Mini-Baccarat is essentially the game of baccarat reduced to a smaller version, the size of a blackjack table. Instead of being played in the baccarat pit, you play on the casino floor with the other table games. It also reduces the fanfare and lowers the minimum stakes.

The game plays the same as the bigger version as far as play goes. There are only as many as seven to nine players at the table and you don’t get to turn your own cards over as the dealer does everything. There is only one dealer, who is the only one allowed to touch the cards.

It’s best to bet on the banker every time if you don’t find that too boring. Remember to have enough money left over to pay the commissions to the house that will be due when they request them or you decide to leave the game.

Chinese New Year is the biggest time of year for Vegas Strip baccarat action. The ten-day celebration can provide the lion’s share of the baccarat action for the year, with last year’s wagers totalling over $1B for the month of February. That put $116.4M into the revenue stream for the casinos. That translates into 2.9% of total business.

The MGM Mirage, Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts have all opened casinos in Macau and they have been promoting Vegas as a Chinese New Year destination. The ten-day celebration allows visitors a longer-than-usual visit to the city, and the free-flowing Asian gambling dollar is becoming much more desirable to Vegas casino owners.

The casinos would rather see the Asian gaming dollar spent in Vegas because the gaming tax is 6.75% in the U.S., as compared to the 39% they must pay to the Chinese government in Macau.

I don’t understand what a baccarat cheat sheet could be. Is this another online scam or something? The game of baccarat is not a beatable game like blackjack. You can’t make up a note that will allow you to play baccarat strategically. The dealer does everything; you just bet on whether the bank or the player will win, or that the two will tie.

The only thing you can do to maximize your play at the baccarat table is to bet on the dealer every time. The dealer holds an edge, so the house will charge you 5% every time the dealer wins. The only cheat sheet I can think of would say:

don’t bet on the tie bet
make more dealer bets than player bets
get out when you’re up 5 to 10 bets

But I’m pretty sure I can remember all that without a cheat sheet.

An Edmonton casino has started to offer round-the-clock poker action to its patrons. The Century Casino started allotting six tables for the 24/7 action in the New Year, and demand has them planning to add three more tables in a couple of months. That will be total of nine tables that will never shut down.

Besides the round-the-clock action, the casino offers poker tournaments on Thursdays and Sundays. There are also 31 table games including baccarat, roulette, blackjack and craps. A wide array of slots and video poker options are also available.

Poker is very popular with western Canadians and the city has three poker rooms to choose from. The city of Calgary also has more than one poker room in town, and they are likely to follow Edmonton’s lead with the 24/7 table action. Also, the Canadian Poker Championships are played in British Columbia every year.