Pando

CT70's TIE information is very valid and makes perfect sense I never played ties until he posted his TIE information, but now I do And I am much better off doing so Thanks CT70

Nice post CT70 I must play the way you do as I do notice the difference between pre-shuffled and machine shuffled cards. That's a great point about the shoe returning to its strongest bias later in the shoe. I had never thought about that but I will now This is just the greatest forum for new ideas from some of the best experienced players Pando

Hi Wendel That was just as example I saw. Some shoes (like another I saw yesterday) have the exact same number of hands before the shoe changes. In this case it was 16 /16 / 16 /16. I really could not believe it. Sadly I didn't write down the shoe as I was playing another table. I put the / in the shoe in the place I think the shoe has changed, and that effects how to play it. It was not a set amount of hands, but it seems to be between 12 and 16 every time. That was when the character of the shoe changed. I am just wondering if the shoe designers do that deliberately. Pando

Part of the way I play baccarat is to split and record the shoe into Player and Banker sides. I find I get a lot useful information if I do that. Now I also track another factor. Here is a shoe I played yesterday B12522213113121114441122221551 One thing I see in this shoe is that the character of the shoe, and therefore the way to play it, changes a number of times. The way I see this shoe is like this B125222 / 1311312111 / 444 / 1122221 / 551 If you add up the hands in the sections of the shoe as I have split it, you see that the hands in each section is fairly consistent I see 14 hands for the first section, 15 for the second, 12 for the third, 11 for the 4th, and 11 for the fifth. What I am saying is that I find it useful to plot the changes like this as is signals that a change in the shoe is imminent That can only be useful best regards Pando

A clear and definite case of cheating Do we know which on-line casino it is?

I wasn't at the casino unfortunately I am guessing its a pre-shuffled shoe where the players handle the cards

Reports today of a shoe a few days ago at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore that had 63 bankers The shoe, not surprisingly, took 6 hours to complete Can anyone add any more information??

Thanks CT70 I have been mostly flat betting, occasionally chipping up if the ties are stringing together I almost always flat bet in my other P or B bets so its something I am quite comfortable with And yes I understand the ties work best with preshuffled cards Many thanks again Pando

Well said McVince

Hi everyone I have been following the post made by CT70 about playing ties, and I can say my results are very encouraging What I have never seen addressed on the forum is any form of money management for playing ties So far I have basically just flat bet or occasionally a 1,2 loop. Just as play other baccarat bets But as the payout is 8:1 the dynamics are different So I wonder if anyone plays ties with a progression, or has a progression they could share. Or any other management method for that matter I am so encouraged by CT70's post I want maximise my strategy Any help appreciated so thanks in advance Pando

You are welcome, don't hesitate to ask again, and best of luck Pando

I should add that the Macau casinos deal ONLY in Hong Kong dollars (HKD$). Sure you can change any currency into HKD$ at the casinos, but I have no idea what their rates are like. You can $HKD or Chinese Renminbi (RMB) in taxis and shops but I find it easier to just stick to HKD. Having said that your change will be given in RMB so you will end up with both. The currencies have the same value. I used to buy a bunch of HKD$ outside of Macau (I was in Thailand at the time) and then just use the ATM's at Sands for extra cash if needed. The ATM's inside the casino are safe as they cannot be tampered with but I would not use ATM's in public places where you have no guarantee about security. Here is a link for the hotel Casa Real (sorry I spelled it incorrectly in my first post). If you think it looks like a casino, you area right. Its a casino as well. https://www.agoda.com/casa-real-hotel/hotel/macau-mo.html

Hi Wolfat I recall that the supervisor cuts the shoe and the dealer deals only one free hand after the burn. But generally there are lots of players so free hands are not really a problem. Sands have minimum HK$600 (about US$50) at many tables, that's the lowest I have seen anywhere in Macau You can bet sitting or standing, I used to wander around all the tables to play MDB+ - Sands was VERY MDB+ friendly (I won 16 consecutive bets one day) The food at Sands is excellent, wonderful buffet breakfast, great lunch and dinner too. There is a cheap Asian style food hall which has about a dozen different varieties of food (Portuguese food also). I love the Portuguese hot pot. I have never had any safety issues in Macau, but you can make sure by using taxis to get around at night, they are very cheap. When you arrive at the airport the taxis are outside but the drivers don't speak English so take a copy of your hotel in Chinese to give to the driver. I have never changed money in Macau, I use the ATM's at the casinos which are safe and the exchange rates are excellent. I recommend the Casa Royale Hotel as a good place to stay, you can walk to Sands from there (about 10 minutes) and they have a free shuttle bus to the waterfront. From the waterfront you can get the bus to Sands or any of the other major casinos. From Sands if you got out the main door and turn left there is a bus pickup area to get a free bus to the Venetian (same company as Sands). They run free luxury buses back to Sands or the waterfront. I would not call Macau a tourist attraction but there are a few historic places to visit, such as Senado Square which has lots of old Portuguese buildings. Macau really has two parts - the old city part (where Sands is) and the Cotai Strip where the new giant casinos such as Venetian and Galaxy have been built. There are so many of them I haven't been to all of them yet. Lets know if you need any more info cheers Pando

