Supplementary | Trending to Baccarat

Instead of writing a commentary to Savyseph's webpage Trending to Baccarat, I decided to supplement it.

For most people from the western side of the globe, casino started 1698 in Venezia but betting shops in China had been growing rapidly before recorded history. Dice and pai-gow were the popular games then. Other games were not so easily traceable. The history of betting houses in China is largely based on myth and speculations. In his explanation of pai-gow, Michael Shackleford said that it is the oldest of the casino games that easily pre-dates roulette and baccarat. Pai-gow is similar to baccarat as both games had nine as the high score. Any amount that with a sum that is more than 9 will be subtracted by 10 in order for 9 to be the highest score. With this scoring feature baccarat is easily identified with pai-gow. In pai-gow you get two chances to beat the dealer. In baccarat the second chance is forfeited if there is a natural score to quicken the game. Shackleford calculated that 41% of hands result in a push. Baccarat recognized the letdown of push bets and creatively came up with a high payout in the event of a tie. Pai-gow was addictive because of the skill element to beat your opponent. SavySeph is wise to conclude that baccarat may have developed with inspiration from pai-gow.

Ian Sutton mentioned fan-tan which is in no way similar to pai-gow. Fan-tan overtook pai-gow in popularity due to the high rate of push bets especially when all opponents are equally skilled. This bummer caused people to seek other games where their skills would make the difference and fan-tan was such a game. Chinese had always pride themselves with the skill of the eye. The hand should never be too quick for the eye to avoid being cheated. Fan-tan is a good game to put this skill to practice. The ability to predict the number of straws or beads within a margin of 4 by looking at the stack or pile is the very essence of the skill of the eye in the case of fan-tan. This is the element that makes fan-tan addictive during the days that Sutton was studying.

For Malaysia trending to baccarat already took place in the mid-1980s. In the 70s punter would give an account on how they fared at blackjack. At that time blackjack tables were the majority in the casino. During the mid-80s when I was of age to enter the casino, baccarat tables were became the majority and blackjack tables were almost extinct. The main reason was good players would not like weak player in the same table. Decision of inexperience players to hit or stand may lead to the banker getting the highest score. Shackleford noticed that Caucasian sitting on a pai-gow table would cause other players to leave the table because it is deemed as bad luck. This is just a diplomatic explanation for Shackleford’s ears only. Chinese would know that it is based on the assumption Caucasians wouldn’t know this predominantly Chinese game that well. If they could recognize Shackleford as the Wizard of Odds they would definitely not leave when he sits down.