The Baccarat Roadmap Manual

An earlier post on baccarat tracing indicators/roadmaps had a few visitors to the site wanting more information – particularly on how to construct the Big Eye Road (大眼仔), Small Road (小路), Cockroach Road (曱甴路) from the Big Road.

The below manual provides all the details and comes courtesy of the Microgaming live gaming team.  The Microgaming live platform isn´t as prevalent as it used to be (for European players particularly) ever since Microgaming partnered with Evolution, but you can play their games at Microgaming licensee casinos including 32RedBetway, and Royal Vegas.

The manual is both comprehensive and easy to follow so should cover all the queries we received about baccarat trend plotting…thanks again to Microgaming.

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Baccarat Roadmap Manual

Introduction

This document describes the concept, the rules, and the behaviour of the baccarat roadmap

The baccarat roadmap is a graphical representation of the results of the previous rounds of a baccarat game. It helps the players quickly and easily analyze the history of the game, look for trends, and possibly predict the results in the future.

All types of roadmaps are represented by using icons arranged in a rectangular grid of empty squares. The height of any roadmap is always 6; the width of any roadmap is not fixed, but is usually at least 12.

The roadmap only records the history for the current shoe. Once a new shoe is to be used, the roadmap is cleared.

Types of roadmaps
There are 5 types of roadmaps. They are:

1.    珠盘/珠盤 (Bead Road)
2.    大路 (Big Road)
3.    大眼仔 (Big Eye Road)
4.    小路 (Small Road)
5.    曱甴路 (Cockroach Road)

The formal English names for the types of roadmaps are unknown.

The size of the icons of the 1st type of roadmap is usually the largest, while the size of the icons of the last 3 types of roadmaps is usually the smallest.

珠盘/珠盤 (Bead Road)
This roadmap simply shows the results (Banker Wins, Player Wins, Tie) of the previous rounds with icons arranged in a rectangular grid in a top-to-bottom, left-to-right fashion. Each icon corresponds to 1 previous round. That is, the icon for the 1st round is put on the top left corner, that for the 2nd round is on the one below it, and so on.

Each icon is a simple circle, usually with the name (or its abbreviation) written in the middle in a specific language. Banker Wins are shown in red, Player Wins are shown in blue, and Ties are shown in green.

Pairs are also shown on the icons. Banker Pairs are shown as a red dot placed on the top left corner of the icon; Player Pairs are shown as a blue dot placed on the lower right corner of the icon. See Figure 1

bead roadFigure 1 – All possible icons.
B – Banker Wins, P – Player Wins, T – Tie.
Red dot – Banker Pair, Blue Dot – Player Pair.

Figure 2 shows a typical roadmap.

bead roadFigure 2 – A typical 珠盘/珠盤 with 16 rounds. The icons are in Simplified Chinese.

大路 (Big Road)
This roadmap arranges the results in columns, or streaks. This allows easier counting of consecutive Wins and studying of trends.

The icons in this roadmap are shown as hollow circles. Bankers are in red, Players are in blue.

Pairs (Banker Pairs, Player Pairs) are NOT shown in this roadmap at all.

Ties are NOT shown as a separate icon. Instead, they are shown as a green stripe, embedded inside the circle of the last round. If there are more than 1 consecutive Ties, the number of Ties will be written on the stripe in green as well.

In case the 1st round of the shoe is a tie, its icon will be a simple green stripe with no circles surrounding it. Again, if there are more than 1 consecutive Ties at the beginning of the shoe, the number of Ties will be written as well.

Table 1 shows some examples of the icons in this roadmap.

Big Road iconsTable 1 – Example icons in大路

If the 1st round of the shoe is a tie and the 2nd round is a Banker, the red circle for Banker will be drawn in the same square as that of the green stripe for Tie. In other words, a Tie-Banker combination and a Banker-Tie combination at the beginning of a shoe is undistinguishable in this roadmap.

The icons are arranged such that the Banker and Player icons are arranged on separate columns, or streaks. Each time the result flips between Banker and Player, a new column is used.

