Cow Cow baccarat side bet

The Cow Cow is a pair of baccarat side bets that win and lose according to the total of the winning side. It is a bit hard to explain, but I try in my new page on Cow Cow. Please have a look and let me know what you think. I'd be interested in opinions on how to define the house edge for this bet.

The question for the poll is would you make the Cow Cow bet if playing baccarat anyway?

It’s like action points for baccarat. I like it. I think the right way to think of “house edge” is as a percent of the expected amount to change hands (like you would at ultimate Texas holdem).

This bet doesn't appeal to me at all. I don't like losing up to 9x my bet. Even if I can win up to 8.45x. Yuck.

Very interesting. Never quite seen a bet like that where you can lose up to 9x.

What a weird bet, but actually kind of cool. I still wouldn't play it, though.

Hmm... Cow Cow seems a pretty radical wager for such a traditional and rather conservative game. How many years has Baccarat been plodding along down the big road on even money and small banker fees? Yeah, there's been some side bets along the way but I can't help envisioning some purists in the European casinos choking on their gin and tonics at the mere suggestion of such a wager. For me, I find myself on the fence. If it was watered down a little (A calf calf wager?) perhaps by making the win/loss multiplyer equal to the difference of the hand values (which would at least tamp down the volatility) it might be more palatable (i.e. affordable). Still, like others above, I find that the part of my human brain that gets excited over a flutter prospect is intrigued by this game mechanic.

Is there a board at the table tracking this bet? And if so, what wacky name does it have? The bovine bead through? The cow-pie trail? Hamburger helper?

The problem of this side bet : if player bet $1 and lose $8, what if player not enough money to pay the balance $7 ?

You bring up a good point ssho88 and it's one of the reasons I find the Cow Cow so interesting. It seems unlikely that a brick-and-mortar (online would be easy) casino would allow players to make a wager without having them plonk down their chips to cover any potential loss. On the other hand, there is a precedent for it at a craps table where you can yell out a bet while the shooter is rolling the dice. Assuming the boxman allows it, the pay/loss comes after the roll. So I don't know.

Has anyone here actually seen a Cow Cow bet at a live table?
If so, when you place a $5 bet do you need to put $40 in chips behind it to cover bad things happening?

I've been writing about gambling for 21 years now. Until recently, I never heard of a bet where you could lose more than the "bet."

Besides this game, I just wrote a new page on Niu Niu. On the Double bet in that game, the player can lose up to five times his "bet." Asia Gaming says the player must actually put down on the table the worst-case-scenario loss, but the "bet" is just 20% of it.

These Asian games are not making my job easy.

The casino version of "These go to 11"

Just call it a $9 bet with 19 different possible results.

When the winning point is 9, the payoff should be 8.55(0.95 x 9 = 8.55 !) instead of 8.45. The house edge(PLAYER COW COW) = 4.28445%.

BTW, it is NOT countable !

I wouldn't touch it with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.