Baccarat is one of the most popular casino games in the world, offering some of the lowest house edges of any game at both retail and online casinos. But even the biggest fans of this game have to admit that it can sometimes become a little bit boring, and that’s where side bets like the Dragon Bonus come in to add a thrilling element to this game of chance.
This is a side bet that can be placed before any cards are dealt in a game of baccarat, and it offers higher payouts than the standard player and banker bets. The Dragon Bonus bet is based on the gap between the winning hand and the loser, with higher payouts awarded for larger margins of victory. The following table explains how the payouts on this bet work.
As you can see, the payouts on this side bet are much higher than standard baccarat bets, although they do not apply to ties or naturals. It is important to understand that the gap between the winning hand and the losing one is based on how many significant points the winner crushes the loser by, not the total of all the cards in the hands. This is why it can be so difficult to correctly guess the gap between the two hands, and why a winning Dragon Bonus bet pays so well, as long as the gap is large enough.
While the Dragon side bet in baccarat has high payouts, it also comes with a much bigger house edge than standard bets. This is mainly because the odds of winning on the player are twice as bad as the odds on the banker, which means that players need to be very careful when placing this wager. This is why it is important to choose a quality baccarat site that features this wager, and also to make sure that you understand how the house edge works on this bet before placing it.
Aside from the Dragon Bonus, there are several other side bets in baccarat that offer decent returns. These include the Royal Match bet, which is a bet on either the Banker or the Player to draw a suited King and Queen in their first two cards. This bet offers good odds at 75:1 for a suited pair, while non-suited pairs are paid at 30:1.
Then there is the Canberra Pairs bet, which is a bet that the Banker or Player will draw a suited four of a kind in their first two cards. This bet is not as profitable as the suited pair bet, and it pays out at 11:1 for a win, or a push on a tie.
Another popular side bet is the Lucky Number bet, which is a bet made on whether or not the Player will score a lucky number between 1 and 9. This bet offers better odds than the Dragon Bonus bet but has a slightly higher house edge of 2.4%. It is therefore best avoided by serious punters.