Figure 3 shows a typical roadmap.

big RoadFigure 3 – The 大路 (left) and its corresponding珠盘/珠盤 (right)

Big Eye Road (大眼仔), Small Road (小路), Cockroach Road (曱甴路)
These 3 types of roadmaps are similar. The only differences among the 3 types are the Cycle (as explained below) and the icons used.

A summary of the 3 types of roadmaps is shown in Table 2.

Big Eye, Small, Cockroach road iconsTable 2 – Summary of the 3 types of roadmaps.

The 3 types of roadmaps are not a direct representation of the history of the game. Instead, they are all derived from the大路 (Big Road). Every time a Banker or Player icon is added to the 大路 (Big Road), a derived icon is added to these 3 roadmaps based on the rules described below.

Attention: Even though the icons in these 3 derived roadmaps are in red and blue, there is no relationship between their colors and the colors of Banker and Player.

Here are the rules for adding a new icon to any of the 3 derived roadmaps after a round:
1.    Let k be the Cycle of the roadmap.
2.    Assume that the last icon added to the 大路 (Big Road) is on row m of column n.
2.a.    If m >= 2, we compare with column (n-k).
2.a.1.    If there is no such column (i.e. before the 1st column) …  No need to add any icon.
2.a.2.    If there is such a column, and the column has p icons.
2.a.2.1.    If m <= p  …  The answer is red.
2.a.2.2.    If m = p + 1  …  The answer is blue.
2.a.2.3.    If m > p + 1  … The answer is red.
2.b.    If m = 1, reverse the result (Banker to Player, and vice versa), determine the result as in rule 2.a above, and reverse the answer (Red to blue, and vice versa) to get the real answer.

Note that it does not matter whether the icons in the 大路(Big Road) are Banker or Player. Only the number of icons on each column is important.

Figure 4 illustrates the rule for the case when m >= 2. Figure 5 illustrates the rule for the case when m = 1.

blankFigure 4 – Illustration of the rule when m >= 2. The black dots represent the icons in the 大路 (Big Road).

 

blankFigure 5 – Illustration of the rule when m = 1. The black dots represent the icons in the 大路 (Big Road).

The idea behind these 3 roadmaps is that, when there are many consecutive Bankers or Players, all 3 of them will appear red. When there is a repeating pattern of Cycle k, the corresponding roadmap will also appear red. In short, the appearance of red icons in these roadmaps mean that the 大路 (Big Road)is somewhat regular.

See Figure 6 for a graphical illustration of the idea.

blankFigure 6 – Illustration of the idea behind the 3 roadmaps.
The black dots represent the icons in the 大路 (Big Road).

Figure 7 shows a typical example of the 3 roadmaps.

blankFigure 7 – A typical example of the 3 roadmaps.
They are 大眼仔 (Big Eye Road, top), 小路 (Small Road, middle), 曱甴路 (Cockroach Road, bottom).

Roadmap Layout
Although there is no restriction as for where to put the roadmaps on the screen, 4 roadmaps, 大路, 大眼仔, 小路, and 曱甴路, are usually aligned in a specific way, as shown in Table 3.

Baccarat roadmap layoutTable 3 – Typical layout of the roadmaps

Figure 8 shows a real-life example of the layout of the 4 roadmaps.

blankFigure 8 – Example layout of the roadmaps.
They are 大路 (top), 大眼仔 (middle), 小路 (bottom left), 曱甴路 (bottom right).

There is no restriction on where the珠盘/珠盤 (Bead Road) should be put.

Roadmap Probing
Roadmap probing is a way to further help the players analyze the roadmaps. It shows what the next icon will be added to the 3 derived roadmaps if the next round is Banker or Player. See Figure 9 for an example.

roadmap probingFigure 9 – Roadmap probing. It shows what the next icon will be added to the 3 derived roadmaps.

If no icon will be added to a derived roadmap, its corresponding icon will also be missing from the probe results.

Note that the probe results for Banker and Player are always in different colors.

