Baccarat can be played online or in a live casino. In a live casino the player can play out in the casino at a table or in the baccarat room. In any of these situations it is legal for the player to keep a running track of the last hand and whether it was a bank, player or tie hand.

On a Baccarat Card this is easy to do as the player just marks the squares in a column for the player or the bank win or draws a line through both which signifies a tie hand. When several hands have been played and from then on it is easier to see if there is a trend or a pattern developing. For this reason many baccarat players use the Baccarat Score Card to look for trends and patterns. After each deal, the player marks the card an looks for obvious trends or patterns. A trend is a number of hands on the same side of the shoe, like four banks in a row or five players in a row. A pattern is the hands repeat a sequence again and again. When this happens in a shoe, the chances to make money are improved dramatically. When to play for a trend and when to buck a trend is why they call it gambling. The best philosophy is not to buck a trend, play for a continuation, but if uncomfortable lower the bet to the minimum.

Bucking the trend is the easiest way to turn a loss into a big loss.