How to read the bead road and big road
The two charts every baccarat table shows, explained without mysticism, plus what a large dataset says about what they can and cannot tell you.
The bead road
The bead road (bead plate) is the raw record. Each hand goes in the next cell, top to bottom, six cells per column, then the next column. Red is Banker, blue is Player, green is Tie. It never skips a hand and never re-arranges anything, which makes it the honest chart: every other road is derived from it.
The big road
The big road groups consecutive wins by the same side into columns. A Banker win after a Banker win drops down the same column; a Player win starts a new column. Ties are marked on the last cell without moving. Columns are capped at six rows on most displays, so a run of seven or more turns right along the bottom row, the "dragon tail."
Reading the shape
- Column length is the run length. Many columns of one are a choppy shoe; long columns are a streaky shoe.
- Reading the shoe is what everyone at the table is trying to do from these shapes. Rack Chasers does it with a proprietary meter that grades the shoe as it develops; how it is computed is not published.
What the roads can tell you, by venue
| Statistic | Live-dealer online | Casino floor |
|---|---|---|
| Next hand repeats the last one | 50.0% | 51.5% |
| Next hand repeats when our meter reads the shoe as favourable | at the base rate | well above it |
Online, the roads describe the past perfectly and say nothing about the next hand. On the floor they carry real information, which is why our system is proven more effective there. Why the venues differ.
Questions
What is the difference between the bead road and the big road?
The bead road records every hand in order in a six-row grid. The big road groups consecutive same-side wins into columns, so it shows streaks and chops at a glance.
What is a dragon in baccarat?
A run long enough to hit the bottom of the big road and turn sideways, usually seven or more of the same side. In live-dealer data a dragon continues at 48% to 52%, the same as any other hand.
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GET ACCESSFigures on this page are replays and measurements of logged hands under the current rule set as of 2026-09-23. They are not a forecast and do not guarantee future results. Decision support only; every bet is your own decision. 21+ or your local gambling age.