Hi Wolfat I have played in Macau many times There are dozens of very, very big casinos there including Galaxy, Venetian etc but I prefer to stay and play in the city area and Sands Macau is my favourite. Having said that there are free shuttle buses from the waterfront area to the major casinos and back, they run when they are full or every 15 minutes There is so much choice (Galaxy has 350 baccarat tables) that its hard to say which casino is better than another. That's for your personal choice If you have any specific questions please ask me again regards Pando

Thanks Oz I gladly do it just as you do Pando

Hi Oz I see my name in there. Have I done (or not done) something I should have Pando

I totally agree with that zeckham I notice almost every day I play that cards come out in clumps, bunches of 4's or 5's or picture cards 6 or 7 at a time Ties hands with 6 picture cards are not uncommon Shuffle machines whether in the casino or card factories do not shuffle like a proper riffle shuffle would.

Oh really, maybe I saw that at the time and forgot about it Thanks for the feedback Pando

Hi everyone I have a question for the accomplished MDB+ players amongst us (there are many, to be sure) If we see a suitable MDB+ (ie; reasonably balanced) shoe and we treat both Player and Banker sides as separate shoes, can we assume that the triggers we use for the whole shoe can be halved and used in one side of the shoe? In other words if we are looking for say 3 or 4 x 2's IAR without a 1 (in the whole shoe), and betting the next 1 stays one, could we use a trigger of 2 x 2's in one side of the shoe and bet the next 1 stays 1 in the same side of the shoe. That would also possibly reduce our betting progression to 2 steps, and my favourite 1,2 loop could apply. Just thinking out loud here Any feedback welcomed regards Pando

Exactly correct CT70 Pando

If anyone wants to indulge in a session of self flagellation here is the Patent for Angel Card (Japan) Shuffle machines Most casinos world wide use Angel Cards and readers (I think USA still uses Bee Cards) https://www.google.com/patents/US9457262

Haha Fair call Brad Pano

Wow, this is sounding very interesting I look forward to further information I have observed that ties often come in clusters, at least where I play Thanks CT70

Here is a quote from Wizard of Vegas (hope its OK to post here) Personally I don’t see what is so interesting about Parrondo’s paradox but you are not the first to ask me about it so I’ll give you my thoughts on it. The thrust of it is that if you alternate between two particular losing games the player can gain an advantage. As an example, consider Game 1 in which the probability of winning $1 is 49% and losing $1 is 51%. In Game 2 if the player’s bankroll is evenly divisible by 3 he has a 9% chance of winning $1 and 91% of losing $1. In Game 2 if the player’s bankroll is not divisible by 3 he has a 74% chance of winning $1 and 26% of losing $1. Game 1 clearly has an expected value of 49%*1 + 51%*-1 = -2%. In Game 2 you can not simply take a weighed average of the two possibilities. This is because the game quickly gets off of a bankroll remainder of 1 with a win, and often alternates between remainders of 0 and 2. In other words the bankroll will disproportionately play the game with a 9% chance of winning. Overall playing Game 2 only the expected value is -1.74%. However by alternating two games of Game 1 and two games of Game 2 we break the alternating pattern of Game 2. This results in playing the 75% chance game more and the 9% less. There are an endless number of ways to mix the two games. A 2 and 2 strategy of playing two rounds of Game 1 and two of Game 2, then repeating, results in an expected value of 0.48%. I should emphasize this has zero practical value in the casino. No casino game changes the rules based on the modulo of the player’s bankroll. However I predict it is only a matter of time before some quack comes out with Parrondo betting system, alternating between roulette and craps, which of course will be just as worthless as every other betting system.

Hi CT70 I would be keen to know how you know when the ties will occur in either game I always understood that they were absolutely not predictable Thanks in advance Pando