Baccarat Variants: From Punto Banco to Dragon Tiger and Bac Bo

Nearly every baccarat table you meet online is punto banco with one thing changed: the paytable, the speed, the way cards are revealed, or an added fee that funds random multipliers. Only a few variants change who holds the bank or let anyone make a drawing decision, and those (chemin de fer and baccarat banque) are now mostly land-based. Spin-offs such as Dragon Tiger and Bac Bo borrow the baccarat layout but use different dealing altogether.

This guide sorts the variants into those four families, gives the rule change and, where an independent figure exists, the house edge. It assumes you know the standard game; if not, read how to play baccarat first.

All the variants on one sheet

Edges are eight-deck figures from the Wizard of Odds unless noted. “See game help” means no independent figure was found; fee-based live games publish their return to player in the in-game help panel, and you should read it there.

Family 1: the reference game and its table formats

Punto banco, the yardstick

The casino banks every coup, both hands follow a fixed chart, and the three main bets are Player, Banker and Tie. Banker pays 19 to 20 (the 5% commission) because it acts second and wins slightly more often. With eight decks, the Wizard of Odds calculates the Banker edge at 1.06%, Player at 1.24%, and an 8 to 1 Tie at 14.36%. Every other variant on this page is best judged against these three numbers.

Big table, midi and mini

These are the same game at different scales. The traditional big table seats up to 14 players, and players may handle and turn the cards. Midi baccarat uses a mid-sized table and usually lives in high-limit rooms. Mini baccarat moves to a blackjack-sized table where the dealer exposes all cards, which makes it faster and cheaper to sit at. Online RNG baccarat is, in effect, mini baccarat run by software.

Family 2: the old player-banked games

Chemin de fer

Chemin de fer, “chemmy” in British casinos, is the version in which the bank passes between seated players. The banker stakes an amount, others bet against it, and the casino earns only a cut of whatever the banker wins. The house rules published by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission set that commission at 4% or 5%, applied equally to the whole table. Two things make it genuinely different from punto banco: whoever controls the Player hand gets a free choice when it holds 5, and money moves between players rather than against the house. There is no house-banked Tie bet; level hands are a standoff.

Because players bank each other, chemin de fer clashes with how online casinos work, since they take the other side of every wager. You will rarely, if ever, find it at a crypto casino.

Baccarat banque

Baccarat banque (also known as baccarat à deux tableaux) is the oldest surviving form. A banker holds the bank for longer than in chemin de fer and plays against two Player hands at once, one on each side of the table, with punters backing either side. Drawing decisions are less rigid than in punto banco. It survives mainly in a few European rooms and is essentially absent online.

Family 3: paytable changes to the house-banked game

This is where most online variety comes from, and where the price of the Banker bet actually moves. The drawing chart stays the same in all of them.

No commission and Super 6

Instead of taking 5% from every Banker win, these tables pay Banker at even money except when Banker wins with a total of 6, which pays only half. Evolution’s No Commission Baccarat works this way and adds a Super 6 side bet paying 15 to 1 when Banker wins on 6. Wizard of Odds lists this rule set (also sold as Super 6 or Punto Banco 2000) at a 1.46% Banker edge with eight decks, higher than the classic 1.06%. The Player bet is unchanged at 1.24%, which makes it the cheaper side at these tables.

EZ Baccarat

EZ Baccarat also pays Banker at even money, but recovers the edge by treating any Banker victory on a three-card 7 as a push. That is a gentler fix: the EZ Banker edge comes out at 1.02% in the Wizard’s figures, a touch below the commission game. Two side bets define the variant. Dragon 7 pays 40 to 1 on that same three-card Banker 7 (edge 7.61%), and Panda 8 pays 25 to 1 on a winning Player total of 8 made with three cards (edge 10.19%).

Other commission-free paytables

Studios and casinos have tried several other ways of removing the commission, and they are not all equal. The Wizard of Odds’ appendix on commission-free baccarat lists versions where a Banker win on 5 pays half (Banker edge 0.93%, cheaper than standard) alongside a version where a Banker win on 8 pays half, which lifts the Banker edge to 4.07%. The lesson is simple: when a table says “no commission”, open the paytable and find out which Banker total is penalised.

Tie and pair paytables

Many tables also vary the side bets. A Tie at 9 to 1 instead of 8 to 1 cuts its edge from 14.36% to 4.84%, still far dearer than Banker. Pair bets typically pay 11 to 1 at about a 10.36% edge. Whatever the variant, these extras stay expensive.

Family 4: pace, presentation and fee games

Speed and Super Speed Baccarat

The rules and odds are standard; the clock is not. By Evolution’s own description, a normal live coup takes roughly 48 seconds, whereas Speed Baccarat deals face up and completes a round in 27 seconds, and Super Speed is faster still. The edge per coup is identical, so the cost per hour rises with the number of coups. At 75 coups an hour versus about 133, the same stake costs close to twice as much per hour at speed.

Squeeze and Control Squeeze

The squeeze is a ritual from Asian high-limit rooms: the card is bent and revealed slowly. In Evolution’s Live Baccarat Squeeze, the dealer squeezes the cards of the hand carrying the larger total wager under close-up cameras. In Control Squeeze, the cards sit face down over glass panels and you peel them back on screen yourself. Neither changes the result or the odds; both make each coup slower, which lowers the hourly cost.

