Baccarat side bets cover a much wider range of house edges than most players expect. Some sit close to the main game bets. Others push past 20%. The payout a table offers and the number of decks in the shoe both affect where any given side bet lands. This page walks through the most common side bets, explains what drives their house edge, and gives you enough information to compare your options before you sit down.
The Mathematical Baseline: Core Baccarat Bets vs. Side Bets
The three core baccarat bets (banker, player, and tie) set the house edge range for the base game. Side bets, as a group, sit well above the two efficient core bets, with most starting around where the tie bet leaves off and going higher from there. It helps to know the core numbers first, because without them a figure like 7% or 15% doesn’t mean much on its own.
The banker bet has a house edge of 1.06%. The player bet comes in at 1.24%. Those two figures show you what a low-cost baccarat wager looks like mathematically. At the other end of the core game sits the tie bet, with a house edge of 14.36% at its standard 8-to-1 payout. That’s already high by table game standards, and it’s still part of the base game.
That 1.06%-to-14.36% range is your reference scale for every side bet in the game. A side bet at 2% or 3% is close to the efficient end. A side bet at 10% is closer to the tie bet than to the banker bet. A side bet above 14.36% has already exceeded the worst core wager the game offers. Once you have those three anchor points, you can place any side bet’s house edge on the scale without needing extra context.
A side bet’s house edge isn’t fixed. It depends on two things: the payout multiplier the table applies to a winning outcome, and the number of decks in the shoe. Both can shift the edge by a meaningful amount, which means the same bet name can cost you more or less at different tables.
The payout multiplier has the bigger effect. A higher multiplier on the same win condition puts more money back to the player and brings the house edge down, sometimes by a lot. The Super 6 side bet is a clear example: the house edge moves from roughly 29.98% at a 12-to-1 payout down to roughly 3.05% at a 17-to-1 payout. The win condition is identical. Only the multiplier changes. Deck count produces a smaller but still real shift. The Dragon Bonus player-side bet, for example, carries a slightly higher edge with fewer decks and a slightly lower edge with more decks. The bottom line is that any house edge figure in this article applies to a specific payout and deck setup, not to the bet name in general. Before you treat any published figure as accurate for your table, check the payout multiplier being offered.
Lowest House Edge Side Bets (Under 5%)
The sub-5% group is the smallest category in baccarat side bets. Only a handful of wagers have payout structures generous enough to bring the house edge this low. These bets stand apart from most side bets, where edges are several times higher than what you’d pay on banker or player. The payout multiplier is the main factor that determines whether a side bet falls into this group. Even a one-unit shift in the payout can push a bet above the 5% line. Deck count also plays a measurable role for at least one bet type here.
The entries below are ordered from lowest to highest house edge within this tier. Where a bet’s edge varies by deck count, all confirmed configurations are shown in the Deck / Variant Notes column. Payout structures are expressed on a for-1 or to-1 basis consistent with how each bet is documented in the source material.
| Rank | Side Bet | House Edge | Payout Structure | Deck / Variant Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Match | 2.13% | 75-for-1 (suited king/queen); 30-for-1 (unsuited king/queen) | A single bet covers both the player and banker hands; figure based on 8 decks |
| 2 | Dragon Bonus (player side) | 2.65% (8 decks); 2.67% (6 decks); 2.70% (4 decks) | Pays on a natural win or a non-natural win by a margin of 4 or more points; exact multipliers by margin not fully specified across all deck counts | Edge decreases as deck count rises; also marketed as Phoenix Bonus at some properties |
| 3 | First Two Cards Same Suit (player side) | 3.95% | 2.87-to-1 | Odds adjust as the shoe is dealt; figure reflects the initial setting at the start of a shoe |
| 4 | First Two Cards Same Suit (banker side) | 4.20% | 2.86-to-1 | Starting payout is one cent lower per unit than the player-side variant, which accounts for the higher edge |
| 5 | Big (5 or 6 cards dealt) | 4.35% | 0.54-to-1 | Figure based on 6 decks; house edge rises substantially at lower payout variants |
Mid-Range House Edge Side Bets (5% to 10%)
The 5%-10% band is where most specialty side bets in baccarat cluster. They sit well above the core banker and player wagers but below the steepest options in the game. Several bets in this tier have house edges that shift noticeably depending on which payout multiplier a table uses, so the figure attached to any one bet name only holds for the specific payout variant stated. Some bets here are only available at commission-free baccarat tables, not standard ones, so whether you can even place certain wagers depends on the format in front of you. The availability column in the table below identifies which bets fall into each category.
