7 Strange Slang Terms You’ll Hear at the Baccarat Table

Despite its utter simplicity in terms of actual gameplay, baccarat has maintained its reputation as the casino’s most mysterious card game for over a century now. Known in various corners of the globe as “punto banco,” “chemin de fer,” and “midi baccarat,” the French game is based on dueling player and dealer hands.

The word “baccarat” translates as “zero,” and indeed, the deck’s 10s and face cards are valued at that key number. Playing real money baccarat can be quite entertaining too, but only if you can crack the code behind the game’s signature slang. To help you learn the lingo, check out these seven slang terms bantered about at the baccarat table.

1 – Croupier

Fittingly for a gambling game originated by French royalty, the dealer at a baccarat table is formally known as the “croupier.”

That’s a direct translation for dealer, but unlike at the similarly French-inspired roulette wheel, most modern baccarat players actually still refer to their dealers as croupiers.

The croupier’s job is to manage all aspects of the game, beginning with shuffling the eight-card deck and cutting the cards. Once the decks have been slid into their protective “shoe,” the croupier slides out two cards each to the designated player and banker hand spots on the table layout.

From there, based on each hand’s respective total, the croupier will announce the current scenario by saying something like “six for player, three for banker.” Next up, the croupier mentally compares the two hands and their totals to determine if one, both, or neither must draw a third and final card.

Croupiers perform this task by consulting baccarat’s complex “tableau” of rules regarding if and when each hand should draw a third card.

Once the final card(s) have been distributed to each hand, the croupier will declare either the player or banker hand—whichever achieves the total closest to nine—to be the winner.

The player and banker hand can also wind up with tied totals, a situation known as a “standoff” in baccarat circles.

2 – Burn Card(s)

Another aspect of the croupier’s job occurs before any actual hands have been dealt.

Once they’ve shuffled and cut the eight decks in play, and loaded all 416 cards into the shoe, the croupier starts each “coup” (or round of play) by discarding the first few cards. They’ll generally “burn” between cards three and six cards from the top of the shoe, with each croupier using their preferred burning method.

Burning cards from the top of the deck is a holdover from the era where cheats would stack the deck in their own favor. You’ll also see dealer’s burn one card off the top before dealing each “street” in poker games like no limit Texas holdem.

3 – Natural

In the game of blackjack, landing the best possible hand of an Ace plus a 10-value card on the first two cards is known as a “natural blackjack.”

In the famous high-stakes gambling oasis of Macau, baccarat players receive premium payouts of 3 to 1 on a natural nine, along with 2 to 1 on a natural eight.

4 – Le Grande and Le Petite

As the best possible starting hand, and one that can’t be beaten by any other, a natural nine is known as “le grande.” It’s French for “the big one,” and le grande simply signifies the top dog within baccarat’s hand ranking hierarchy.

With that in mind, “la petite” (or French for “the little one”) refers to the slightly less powerful natural eight.

These terms aren’t exactly commonplace in your typical Las Vegas casino, as French and European gamblers use them more often abroad. Even so, if you casually drop a la grande reference in certain baccarat circles, you’ll likely make a few new friends along the way.

5 – Monkey

Walk past any crowded baccarat parlor, stick around for a minute or two, and you’re bound to hear shrieking players loudly demanding, “monkey!”

These folks are begging the gambling gods for any 10 or face card (jack, queen, or king) on the third card draw, good for a zero that won’t change the hand’s current total.

Let’s say you’re backing the banker hand and you’ve just watched the player hand draw from a five down to a four total. You only have a five total showing in the banker hand yourself, which is good enough at the moment, but you’re also forced to draw a fateful third card that can easily doom your bet.

After all, any five, six, seven, eight, or nine will cause your total to change—to zero, one, two, three, or four respectively—and you won’t collect a payout.

You still have a few safe cards in the shoe, namely aces, twos, threes, and fours, but you also knowing there are far more 10s and face cards to work with. Thus, you need a monkey badly, hence the perpetual cries for the croupier to produce a 10-value card.

Once again, you’ll be yelling to the rooftops for a monkey to appear, thereby preserving your narrow margin of victory.

The origins of the term “monkey” among baccarat players isn’t definitively clear, but its popularity among the Asian community could be a clue. According to many casino gambling resources, the standard deck’s use of figures from the monarchy to represent face cards could provide a clue.

When baccarat first reached the shores of China and other Asian countries over a century ago, the local’s attempt to pronounce “monarchy” very well could’ve produced “monkey” as shorthand.

6 – Dragon 7 and Panda 8 Bets

Sticking with baccarat’s immense popularity among Asian gamblers, the “Dragon 7” and “Panda 8” are standard side bets offered on most modern “EZ Baccarat” tables.

EZ Baccarat refers to the more informal, small-stakes form of the game spread in the table game pit, rather than exclusive high-stakes rooms.

When placing a Dragon 7 bet, you’re hoping to see the dealer wind up with a three-card total of exactly seven that beats your own hand. If this extreme longshot arrives—it’ll only happen on 2.2 percent of all deals—you’ll earn a cool 40 to 1 on your side bet.

Of course, a 2% shot comes to a 1 in 50 likelihood, which means that 40 to 1 payout is a tad light—so much so that the Dragon 7 bet sticks players with a huge 7.61% house edge.

As for the Panda 8 wager, this one requires you to make a three-card total of eight which beats the dealer’s hand. If you can turn the trick—a 3.4% probability with a 10.19% house edge—you’ll collect a 25 to 1 premium payout.

7 – The Big Eye Boy

If you’re partial to “sucker” bets like those ones, you probably already know all about the “Big Eye Boy.”

Along with the “Big Road,” the “Small Road,” and the “Cockroach Road,” the Big Eye Boy is an esoteric method baccarat regulars use to track previous results. To their way of thinking, closely observing trends in the battle between banker and player hands gives them special insight into which way to bet future hands.

That’s all nonsense of course, in the same way that roulette players who believe black is “due” after watching a string of consecutive red spaces hit. Nonetheless, casinos encourage baccarat and roulette players by posting recent outcomes on a bright board overhead.

Conclusion

Baccarat is one of the world’s most venerable and widely played casino card games. The rules and structure have evolved since the 18^th century. And over that span, players and dealers (ahem, croupiers) alike have adopted slang terms along the way.

Baccarat slang is a bit more bizarre than the lingo you’ll hear at a blackjack table, but it still serves the same purpose. If you’re new to the world of baccarat, try a few of these terms out on your next trip to the tables and spice things up.