Introduction to Baccarat Tournaments

Baccarat is a highly popular game at both land-based and online casinos. If you are a Baccarat enthusiast, you may be interested in tournaments held by casinos where you can play face to face with fellow players for the grand prize. Online Baccarat competitions may not be as common as ones offering Blackjack or Poker game, but if you like playing this game and competing against other players, you can still find casinos that organise them. Let’s see how you can join such a tournament and win.

Baccarat Tournament Rules

The first thing you should know about Baccarat tournaments is that other participants’ moves won’t affect your result. The rules of the game remain the same, meaning that you will have to beat the house in order to earn chips.

When you join the tournament, you will get the same number of chips as other players for a buy-in. The tournament starts with a series of rounds and the most successful competitors at each table will proceed to the next round until only one table is left. A participant who ends the last round with the most chips is the winner of the tournament. If all competitors experience a losing streak and lose their chips, the one who lost the least amount of chips is the winner.

Baccarat Tournament Strategy

Taking into account that the rules of the game remain the same, the only thing you can do when competing in a Baccarat tournament is managing your bankroll. It is recommended that players start placing lower bets so that they can save their bankroll for later. Once you have checked out your standing in the round, you should increase your bet and start moving more aggressively up the leaderboard. With such a strategy, you will avoid losing chips at the beginning of the tournament.

Another approach is starting aggressively and establishing a lead quickly so that you can relax later and keep an eye on your fellow players’ performance. With this strategy, you are supposed to raise your bet if one of the participants starts to threaten your position on the leaderboard. However, this strategy may be tricky as you may have initially wagered many chips and you don’t have enough of them to increase your stake this time.

When it comes to the type of bets, you should stick to banker bets. Avoid playing a tie bet unless are trying to catch another player in the last round or you want to prevent other players from playing a tie bet to catch you. Some Baccarat tournaments may allow you to play a secret bet, so if you can use it, you should save it for the last hand. Finally, if you are on a winning streak, raise your bets and vice versa.

Baccarat Tournaments with Biggest Awards

Baccarat tournaments held at brick-and-mortar casinos have higher buy-ins and bigger prize pools than those available at online casinos. The largest Baccarat tournament in the world is the Tournoi de Chemin de Fer held in Monte Carlo every February with a whopping €1 million grand prize. Another tournament with a massive prize is the Macao Baccarat Tournament held in China where a winner can cash in $650,000. While these two attract mainly high-rolling elite, the Bally’s Casino New Orleans Mini Baccarat Tournament can be joined for free. It takes place on a monthly basis and the grand prize is $100,000.

Las Vegas players can join one of three Baccarat tournaments in the Grand Dragon Master Baccarat Championship with a $1.2 million prize pool. The tournament with the biggest award is the Royal Dragon Baccarat Tournament with a $750,000 grand prize. As for online Baccarat tournaments, they are pretty rare and prizes are considerably lower.