This tier includes bets found at standard-commission tables and at least one bet that’s exclusive to commission-free formats. Because format availability determines whether a wager is even an option at a given table, the table below includes that information alongside each house edge figure and payout structure.
| Rank | Side Bet | House Edge | Payout Structure | Format Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Small (4 cards dealt) | 5.28% (lower-bound representative; range extends to 11.34% across payout variants) | Varies by payout variant | Standard |
| 2 | Dragon 7 | 7.61% | 40-to-1 | Commission-Free (EZ Baccarat exclusive) |
| 3 | 9 Over 7 (score-differential) | 8.10%-8.68% depending on configuration | Varies by configuration | Standard |
| 4 | Super 6 (16-to-1 variant) | 8.43% | 16-to-1 | Commission-Free-adjacent context |
High House Edge Side Bets (10% to 20%)
The 10%-20% band holds most of the pair-based wagers and specialty-count side bets you’ll find at both land-based and online baccarat tables. In this tier, payout-multiplier variation produces the biggest swings of any band in the full ranking. Two tables offering the same-named side bet can be five or more percentage points apart depending solely on the payout multiplier posted. The Super 6 side bet shows this clearly: its house edge moves from 13.82% at a 15-to-1 payout to 19.20% at a 14-to-1 payout, a swing of more than five percentage points driven by a single unit of payout reduction.
The table below orders the bets in this tier from lowest to highest house edge. The tie bet appears as a scale anchor because its verified house edge of 14.36% at 8-to-1 gives you a familiar reference point for the surrounding side bets. Payout structure is included alongside each entry because, in this tier, the multiplier offered is the main factor that determines where a given bet falls in the ranking.
| Rank | Side Bet | House Edge | Payout Structure | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panda 8 | 10.19% | 25-to-1 | Commission-free (EZ Baccarat) format exclusive; wins on a player 3-card total of 8 |
| 2 | Player Pair / Banker Pair | 10.36% | 11-to-1 | Wins if the first two cards in the respective hand are the same rank |
| 3 | 3-Card Six | 13.37% | 100-to-1 (both sides make a 3-card six); 8-to-1 (one side) | Dual-outcome payout structure |
| 4 | Panda 8 (24-to-1 variant) | 13.64% | 24-to-1 | Payout-variant sensitivity example; one unit lower payout than the standard version adds 3.45 percentage points to the house edge |
| 5 | Perfect Pair | >13% | 25-to-1 | Wins on two identical cards in both rank and suit; precise figure varies by configuration |
| 6 | Super 6 (15-to-1) | 13.82% | 15-to-1 | Wins on a banker total of six; payout multiplier is the primary variable across Super 6 variants |
| 7 | Tie bet | 14.36% | 8-to-1 | Core bet included as scale anchor; not a side bet |
| 8 | Lucky 6 | 16.68% | Not verified | Payout structure not confirmed by available authoritative sources |
| 9 | Lucky 7 | 18.30% | Not verified | Higher figure attributed to casinos commonly undercompensating winners on this variant |
| 10 | Super 6 (14-to-1) | 19.20% | 14-to-1 | One unit below the 15-to-1 variant; house edge rises by 5.38 percentage points relative to the 15-to-1 version |
Highest House Edge Side Bets (Above 20%)
The above-20% tier is where a single named wager can span from roughly 8% to nearly 30% depending entirely on the payout multiplier a casino chooses to offer. Super 6 is the clearest example: it appears across multiple tiers in a full ranking because each payout variant produces a materially different house edge, not because the underlying bet changes. If you see Super 6 listed at several points in a ranked table, that’s payout-multiplier variation at work, not a data error. At the lowest end of the payout scale, the mathematical cost approaches 30 cents on every dollar wagered.
