Tiger Baccarat Explained: Big Tiger, Small Tiger, Tiger Tie and Tiger Pair
Tiger baccarat is a commission-free version of punto banco built around one event: the Banker hand winning with a total of 6. In the main game that event is the price you pay for skipping the 5% commission — a Banker win on 6 pays only half. Around it, the table adds a set of side bets named after the "tiger": Small Tiger, Big Tiger, Tiger, Tiger Tie and Tiger Pair. If you have seen these words on a layout and wondered what is big tiger in baccarat or whether the bets are worth it, this page gives the exact probability of each one, computed over every possible card order of an 8-deck shoe, and the house edge under the paytable most often published.
The main game: no commission, but a 6 pays half
Tiger baccarat deals and draws exactly like standard punto banco. Only the payout on Banker changes:
| Bet | Standard (5% commission) | Tiger baccarat |
|---|---|---|
| Banker wins with 0–5, 7, 8, 9 | Paid 0.95 to 1 | Paid 1 to 1 |
| Banker wins with 6 | Paid 0.95 to 1 | Paid 1 to 2 (half) |
| House edge on Banker | 1.06% | 1.46% |
| House edge on Player | 1.24% | 1.24% (unchanged) |
The Banker wins with a 6 in 5.39% of hands — about once every 19 hands. Charging half on those hands costs more, on average, than the 5% commission it replaces, so the Banker bet gets 0.40 points worse. That flips the usual advice: at a standard table Banker beats Player by 0.18 points, but at a tiger table Player (1.24%) is cheaper than Banker (1.46%) by 0.22 points. The same rule is used in other "no commission" and "Super 6" tables; the baccarat variants page compares them.
The tiger side bets and how they are decided
- Small Tiger — Banker wins with a total of 6 made with two cards.
- Big Tiger — Banker wins with a total of 6 made with three cards.
- Tiger — Banker wins with 6 by either route; it pays more for the three-card version.
- Tiger Tie — the hand is a tie at 6–6.
- Tiger Pair — about pairs in the first two cards of each hand: one side paired, both paired, or both paired in the same rank.
Paytables differ between operators, so always read the layout. The figures below use the table most often published: Small Tiger 22 to 1, Big Tiger 50 to 1, Tiger 12 to 1 (two cards) or 20 to 1 (three cards), Tiger Tie 35 to 1, and Tiger Pair 4 to 1, 20 to 1 and 100 to 1.
Exact odds and house edge (8 decks)
| Bet | Wins when | Probability per hand | About once in | Pays | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Tiger | Banker wins, two-card 6 | 3.7247% | 27 hands | 22 to 1 | 14.33% |
| Big Tiger | Banker wins, three-card 6 | 1.6617% | 60 hands | 50 to 1 | 15.25% |
| Tiger | Banker wins with any 6 | 5.3864% | 19 hands | 12 / 20 to 1 | 16.68% |
| Tiger Tie | Tie at 6–6 | 1.9240% | 52 hands | 35 to 1 | 30.74% |
| Tiger Pair | One side pairs / both / both same rank | 13.8236% / 0.5201% / 0.0380% | 7 hands (any) | 4 / 20 / 100 to 1 | 16.12% |
For comparison, the Banker and Player bets cost 1.06–1.46% and even the standard Tie bet at 8 to 1 costs 14.36%. Every tiger bet sits at or above the Tie's level. On a 6-deck shoe the edges move only slightly: Small Tiger 14.35%, Big Tiger 15.30%, Tiger 16.72%, Tiger Tie 30.85% and Tiger Pair 17.17%.
Why the payouts fall short: fair odds
A bet is fair when it pays (1 ÷ probability) − 1 to 1. The house edge is simply 1 − probability × (payout + 1). Apply that to each bet:
| Bet | Fair payout | Actual payout | Edge check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Tiger | 25.85 to 1 | 22 to 1 | 1 − 0.037247 × 23 = 14.33% |
| Big Tiger | 59.18 to 1 | 50 to 1 | 1 − 0.016617 × 51 = 15.25% |
| Tiger Tie | 50.97 to 1 | 35 to 1 | 1 − 0.019240 × 36 = 30.74% |
If your table pays differently, plug its numbers into the same formula. A Big Tiger at 55 to 1, for example, would still leave 1 − 0.016617 × 56 = 6.9% for the house.
Why is a 6–6 tie so "common" that 35 to 1 is badly short? Because 6–6 and 7–7 are the two most frequent tie totals: 6–6 alone is 20.2% of all ties. The tie bet page shows the full breakdown by total.
What it looks like over a shoe
An 8-deck shoe is about 80 hands. Treating hands as independent:
| Event | Average per 80-hand shoe | Chance of none in a shoe |
|---|---|---|
| Small Tiger (two-card 6) | 2.98 | 4.8% |
| Big Tiger (three-card 6) | 1.33 | 26.1% |
| Banker wins with any 6 | 4.31 | — |
| Tie at 6–6 | 1.54 | 21.1% |
One shoe in four has no Big Tiger at all, which is what makes the bet feel "due" after a long gap. It is not: the cards that will come next are not affected by the ones already shown on the scoreboard in any way you could use. Our card counting page shows how small the effect of removed cards really is.
Worked example: 10 units a hand for 100 hands
Betting 10 units on the same bet for 100 hands puts 1,000 units in play. The average cost is the edge times 1,000:
- Player (main bet): about 12.4 units.
- Banker under tiger rules: about 14.6 units.
- Small Tiger: about 143 units. Big Tiger: about 153. Tiger: about 167. Tiger Pair: about 161.
- Tiger Tie: about 307 units.
A single Big Tiger hit pays 500 units, so short sessions swing wildly in both directions — but the average stays at those figures. If you just want to watch how often Banker wins with 6 on real tables, the live baccarat tracker follows each shoe, and the free Baccarat Scoreboard app lets you record your own.
Tiger baccarat vs other banker-6 games
Several commission-free games use the same "Banker 6 pays half" rule and sell a side bet on it. The plain Super 6 side bet pays one price for any Banker 6 win: at 12 to 1 its edge is about 30%, at 15 to 1 about 13.8%. Tiger splits the same event into two-card and three-card versions with different prices. EZ Baccarat uses a different trick — a three-card Banker 7 pushes — with its own Dragon 7 and Panda 8 side bets; those are covered under baccarat side bets, and the payout-ladder Dragon Bonus has its own page.
Tiger baccarat FAQ
What is tiger in baccarat? "Tiger" refers to the Banker winning with a total of 6. In tiger baccarat that win pays half on the main bet, and side bets pay when it happens.
What is big tiger in baccarat? A side bet that wins when the Banker wins with a three-card total of 6. It happens in 1.66% of hands and, at 50 to 1, has a 15.25% house edge.
What is small tiger? The same idea with a two-card 6: 3.72% of hands, 14.33% edge at 22 to 1.
Is the Banker bet still best in tiger baccarat? No. Because Banker 6 pays half, the Banker edge rises to 1.46%, while Player stays at 1.24%.
Which tiger side bet is the least bad? Under the common paytable, Small Tiger at 14.33%. All of them cost far more than the main bets.
Probabilities from exhaustive enumeration of every card order of an 8-deck and 6-deck shoe; per-shoe figures assume independent hands — Baccarat Terminal, October 2026. Paytables vary by operator. 18+. Informational only; not a gambling service.