Baccarat Scoreboard Explained: Big Road, Big Eye Boy, Small Road and Cockroach Pig
A baccarat scoreboard shows past results in five ways. The Bead Plate lists every hand in order. The Big Road groups Banker and Player wins into streaks. The Big Eye Boy, Small Road and Cockroach Pig are derived from the Big Road and record whether the pattern is repeating. All five are made only from past results, and in 60,000 simulated shoes none of them changed the odds of the next hand.
They're still worth understanding, since most tables display them. Here's how each one works.
Bead Plate: every hand in order
The Bead Plate is the simplest. Each hand gets one circle, filled column by column from top to bottom. Red is Banker, blue is Player, green is Tie.
It's just the raw history, one hand per circle.
Big Road: the streak chart
The Big Road is the main chart people watch. A new circle goes below the last one if the same side wins again, and starts a new column when the winner changes.
Ties don't get their own circle. They're marked with a green line through the last circle. A long column is a streak, and a row of single circles is a "chop" back and forth.
If you want to know how long streaks usually get, I simulated 2 million shoes in baccarat streak odds.
Big Eye Boy, Small Road and Cockroach Pig
These three don't show Banker or Player at all. They use red and blue to say whether the Big Road is behaving "orderly" compared with earlier columns.
Each road compares against a different column back in the Big Road. Big Eye Boy looks one column back, Small Road two, and Cockroach Pig three.
When the new Big Road circle starts a column, the road compares the lengths of the two columns before it. Same length gets red, different lengths get blue.
When the new circle continues a column, the road checks the column it's comparing against at the same depth. A circle there, or two or more spots short, gets red. Exactly one spot short gets blue.
Red means the pattern is repeating, blue means it isn't. Neither color means Banker or Player.
Does a baccarat scoreboard predict the next hand?
I checked. I dealt 60,000 8-deck shoes by the standard rules, built all three derived roads after every hand, and recorded what came next.
| Next hand Banker | Next hand Player | |
|---|---|---|
| Big Eye Boy red | 45.90% | 44.58% |
| Big Eye Boy blue | 45.82% | 44.66% |
| Small Road red | 45.90% | 44.57% |
| Small Road blue | 45.83% | 44.67% |
| Cockroach Pig red | 45.88% | 44.61% |
| Cockroach Pig blue | 45.84% | 44.64% |
| Any hand, exact | 45.86% | 44.62% |
Every row is within a few hundredths of the exact odds, which is sampling noise for a few million hands. The roads re-draw the past. They don't carry any information about the next card.
What a baccarat scoreboard leaves out
The scoreboard records who won. It doesn't record which cards were dealt, and the cards left in the shoe are the only thing that actually changes the odds. I wrote about why casinos hand out free pens and scorecards for exactly this reason.
That gap is why I made Baccarator track cards instead of results.
Track the cards, not just the results
In Baccarator you enter the cards after each hand and tap Calculate. The app works out what's left in the shoe and recalculates Banker, Player, Tie and side bet odds.
Free on the App Store, 6 or 8 decks, virtual chips only.
Baccarat scoreboard FAQ
How do you read a baccarat scoreboard?
Red is Banker and blue is Player on the Bead Plate and Big Road. The Big Road stacks repeat wins in a column and starts a new column when the winner changes. The three derived roads use red for a repeating pattern and blue for a broken one.
What is Big Eye Boy in baccarat?
A derived road that compares each new Big Road entry with the column before it. Red means the pattern repeats, blue means it doesn't. It doesn't indicate Banker or Player.
Can a baccarat scoreboard predict the next hand?
No. In 60,000 simulated 8-deck shoes, the next hand went to Banker 45.82% to 45.90% of the time no matter what color any road showed, which matches the exact 45.86%.
Baccarator is a math tool for education. No real-money gambling. 21+ only.