This tier is dominated by low-payout variants of Super 6, a bet that wins only when the banker’s total is exactly six. The 8 Over 6 score-differential wager also falls here. It’s a type of bet that resolves on the margin between the two hands rather than on a single hand’s outcome. Because payout compression drives the Super 6 entries into this tier, the same bet name at a higher payout multiplier will appear in a lower-edge tier elsewhere in a complete ranking.
| Rank | Side Bet | House Edge | Payout Structure | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 Over 6 (score-differential) | 21.79% | Not verified | Score-differential wager; resolves on the margin between banker and player totals |
| 2 | Super 6 | 24.59% | 13-to-1 | Wins on a banker total of six; lower payout multiplier drives edge into this tier |
| 3 | Super 6 | 29.98% | 12-to-1 | Same bet as rank 2; payout reduction of one unit adds approximately 5.4 percentage points to the house edge |
How Deck Count and Payout Variants Reshape the Ranking
The ranked tables for baccarat side bets don’t produce a single fixed order because two independent variables (shoe size and payout multiplier) shift the house edge of individual bets without changing the bet’s underlying win condition. A bet that ranks near the bottom of one table can appear several positions higher or lower in another table compiled under different game conditions. This is also why published house edge figures for the same named bet often differ across sources.
Some side bets produce measurably different house edges depending on the number of decks in the shoe. That’s why authoritative sources publish separate figures for 4-, 6-, and 8-deck configurations rather than a single universal percentage. The Dragon Bonus shows this directly: both the player-side and banker-side variants shift across shoe sizes, though the spread is narrow compared to what payout changes produce.
| Side Bet | 4-Deck House Edge | 6-Deck House Edge | 8-Deck House Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Bonus (player side) | 2.70% | 2.67% | 2.65% |
| Dragon Bonus (banker side) | 9.42% | 9.39% | 9.37% |
Payout multiplier changes produce far larger house edge swings than deck-count changes do. The Super 6 side bet (which pays only when the banker wins with a total of six) spans a range of roughly 3% to nearly 30% across its documented payout tiers. That makes the multiplier offered at a specific table the single most consequential variable you can check before placing this wager.
| Payout Multiplier | Super 6 House Edge |
|---|---|
| 12-to-1 | 29.98% |
| 13-to-1 | 24.59% |
| 14-to-1 | 19.20% |
| 15-to-1 | 13.82% |
| 16-to-1 | 8.43% |
| 17-to-1 | 3.05% |
Format Availability: Standard vs. Commission-Free Baccarat
Not every side bet in a ranked list is available at every baccarat table. Some side bets only exist within commission-free baccarat variants, where the standard 5% commission on winning banker bets is removed and the game’s structure is adjusted to match. If you’re sitting at a conventional commission table, you won’t find these bets on offer, regardless of where they appear in a house edge ranking. A favorable ranked position means nothing if the format required to access that bet isn’t what’s in front of you.
Two side bets that appear in the ranked tables above are native to EZ Baccarat, a commission-free variant, and are not offered at standard commission tables. Both are confirmed by Wizard of Odds as the defining side bets of that format. Here’s what each one requires to win:
- Dragon 7: banker wins with a 3-card total of 7, commission-free format only
- Panda 8: player wins with a 3-card total of 8, commission-free format only
Reading Any Posted Side Bet Through the Ranked Spectrum
A named side bet has no fixed position on the house-edge spectrum until you know the payout multiplier and deck count at a specific table. Those two variables determine which version of the bet is actually being offered, and where it falls relative to the tiers laid out here. That’s the practical value of a ranked framework: it turns a posted payout into a locatable cost, so you can see exactly what a bet is worth mathematically instead of guessing.