Size Limitations
Since the dimension of a roadmap is fixed (e.g. 12 x 6), sometimes, it is possible that the roadmap runs out of room.

For珠盘/珠盤 (Bead Road), when it runs out of room, the icon for the oldest round is removed. See Figure 10 for an example.

blankFigure 10 – When the roadmap is full, the oldest icon is removed to make room for the new one.

Old roadmap (above); new roadmap (below).

For the other 4 types of roadmaps (i.e. 大路, 大眼仔, 小路, 曱甴路), when a column has more than 6 icons (remember that the height of all roadmaps is always 6, see Introduction), it always turn right. See Figure 11 for an example.

blankFigure 11 – When there are more than 6 icons for 1 column, it always turn right.
Old roadmap (left); new roadmap (right).

It is also possible that the space is occupied when a column goes down. In that case, it always turns right, until there is room to go down again. See Figure 12 for an example.

blankFigure 12 – The column turns right whenever it cannot go down

In the extremely rare case that there is no space for a column to go down at the very first square, the column turns right immediately, occupying the starting square of the next column. When the next column starts, it will use the next empty column. See Figure 13 for an example.

blankFigure 13 – The column turns right immediately if it is occupied below.
The next column is placed at the next empty column

After many rounds are dealt in a shoe, it might also be possible that there is no more space on the right. In that case, all icons in the roadmap shift left by 1 column, abandoning those on the original left most column, and making room for a new column on the right. See Figure 14 for an example.

blankFigure 14 – When there is no more room on the right, the whole roadmap shifts left by a column.
Old roadmap (left): new roadmap (right).

Note that all these behaviours described in this section do not affect how the 3 derived roadmaps are formed. The derivation rules are used as if there are no size limitations to all the roadmaps.

32 replies
  1. tan
    tan says:

    The manual provided by the microgaming team explains
    how the three special charts ( the big eye road, the small
    road and the cockroach) are constructed based on their
    formula. However, the interpretation of these charts
    i.e. to predict the outcome of the next move (to bet on the
    banker or player) has not been illustrated.

    Would appreciate if the team can give some guidelines
    as to the application the the three charts.

    Thank you.

    Tan

    Reply
    • LD
      LD says:

      Hi Tan

      I will see if I can get this information for you, but I suspect I know what they will say. Something like:

      “It’s up to the player to use the charts as they see fit according to their chosen strategy”

      Similar to roulette history stats that casinos provide – different players will use these tools very differently. Personally, I subscribe to the school of thought that (as for roulette), past outcomes in baccarat aren’t going to help you predict future results.

      But I’m certainly no guru 🙂

      If I get a response from M’gaming I’ll be sure to let you know.

      Reply
  2. tan
    tan says:

    Hi Moderator,

    Thank you very much for your quick response to my
    query.

    I think many participants in the regular “Baccarat forum”
    have often asked contributors on this topic to explain
    how one should read these exotic charts so that they can
    make the right play at the baccarat table.

    I have been searching on the net for sometime now to
    find someone to enlighten me on how to interpret these
    charts. So far I have not been successful.

    I will be much obliged if this information is forth coming
    from your team.

    Thank you in advance.

    Tan

    Reply
  3. Crusoul
    Crusoul says:

    Hi,

    I have a question and it sounds like this.

    Is it allowed in every casino to write down the roadmap on your scorecard.

    I ask this question because a pitboss didn’t allow me to continue my baccarat game and asked me to leave the table because she didn’t know exactly what kind of notes I was writeing down… I said to him that the roadmap is derived from the Player/Banker history. They never saw this kind of visualisation of P/B, so they kicked me from the table. I was behind a couple of thousands at that time and I was furious.

    So can people explain to me or having the same experience like me. I know I sometimes see a trend I win 10 times in a row… that is what the pitboss saw and he suspected me that I was cheating or something like that.

    Reply
    • LD
      LD says:

      Hi Crusoul

      I’m sorry but I don’t play a lot of baccarat in traditional casinos so can’t tell you if this is normal practice (anyone?). It does surprise me however that they are worried about you scoring the game.

