks, the potential 6,448 ties only make up 7.47 percent of the total combinations. Even at 12:1, the house edge for a Tie bet sits at 2.89 percent up to 32.77 percent for an 8:1 payout.
Strategies don’t significantly improve your chances when playing a game of Dragon Tiger.
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