WGM#38 NOV/DEC 2015

牌 中 玄 机 : 探 索 百 家 乐 之 “ 路 ”( 第 二 部 分 ) Fate in the cards: understanding baccarat trends PART 2
is started, so the big road becomes a series of
columns of alternating blue and red hollow
circles.
Ties are displayed as a green line across the
most recent circle.
Multiple ties gives rise to multiple lines, or
sometimes a small number next to the green
line represents the number of ties.
If a tie comes up before any banker or player
result in the shoe, the green tie line is marked
in the very top left cell in the grid, with the first
circle drawn later in the same cell.
Pairs are displayed with a dot on the edge of the
circle (red dot for banker pair, blue dot for player
pair).
On some displays, natural winners are displayed
with a yellow dot in the middle of the circle.
If the road runs out of columns, it simply scrolls
to the left.
‘Ping pong’ describes a run of alternating banker
and player. Some players refer to a run of two
bankers alternating with two players as ‘double
ping pong’.
If there are more than six consecutive bankers
or players, the display turns right when it hits
the bottom of the grid and continues along the
bottom row, creating a pattern known as ‘the
dragon’.
If a streak bumps into a prior dragon, it
immediately turns right creating a new dragon
(sometimes referred to as a ‘double dragon’).
• The Bead Plate:
Again red means banker, blue means player and
green means tie.
The first symbol appears in the top left corner
of the grid and the road fills down vertically
through all six cells of the column, moves to the
second column and those six cells are filled in,
and so on.
Unlike the big road, ties occupy a cell in the grid.
• Derived Roads:
They are not easy to immediately understand.
They were invented in Macau after Casino Lisboa
opened in 1970.
It is said the ‘small road’ was invented by Mr
Chan Kuen in the early 1970s, Lisboa dealer
Chao Hon Mun (who had big eyes) adapted the
small road in the mid 1970s to create a new road
which became known as ‘big eye boy’, and later
someone adapted big eye boy and the small
road to create ‘cockroach road’, supposedly sonamed
by some junket agents.
They are not a direct representation of the
results of the shoe, but are derived from the big
road and describe the patterns in the big road.
They are made up of red and blue symbols:
hollow circles for big eye boy, solid circles for
the small road, and slashes for the cockroach
road.
IMPORTANT: The red and blue symbols that
make up the derived roads do not correspond
to banker or player. Red generally means there
is a pattern, and blue generally means the shoe
is ‘choppy’.
There are no markings for ties, pairs or naturals.
Due to the operation of the colour rules, the
derived roads do not start at the very beginning
of the shoe. Big eye boy, the small road and the
cockroach road each respectively start following
the hand after the first hand in the second, third
and fourth columns of the big road.
Once a derived road starts, an additional red or
blue symbol will be added to that derived road
after every hand.
Derived roads follow the same column, dragon
and scrolling conventions as the big road.
Because the derived roads start later than the
big road, the number of symbols in them will
be less than in the big road. The differences for
big eye boy, the small road and the cockroach
road will respectively be one plus the number
of symbols in the first column, first two columns,
and first three columns of the big road.
Now let’s move on to explain the colour rules, the
prediction table and how players interpret the roads to
determine what to bet on each hand, and how much to bet.
THE COLOUR RULES FOR DERIVED ROADS
Big eye boy, the small road and the cockroach road each
show alternating streaks of red and blue, with a new
symbol added to each derived road after each hand once
the road has started. But how is the colour of that symbol
determined?
This is very interesting, and quite complex. The best
way to understand is to consider big eye boy first. Once you
understand big eye boy, it’s quite easy to understand the
small road and the cockroach road as they require only a
minor adjustment. So let’s focus on big eye boy.
The rule for adding a symbol to big eye boy is different,
depending on whether:
1. the hand just played was entered in the first row in
the big road, in other words it is the first hand of a
new streak (I call this a ‘streak starter’), or
2. the hand just played was entered in the second or
subsequent row in the big road, in other words it is
not the first hand of a new streak (I call this a ‘streak
continuer’).
Streak continuers are easier to understand than streak
starters, so let’s consider them first. There are three possible
cases for streak continuers:
1. The cell on the left of the streak continuer (in the
big road) is full, which in Chinese is called 拍 拍 连 ,
which literally means ‘clap clap connect’. In other
words, the streak continuer is ‘connected’ to the cell
on its left.
2. The cell on the left of the streak continuer (in the big
road) is empty, but the cell above that empty cell
is full (in other words the streak continuer has now
made the current streak precisely one hand longer
than the previous streak). In Chinese this is called 一
厅 两 房 , which means ‘one lounge two bedrooms’.
The term is logical: if you look at the four big road
cells formed by a square, with the streak continuer in
the bottom right corner of that square, there will be
one circle of one colour in the top left position with
an empty cell below it (‘one lounge’), and two circles
of the other colour in the two right positions (‘two
bedrooms’).
3. The cell on the left of the streak continuer (in the big
road) is empty, and the cell above that empty cell is
also empty. This means the current streak is now at
least two hands longer than the previous streak. In
Chinese this is called 长 庄 or 长 闲 , which mean
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