How to Read Baccarat Board

Suppose you’ve ever sat down at a baccarat table, or even watched a few rounds being played online. In that case, you’ve probably seen a wall of tiny red and blue circles flashing across a digital scoreboard. Those little dots, called roads, are what players use to track trends, streaks, and so-called patterns in the game.

Now, at first glance, these tiny red and blue circles can look quite chaotic, but once you understand what they mean and how to read baccarat boards, it becomes one of the most interesting parts of the game! 

You’re basically using previous information to try to predict whether the Banker or Player position is more likely to win next. Of course, each round is entirely independent from the last one, and previous results have no impact on future gameplay.

Now, just before we dive into looking at how each board works, it’s worth knowing that baccarat is one of the most popular casino games at online casinos in New Zealand – both for casual players and serious gamblers! Simply understanding how to read scoreboards correctly can make your sessions far more enjoyable and strategic!

What Are Baccarat Boards?

In traditional NZ land-based casinos, baccarat boards appear as physical screens, and these display the past game results. If you play at online casinos, however, these digital grids display Banker (red) and Player (blue) wins in a more visual format.

Now, it’s important to remember that these displays don’t actually change the odds or outcomes of future events. Each round is independent, as with all random casino games, but they can be used to help you recognise streaks and patterns, which can themselves be used to help guide your betting decisions.

Now, even if you don’t believe in trends, baccarat boards can still help you organise information, stay focused, and make deliberate decisions of which bets to place next, rather than simply making random guesses.

Totally new to baccarat? Then don’t forget to check out our How to Play Baccarat and Popular Strategies guide.

The Five Main Baccarat Roads

There are several types of baccarat scoreboards, each showing the game’s history in a slightly different way. Let’s break down the five most common “roads” you’ll see:

Bead Plate (Bead Road)

This is the most basic and beginner-friendly baccarat board. It looks like a simple grid of coloured circles, and these are, usually, as followed:

• Red = Banker win
• Blue = Player win
• Green = Tie

Each new result drops into the next square, left to right, row by row. Think of it as a chronological record of what’s happened so far, so there’s not really any fancy logic or anything – just a simple, no-frills overview of the most recent results.

Big Road

The Big Road is where pattern recognition begins. It’s also the foundation for all the other roads. Now, essentially, the Big Road begins a new column every time the outcome changes (for example, from Banker to Player). If there are multiple Banker wins in a row, for example, they begin to form a vertical red streak, whereas consecutive Player wins form a vertical blue streak. When the result flips, a new column begins.

This is the road most players look at when trying to identify whether a “Banker streak” or “Player streak” is forming.

Big Eye Boy

Now, things start to get a bit more interesting. With Big Eye Boy, for example, the patterns change, showing general structure rather than actual game results.

The Big Eye Boy basically shows consistency or chaos. If you see lots of Red Circles, it means there are consistent, repeating patterns. If, on the other hand, you see lots of Blue Circles, it means there are irregular, or random patterns.

Essentially, it tells you whether the game has been following a predictable rhythm (as predictable as a random casino table game can be, anyway), or if it’s been playing in a volatile manner.

Small Road

Small Road is quite similar to Big Eye Boy, but it uses a different starting point and looks one column further back in the Big Road’s data. The idea is to measure a larger sample size – and, subsequently, the overall momentum of patterns. Another way to look at it is to think of it as a trend-within-a-trend indicator.

Cockroach Pig (or “Cockroach Road”)

Yes, that’s really the name. This one digs even deeper, looking two columns back in the Big Road to try and detect emerging streaks before they become obvious. Clearly, Cockroach Pig/Road is better-suited to more experienced players, and it’s not going to be of much use to beginners!

Still, regardless of which Board you use, the general logic/presentation tends to remain the same: red = consistent, while blue = inconsistent.

How to Read the Patterns

While baccarat results are random, the boards, as we saw above, allow you to get a kind of mental feeling for how the game’s been playing. There are, generally speaking, two core types of players who follow baccarat boards:

1. Trend-Followers: These types of players tend to bet on the continuation of a streak. For example, if Banker has won, say, five times in a row, they’ll continue to back Banker—and potentially increase their stake—until it loses.
2. Trend-Breakers: These types of players, instead, deliberately bet on the change. For example, if Banker has won five times in a row, they’ll switch to Player – and may even increase their stake each time that Player continues to lose – similar to the Martingale strategy.

Both methods are based on interpreting patterns from the Big Road and derived roads. Of course, neither guarantees a win, but they do help to provide you with some structure, especially when it comes to decision-making.

Common Baccarat Board Terms

Regardless of whether you’re playing baccarat at land-based casinos or at Real Money Baccarat Casinos in New Zealand, there are a few core terms you will want to familiarise yourself with to understand better the game and what players are talking about. These include:

• Streak: Several consecutive wins by Banker or Player.
• Chop: Alternating wins between Banker and Player.
• Dragon: A long streak of the same outcome – like 9+ Banker wins in a row, for example.
• Roadmap: The collective set of all five roads displayed on the screen.
• Ping Pong: A perfect alternating pattern of results.

Learning these terms will help you understand what other players at the table are saying, and while, of course, it’s less common to see them online, you can sometimes see players discussing them – especially when playing live dealer games.

Comparing Baccarat to Other Table Games

Baccarat often gets “lumped in”, if you like, with other casino table games like blackjack, simply because both involve comparing hands – and comparing them to a target number. The reality, however, is that the two games couldn’t be more different.

Blackjack requires skill, sound decision-making, and strategic thinking. You have to choose whether to hit, stand, or double down based on mathematical probabilities. Your decisions actually have an outcome on the game, and, depending on how “well” you play, you can even shift the odds in your favour sometimes.

Baccarat, on the other hand, is entirely luck-based once your bet is placed. There are no decisions to make (aside from choosing whether to back Player or Banker), and once the first card is dealt, there is nothing more for you to do!

If you’re curious about the differences between these games, feel free to check out our What Is the Difference Between Blackjack and Baccarat guide.

Final Thoughts

Learning to play baccarat is easy. After all, you’re simply betting on which hand – Banker or Player – will win (get closer to a total of nine.) However, by learning how to read a baccarat board, you’re able to add an extra layer of excitement to the game.

Plus, once you start recognising the flow of colours and patterns, you’ll probably start to understand why experienced players love the game so much. It becomes less about random guessing/betting and more about looking for trends to guide your betting.

Of course, previous results, as we said earlier, have absolutely zero impact on future outcomes; Banker could win 1,000,000,000 times in a row, and the odds of Banker winning the following hand would remain the same – but using roads allows you to see the game, and how it’s been playing, from a slightly different perspective!

Last updated: 13/11/2025