      I do have a solution for you though.

      Play baccarat at any of the live casinos on this site and not only are they happy for you to use roadmaps – they’ll provide them for you so you don’t have to construct them yourself.

      Much easier than arguing with the pitboss at you local casino!

      cheers
      LD

      Reply
    • sam
      sam says:

      If a person really understand baccarat this road are actually encourage by casino no matter what type of road you may create or derived from as it makes punters more confident and continue playing therefore for a casino kicking you out is totally stupid or their staff are not fully equip as i’m also in the casino operation which we always encourage only that as long that the punter doesn’t slow down the game for other players only.

      Reply
    • LD
      LD says:

      Hi Match

      Sorry mate, what you see is what you get. You could always print this page, or bookmark it for easy reference while playing online.

      If I get plenty more requests for a downloadable version I’ll see if i can put something together…and will let you know.

      cheers
      LD

      Reply
  4. Match
    Match says:

    Hi LD

    oh what i mean, is a software to record results, like an electronic scorecard, so i could use it for online casino.. i have been searching for one, but have no luck, so i am stuck with using excel to plot results

    Regards
    Match

    Reply
    • Anonymous
      Anonymous says:

      Now there an app for Android device that keep records of the Road. You can download a free version with ads. The pay version is $45.
      If you know how to read the road, it will come in handy.

      Reply
  5. Match
    Match says:

    what i am after is a software to record result, ie a electronic scorecards ideally displaying all the roads mention here.. i had one before call baccarat record form, and i lost it 🙁

    heres a screenie of it

    Reply
    • LD
      LD says:

      Hi Match
      Most online baccarat games (certainly the live online games we review on this site) all plot the roadmaps automatically for you as the game progresses.

      You don’t need to worry about plotting/constructing them yourself.

      The purpose of the above post wasn’t so much to teach people how to construct them so they could make their own roadmaps, but more to give an understanding of how the roadmaps already provided online are derived.

      ps Your screenshot link 404’d so I removed it. Feel free to re-post the correct link.

      Reply
  6. yee
    yee says:

    Good information. I tried to learn the charts and understood how to creat the Big eyes. Can you illustrate the other 2 charts the same way like Big eyes. Many thanks.

    Reply
  7. jackman
    jackman says:

    hi
    i am still confuse on the formula for adding the icons as M=1 is there a simple way for us what the formula is all about?

    Reply
  8. rich
    rich says:

    what is m and nk , it is so confusing. How do you arrrived at the arrangement of the big eyes. You guy dont tell the truth. Damn lies. Fed up with all this crab and that make people very angry.

    When you people tell us about the big eyes, tell us plainly and not with irony of half truth and hidden meanings. It is so sad again and be disappointed again by this false system and lies.

    Reply
    • LD
      LD says:

      Hi Rich.
      It’s confusing I know and I understand your frustration. But please be aware that this is simply a manual setting out what the Big Road is and how the other maps are derived from it. They are graphical presentations of game history. They are not systems…what you choose to do with them is up to you (personally I place little stock in game history in baccarat)

      If you play live baccarat online the maps are automatically generated for you after each hand…this manual is supposed to help players understand what the maps that are provided mean.

      The letters you refer to are used in the manual as variables to illustrate construction of the 3 derived roadmaps (Big Eye, Small, Cockroach) from Big Road…

      ‘k’ is the cycle number
      ‘m’ is the row number of the last Big Road icon
      ‘n’ is the column number of the last Big Road icon
      ‘p’ is number of icons in Big Road column n-k (if it exists)

      hope this helps
      LD

      Reply
  9. Steve
    Steve says:

    Hi LD,

    Excellent post. I’m looking for a downloadable version of these roadmaps as well. Do you know anyone I can contact? I’m happy to pay for it.

    Thanks,
    Steve

    Reply
    • LD
      LD says:

      Hi Steve,

      Thanks for your comment.
      All I have is the above post, and the manual (word document from Microgaming) from which it is derived. This document is not mine to give.

