The "roads" are the scoreboard beside every live baccarat table: the results of the current shoe, drawn five different ways. The Bead Plate lists every hand in order, the Big Road groups them into runs of Banker and Player, and the three derived roads (Big Eye Boy, Small Road and Cockroach Pig) describe whether the Big Road is repeating itself or breaking pattern. They are a record of what has happened. They do not predict the next hand, and no road changes the odds of any bet.
Roads are worth learning all the same: they are how baccarat players talk about a shoe, and reading them makes the table easier to follow. This guide explains each road, works through the derived roads with a real sequence, and is plain about what the scoreboard can and cannot tell you.
What the roads record, and what they don't
Every road is built from one input only: the outcome of each hand (Banker, Player or Tie), plus, on most boards, small markers for Banker Pair and Player Pair. The roads do not record which cards were dealt, the totals, or the bets anyone placed. The five roads are simply five views of the same list of outcomes.
The colours follow one convention on the first two roads: red is Banker, blue is Player, green is Tie. On the three derived roads, red and blue mean something different, which is the most common source of confusion; we come to that below.
Bead Plate: every hand, in order
The Bead Plate is the simplest road. Each hand gets one bead, filled in from top to bottom in a column of six, then left to right. A red bead is a Banker win, blue is a Player win, green is a tie. Many boards write the winning total inside the bead and add a small dot in one corner for a Banker Pair or Player Pair.
Because it includes ties and follows the order of play exactly, the Bead Plate is the one to check when you want to know what happened in a particular hand, for example to confirm a result after a disconnection.
Big Road: runs of Banker and Player
The Big Road is the main scoreboard, and the one the derived roads are built from. It is drawn with hollow circles:
- Each column is a run of the same result. While Banker keeps winning, the circles go down the same column.
- When the result changes, a new column starts to the right.
- Ties do not get a circle. A tie is shown as a green slash through the most recent circle (with a number if there were several), and the run carries on as if the tie had not happened. A tie before the first decided hand is marked on the first circle once it appears.
- A column has room for six circles. If a run is longer, it turns right along the bottom row. This bend is called the dragon tail, and a long run of one side is often called a "dragon".
Players describe Big Road shapes with a small vocabulary: a long column is a streak or dragon, a row of single circles alternating Banker and Player is "choppy" or a "ping-pong", and columns of two are "double" patterns. These are descriptions of the past, nothing more.
The derived roads: Big Eye Boy, Small Road, Cockroach Pig
The three derived roads do not show Banker or Player at all. Each one looks at every new entry on the Big Road and asks a single question: is the Big Road behaving the way it did before? If yes, it adds a red mark; if no, a blue mark. Red means "repeating", blue means "breaking pattern". A red mark on Big Eye Boy is not a Banker win.
The three roads ask the same question at different distances. Big Eye Boy compares each new entry with the column one to the left, Small Road with the column two to the left, and Cockroach Pig with the column three to the left. They are drawn with different symbols so they can share a screen: Big Eye Boy uses hollow circles, Small Road solid dots, Cockroach Pig short slashes. Each is plotted like the Big Road itself: a run of the same colour goes down a column, and a change of colour starts a new one.
The rule for each new Big Road entry is:
- If the entry starts a new column: compare the lengths of the two columns before it, at the road's distance (for Big Eye Boy, the previous column and the one before that). Equal lengths give red; different lengths give blue.
- If the entry continues a column (row 2 or below): look at the comparison column. If it has an entry in the same row, red. If it ends exactly one row higher, blue. If it ends two or more rows higher, red.
A road starts only when there is enough history to compare. Big Eye Boy begins with the entry in the second row of the second column (or, if that column has only one entry, the first entry of the third column). Small Road starts one column later, and Cockroach Pig one column later again.
Worked example: building Big Eye Boy
Take a shoe that starts B B B P P B P P P P B B, with a tie after the second hand. On the Big Road that is five columns: Banker 3 long, Player 2, Banker 1, Player 4, Banker 2. The tie is a green slash on the second Banker circle and plays no further part.