Peek Baccarat

Evolution’s Peek Baccarat charges a 20% fee on Player and Banker bets. In return, after the initial deal the dealer reveals one to four cards and you may double or triple your bet before the remaining cards are shown. It is the only mainstream baccarat where you can change your stake mid-coup. Whether the fee is worth it depends on the published return in the game help, not on how good the extra option feels.

Lightning, XXXtreme Lightning and Golden Wealth

These games add a random multiplier round before the deal. In Lightning Baccarat, one to five Lightning Cards are drawn from a virtual 52-card deck with multipliers of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or 8x, funded by a 20% Lightning Fee on your total bet. XXXtreme Lightning raises it to four to eight cards, multipliers up to 10x and a 50% fee. Golden Wealth Baccarat uses five Golden Cards at 2x, 3x, 5x or 8x for a 20% fee. If your winning hand contains a matching card, the win is multiplied.

The fee is real money on every coup, while the multipliers arrive only occasionally. A 10 USDT bet at a 20% fee game costs 12 USDT to place. Read the return to player in the help panel and compare it with the classic table before switching.

Spin-offs that borrow the baccarat layout

Dragon Tiger

Dragon Tiger deals one card to each of two positions, Dragon and Tiger, and the higher card wins. Cards rank from ace (lowest) to king (highest) and suits do not matter for the main bets. When the two cards match in rank, Dragon and Tiger bets lose half the stake rather than pushing, which is where the house edge comes from: 3.73% on either side according to the Wizard of Odds. Evolution’s version pays the Tie at 11 to 1 and a Suited Tie at 50 to 1; the Wizard lists those at 10.36% and 13.98% edges. It is quick and simple, but more than three times the cost of a classic Banker bet.

Bac Bo

Bac Bo replaces cards with four dice, two for Player and two for Banker, and the higher two-dice total wins. Evolution’s dice sit in automatic shakers and stop in sequence, Player first. Player and Banker bets pay even money, and on a tie both lose 10% of the stake, giving a 1.13% edge per the Wizard of Odds. The Tie bet pays on a sliding scale by tied total, up to 88 to 1 when both sides tie on 2 or on 12. As a price, Bac Bo sits close to classic baccarat; as an experience, it is a dice game.

RNG versions of the same variants

Software studios also sell non-live editions of punto banco, EZ and no-commission baccarat. The paytable rules described above apply unchanged, but an RNG table can settle a coup in a few seconds, so the hourly cost of any variant is highest there. Demo modes on these tables are the cheapest way to see how an unfamiliar paytable behaves before you put crypto on a live version.

Provably fair house baccarat

Crypto casinos with in-house games sometimes offer their own baccarat, dealt by an algorithm you can audit after the coup through server and client seeds. The rules usually follow punto banco, but the paytable and return are set by the casino, so check the game’s info screen for the RTP and whether Banker carries commission. Verification proves the cards were not changed after your bet; it says nothing about whether the paytable is good value.

How to choose a variant

1. Find the Banker paytable. Commission at 5%, EZ, or a “6 pays half” rule? That fixes which main bet is cheapest.
2. Check for a fee. Peek and multiplier games add 20% or 50% to each bet; read the RTP before you play.
3. Count the pace. Speed tables double the hourly cost of the same stake. Squeeze tables slow it down.
4. Look at limits in your coin. Live minimums are usually shown in fiat equivalent; keep each coup to a small slice, one or two percent, of the session money.
5. Ignore the novelty side bets. They exist on almost every variant and nearly all carry high edges.

For tables that take crypto deposits, see our live Bitcoin baccarat page and in the casino reviews. The odds and strategy guide explains why bet choice matters more than any system, and baccarat bonuses covers how these games count toward wagering.

Baccarat variants FAQ

What is the most common type of baccarat?

Punto banco. The casino banks every coup, both hands follow a fixed drawing chart and Banker wins pay a 5% commission. Mini baccarat, speed, squeeze and most online tables are punto banco under another name.

Is no-commission baccarat a better deal?

Usually not for Banker bettors. Where a Banker 6 is paid at half, the Banker edge is 1.46% by the Wizard of Odds’ maths against 1.06% at a classic table, so Player at 1.24% becomes the cheaper bet. EZ tables are the exception: their Banker edge is about 1.02%.

How does chemin de fer differ from punto banco?

Chemin de fer passes the bank around the table, so players win and lose money to each other while the house keeps a 4% or 5% cut of banker wins, and a Player total of 5 is a free choice. Punto banco is banked by the casino and leaves nobody any drawing decision.

Is Dragon Tiger the same as baccarat?

No. Dragon Tiger deals a single card to each side and the higher card wins, with Dragon and Tiger bets losing half on a tie. Its main-bet edge of 3.73% is well above classic baccarat.

Does Lightning Baccarat have better odds?

It adds a 20% fee to each bet to fund random multipliers of up to 8x, so the cost per coup is not comparable to a classic table. Check the RTP shown in the game’s help panel before choosing it.

Which baccarat variant has the lowest house edge?

Among common online versions, the EZ Baccarat Banker bet at about 1.02% and the classic Banker bet at 1.06% are cheapest. Bac Bo’s main bets sit close behind at 1.13%.

All of these games are for adults only (18+, or the higher local age). Set deposit and loss limits in your casino account, and if gambling stops feeling like entertainment, our responsible gambling page lists free international help.