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Monkey Baccarat

Introduction

Monkey Baccarat is essentially the same thing as EZ Baccarat with three new side bets added. In Monkey Baccarat, all face cards are referred to as "monkeys." This is not a mistake on my part. I know the conventional parlance for baccarat is that all zero-point cards are called a "monkey." However, the terminology is simply different in Monkey Baccarat. The added side bets are explained in the rules section.

As of this writing (May 1, 2018), Monkey Baccarat can be found at the Morongo casino in California.

Rules

To avoid confusion, I capitalize the names of the Player and Banker bets, while using lower case to refer to people playing the game.

  1. The rules are the same as in conventional baccarat, with the following exceptions and additions.
  2. "Monkey" cards are defined as all face cards. Contrary to usual baccarat terminology, tens are not Monkeys.
  3. As in EZ Baccarat, the Banker bet pays 1 to 1, except on a winning three-card total of 7 the Banker bet is a push.
  4. The Monkey 7 bet is the same as the Dragon bet in EZ baccarat, which pays 40 to 1 on a three-card winning Banker total of 7.
  5. The Monkey 6 bet pays 12 to 1 if the hand uses six cards, when the 5th card is anything other than a Monkey and the 6th card is a Monkey. The winning side does not matter.
  6. The Monkey Tie bet pays 150 to 1 if the hand uses six cards, when the 5th card is anything other than a Monkey, the 6th card is a Monkey, and the Banker and Player tie.
  7. The Grand Monkey bet pays 5,000 to 1 if the hand uses six cards and all six are Monkeys.

Analysis

The following table shows the probability and contribution to the return for all possible outcomes of the Banker bet. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 1.02%.

Banker

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
Banker (except on three-card 7) 1 2,179,619,555,108,870 0.436064 0.436064
Banker win on 7 0 112,633,011,329,024 0.022534 0.000000
Tie 0 475,627,426,473,216 0.095156 0.000000
Player -1 2,230,518,282,592,250 0.446247 -0.446247
Total   4,998,398,275,503,360 1.000001 -0.010183

The following table shows the probability and contribution to the return for all possible outcomes of the Player bet. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 1.24%.

Player

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
Player 1 2,230,518,282,592,250 0.446247 0.446247
Tie Banker 0 475,627,426,473,216 0.095156 0.000000
Banker Wins -1 2,292,252,566,437,880 0.458597 -0.458597
Total   4,998,398,275,503,350 1.000000 -0.012351

The following table shows the probability and contribution to the return for all possible outcomes of the Tie bet. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 14.36%.

Tie

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
Tie 8 475,627,426,473,216 0.095156 0.761248
Player or Banker -1 4,522,770,849,030,130 0.904844 -0.904844
Total   4,998,398,275,503,350 1.000000 -0.143596

The following table shows the probability and contribution to the return for all possible outcomes of the Monkey 7 bet. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 7.61%.

Monkey 7

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
Banker three-card 7 40 112,633,011,329,024 0.022534 0.901353
All other -1 4,885,765,264,174,340 0.977466 -0.977466
Total   4,998,398,275,503,360 1.000000 -0.076113

The following table shows the probability and contribution to the return for all possible outcomes of the Monkey 6 bet. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 23.14% (ouch!).

Monkey 6

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
Win 12 295,533,789,192,192 0.059126 0.709508
Loss -1 4,702,864,486,311,170 0.940874 -0.940874
Total   4,998,398,275,503,360 1.000000 -0.231366

The following table shows the probability and contribution to the return for all possible outcomes of the Monkey 6 Tie. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 12.29%.

Monkey 6 Tie

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
Win 150 29,035,119,366,144 0.005809 0.871333
Loss -1 4,969,363,156,137,220 0.994191 -0.994191
Total   4,998,398,275,503,360 1.000000 -0.122858

The following table shows the probability and contribution to the return for all possible outcomes of the Grand Monkey. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 33.22%. I have an unconfirmed report the minimum and maximum bet is $1 (sorry, counters).

Grand Monkey

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
Win 5000 667,474,778,880 0.000134 0.667689
Loss -1 4,997,730,800,724,480 0.999866 -0.999866
Total   4,998,398,275,503,360 1.000000 -0.332178

External Links

Discussion about Monkey Baccarat in my forum at Wizard of Vegas.