      I’ll shoot you an email and we’ll see if we can work something out with all concerned.

      cheers
      LD

      Reply
  10. Joseph
    Joseph says:

    1. Let k be the Cycle of the roadmap.
    2. Assume that the last icon added to the 大路 (Big Road) is on row m of column n.
    2.a. If m >= 2, we compare with column (n-k). [what is k, 1,2,3????]
    2.a.1. If there is no such column (i.e. before the 1st column) … No need to add any icon.
    2.a.2. If there is such a column, and the column has p icons.
    2.a.2.1. If m p + 1 … The answer is red.

    Reply
  11. Princess
    Princess says:

    Hi guys,
    I have been searching in vain for a downloadable version of these roadmaps as well. Do you know anyone I can contact?

    No doubt the online gaming websites might be giving these charts for free, however I would like to assess my skill level using a downloadable version before I venture further.

    Please help.

    Regards,
    Lisa

    Reply
  12. Croupier
    Croupier says:

    I think you can see from the table provided… If you want to derive and construct the big eye road then the cycle number is k=1, small road k=2, cockroach road then k=3. Therefore when you see if the big road has lesser than 4 columns, the cockroach road will not exist at all…
    Hope it helps you to understand…

    Reply
  13. Clem
    Clem says:

    Hi LD,
    I need a small clarification, which is specifically related to Step 2.a.2. If there is such a column, and the column has p icons.

    Assumming that on the Big Road column 5 we have the following sequence (consecutive results / streak) – Player, Player, Tie, Tie, Tie, Player,Player
    In such a scenario, column 5 of the Big Road would show –
    Blue Circle
    Blue Circle with Green (tie) slash with numeric 3
    Blue Circle
    Blue Circle

    Referring back to Step 2.a.2, in calculating the number of icons (p) – would it be correct that p=4? i.e. we ignore the ties?
    …or in other words, we do not count slashes (ties) as icons.

    Is that the correct interpretation?

    Thank you

    Reply
  14. Gojc
    Gojc says:

    Hello

    Ive been looking at those roadmaps and I still do not know what k is. Crupier said that k defines a roadmap (k=1 – big eye …). if i try to calculate with this option the result does not come right. Ive been looking at Figure 8 on this site. can anyone help me with this?

    thx
    Gojc

    Reply
  15. Gojc
    Gojc says:

    Hello. i have a question on how to draw the Big Road if you get these results:

    B,P,P+pairPlayer, Tie+pairBanker, Tie, Tie+pairPlayer, Tie+pairBanker+pairPlayer

    The problem is that there is more than one pair to be drawn in the same field, because Tie goes in the same field as banker or player.

    Reply
  16. Drew
    Drew says:

    Hello,

    I am really new to this game so sorry if this is supposed to be obvious. So k is the cycle but what defines a cycle? when does a cycle start and a new one begin?

    Reply
    • LD
      LD says:

      Hi High,

      Most experts will probably tell you that the roadmaps do not help you win…just like history charts/stats in roulette are of little help predicting future outcomes. Just be careful of your expectations here.

      I’d also suggest you try free play live baccarat…you can play in practice mode at Bodog’s live casino (http://www.livedealer.org/bodog88-review.htm)so you can’t lose while you’re getting a handle on the how cockroach is derived

      cheers

      Reply
  17. Manrique
    Manrique says:

    can some one please explain me how the big road works? i have been reading and trying to understand the below explanation, but i can not understand the logic about it.
    can someone please help me?

    Reply
  18. gk
    gk says:

    Hello, I’m particularly interested in the three derived roads. I wish to have 250,000+ shoes of 8 deck baccarat, mainly to focus on the three derived roads. I hope the data to be converted to text form such as
    R=red circles/slashes B= blue circles/slashes
    so…

    1.RBBBRBRBRBBBBBBBBB
    2.RRRRBBBBBRBRBRBBBBB
    3.BBBRBRBBBBB

    Is there a way to gather these data fast by programming or through excel? I’m not a coder at all but if I have to, I will as this would be a lot faster than gathering the data manually..

    Reply

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