Big Eye Boy starts at the second circle of column 2. Here is every entry from that point:
| Big Road entry | Compare with | What we find | Big Eye Boy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Column 2, row 2 (P) | Column 1 | Column 1 has a row 2 | Red |
| Column 3, row 1 (B) | Columns 2 and 1 | Lengths 2 and 3, not equal | Blue |
| Column 4, row 1 (P) | Columns 3 and 2 | Lengths 1 and 2, not equal | Blue |
| Column 4, row 2 (P) | Column 3 | Column 3 ends one row higher | Blue |
| Column 4, row 3 (P) | Column 3 | Column 3 ends two rows higher | Red |
| Column 4, row 4 (P) | Column 3 | Column 3 ends three rows higher | Red |
| Column 5, row 1 (B) | Columns 4 and 3 | Lengths 4 and 1, not equal | Blue |
| Column 5, row 2 (B) | Column 4 | Column 4 has a row 2 | Red |
Big Eye Boy therefore reads red, blue, blue, blue, red, red, blue, red, drawn as columns of red 1, blue 3, red 2, blue 1, red 1. Small Road and Cockroach Pig follow the same steps with the comparison column two and three places to the left. Once you have built one road by hand, the others take a minute.
Many live tables also show small "what if" icons beside the scoreboard: the mark each derived road would add if the next hand were Banker, and if it were Player. They are a convenience for players who follow roads. They are not a forecast, because both possibilities are shown.
Do the roads predict anything?
No. This is the most important sentence on the page, so it is worth being precise about why.
- The rules have no memory. Each hand is dealt from the shoe and played by fixed drawing rules. The probability of Banker, Player or Tie on the next hand is the same whether the Big Road shows a dragon of eight Banker wins or a perfect ping-pong. Expecting a change because a run "has gone on too long" is the gambler's fallacy.
- The cards are not replaced, but the roads can't see that. Strictly, cards dealt from a shoe are not returned to it, so the remaining cards shift slightly as the shoe goes on. Analyses of card counting in baccarat have found that shift far too small to turn any main bet in the player's favour in practice. The roads do not even record which cards left the shoe, only who won.
- Patterns appear in any random sequence. Over 70 decided hands, the chance of at least one run of six or more of the same side is roughly two in three. Streaks and chops are exactly what randomness looks like; the scoreboard makes them visible, not meaningful.
- The house edge is unchanged. Banker stays at about 1.06% on a commission table, Player at about 1.24%, and the Tie at about 14.4% at 8:1, whatever the roads show. Our guide to banker vs player odds works through those numbers.
Following roads is a harmless way to choose between two bets that cost almost the same, provided you treat it as a ritual rather than a method. Where it does damage is when a "certain" pattern persuades a player to raise the stake. If that is the pull, our guide to why betting systems don't beat the house edge is the better read.
Reading the scoreboard at Tenka
Open the live baccarat tables and the scoreboard is under or beside the video. Studios differ in layout: some show all five roads at once, others let you switch between them or enlarge the board on a phone. The table's info panel explains the symbols that studio uses, including its pair markers and any "what if" icons, and it also lists the payouts and limits for each bet.
A few habits help:
- Use the Bead Plate to check results. It is the complete, in-order record, ties included.
- Remember that the roads reset with the shoe. A new shoe starts an empty board, which is a reminder that nothing carries over.
- Keep your stake independent of the board. Decide your bet size before the session, not after a streak.
The differences between table formats, such as Speed, Squeeze and No Commission, are covered in our guide to live baccarat variants. Whatever table you choose, set a budget first; the responsible gambling tools let you add limits and breaks to your account.
Frequently asked questions
What does red mean on Big Eye Boy?
On the derived roads, red means the Big Road is repeating its earlier behaviour and blue means it is breaking pattern. Red does not mean Banker and blue does not mean Player on Big Eye Boy, Small Road or Cockroach Pig.
How are ties shown on the Big Road?
A tie does not get its own circle. It is shown as a green slash through the most recent circle, with a number if there were several ties, and the derived roads ignore it.
What is a dragon tail in baccarat?
A Big Road column holds six circles. When a run of the same result is longer than six, it turns right along the bottom row; that bend is called the dragon tail.
Can baccarat roads predict the next hand?
No. The roads record past outcomes only. Each hand follows fixed drawing rules, and the odds of Banker, Player and Tie are the same whatever the scoreboard shows.