Baccarat Gold is one of the best online baccarat variants. The normal online baccarat variants are far removed from the rituals and style of land casino baccarat games. They incorporate the bare minimum that the game play requires. Microgaming Baccarat Gold takes online baccarat wagering to a higher plane. Being a Gold series table game it is set in an elegant casino environment. But it uses several tools and animations so as to allow online casino players get the feel of the real thing while sitting at home. Baccarat is a popular game at Asian land casinos and Microgaming Baccarat Gold is modeled after this version.

Microgaming Baccarat Gold is played with a stack of eight decks. The table limits range from a minimum of 5 credits to a maximum of 500 credits. New bets have been introduced in this baccarat variant. These are the Banker and Player Pair bets, which win if the Banker or Player is dealt a pair as the first two cards. The bets pay out at 11 to 1. Microgaming Baccarat Gold simulates the card peeking rituals prevalent in the land casino game. The hand that the player has bet on is shifted to the player. The player can use the cursor to lift the corner of the card and have a peek at it. After seeing the card he can turn it over either by using the cursor or by clicking on the Squeeze button. The face-up cards are then returned to their usual place in the playing area. Another baccarat ritual in land casinos followed by some players is rotating the cards before peeking at them. Microgaming Baccarat Gold also simulates this ritual. As the cursor is moved over the cards arrows are revealed. The player can click the arrow in the direction in which he wants to rotate the card. After the cards are rotated the player can peek at them as described earlier.

The most exciting feature in Microgaming Baccarat Gold is the set of roadmaps. Roadmaps are charts used particularly by Asian players to try and predict the outcome of the next deal. They are formed by recasting the basic history display of the outcomes of the earlier hands. In the history displays a Player win is marked on a blue button with a P. A Banker win is marked on a red button with a B. And a Tie is marked on a green button with a T. The roadmap set consists of four different charts that are named Big Road, Big Eye Road, Small Road and Cockroach Road. The Big Road is a simple chart that uses the same color scheme as the history chart, but hollow circles instead of buttons. The outcome of the first deal of a session is entered in the first row of the first column. If the outcome of the next deal is the same then the same indicator is entered below the earlier one in the same column. When a different outcome is obtained, a new column is started with the indicator for that outcome. The Big Road identifies patterns that indicate changes in the outcomes. The other three Roadmaps are even more sophisticated. It must be stated that each deal in online baccarat is independent of the earlier ones and therefore the roadmaps have no mathematical basis for prediction. Nevertheless they are extremely popular and hence Microgaming has included them in Baccarat Gold.