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Big Eye Boy, Small Road and Cockroach Pig
Big Eye Boy, Small Road and Cockroach Pig are the three derived roads on a baccarat scoreboard. They don't record Banker or Player. They compare the columns of the Big Road with earlier columns and mark red when the pattern repeats and blue when it breaks. Big Eye Boy looks one column back, Small Road two and Cockroach Pig three.
Red and blue mean something different here
On the Big Road, red is Banker and blue is Player. On the derived roads, red means "orderly": the Big Road is repeating itself. Blue means "choppy": it has broken from what came before. A Banker streak and a Player streak can both make red marks.
How each road looks
| Road | Looks back | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Big Eye Boy | 1 column | Hollow circles |
| Small Road | 2 columns | Solid dots |
| Cockroach Pig | 3 columns | Slashes |
Each road is drawn like the Big Road: marks of the same color stack down a column, and a change of color starts a new column. The names come from Cantonese. The Cockroach Pig is also called the Cockroach Road.
Where each road starts
Each road needs enough Big Road columns to compare, so it starts a little later in the shoe. After its first mark, every new Big Road mark adds one mark to each road. Ties add nothing.
| Road | First mark at the Big Road's |
|---|---|
| Big Eye Boy | Column 2, row 2, or column 3, row 1 if column 2 has only one mark |
| Small Road | Column 3, row 2, or column 4, row 1 |
| Cockroach Pig | Column 4, row 2, or column 5, row 1 |
The two rules
Call the number of columns a road looks back n: 1 for Big Eye Boy, 2 for Small Road, 3 for Cockroach Pig. Each new Big Road mark is either the start of a new column or a mark further down a column.
- A new column. Compare the two columns just before it: the column that just ended, and the column n places to the left of that one. If they are the same length, red. If not, blue.
- Further down a column. Look at the column n places to the left, in the same row. If that column has a mark in this row, red. If it ended exactly one row above, blue. If it ended two or more rows above, red.
A worked example
Take a Big Road with six columns of these lengths: 3 Banker, 1 Player, 2 Banker, 2 Player, 1 Banker, 3 Player. The Big Eye Boy, which looks one column back:
| Big Road mark | Compare | Big Eye Boy |
|---|---|---|
| Column 2, row 1 | Too early: column 2 has one mark, so the road starts at column 3 | None |
| Column 3, row 1 | Column 2 (1) and column 1 (3): different | Blue |
| Column 3, row 2 | Column 2 ended one row above | Blue |
| Column 4, row 1 | Column 3 (2) and column 2 (1): different | Blue |
| Column 4, row 2 | Column 3 has a mark in row 2 | Red |
| Column 5, row 1 | Column 4 (2) and column 3 (2): same | Red |
| Column 6, row 1 | Column 5 (1) and column 4 (2): different | Blue |
| Column 6, row 2 | Column 5 ended one row above | Blue |
| Column 6, row 3 | Column 5 ended two rows above | Red |
So the Big Eye Boy reads blue, blue, blue, red, red, blue, blue, red. Drawn as a road, that is a column of three blue, a column of two red, a column of two blue and a red to start the next column.
The same Big Road on the other two roads:
- Small Road (two columns back), starting at column 3, row 2: red, blue, blue, blue, blue, red, blue.
- Cockroach Pig (three columns back), starting at column 4, row 2: red, blue, red, red, blue.
Why three roads
Each road asks the same question at a different distance. Big Eye Boy asks whether the shoe is echoing the column just before. Small Road and Cockroach Pig ask about two and three columns before. When all three are mostly red, the Big Road has been drawing repeated shapes. When they are mostly blue, the shapes keep changing.
What the derived roads can't do
The derived roads describe the past, and nothing more. Each hand is dealt independently from the shoe, so a run of red marks doesn't make the next result more or less likely to repeat. Over many shoes, each road comes out red about half the time and blue about half the time: 50.0% red in our simulation of 20,000 shoes. People read the derived roads for fun and for tradition, and a red streak doesn't change the house edge on any bet. Baccarat odds.
The predictor
Many scoreboards show what mark each derived road would get if the next hand were Banker, and what it would get if it were Player. That is all it shows. It is a way to see how the roads would be drawn, not a forecast.
See all five roads
Our free table draws the Big Eye Boy, Small Road and Cockroach Pig as each hand is dealt, next to the Bead Road and Big Road. How to read the whole scoreboard or play free baccarat.
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Questions
What is Big Eye Boy in baccarat?
A derived road that compares each Big Road column with the one before it. It marks red when the Big Road repeats and blue when it breaks. It doesn't show Banker or Player.
What does red mean on Big Eye Boy?
That the Big Road is repeating: a new column matched the length pattern of the column before, or a streak followed the column next to it. Blue means it broke from it.
What is the Cockroach Pig in baccarat?
The third derived road. It works like Big Eye Boy but compares each Big Road column with the one three columns back, and its marks are slashes.
What is the difference between Big Eye Boy, Small Road and Cockroach Pig?
How far back they look: one, two and three Big Road columns. They also use different marks: hollow circles, solid dots and slashes.
Do the derived roads predict the next baccarat hand?
No. They summarize what has happened in the shoe. Each hand is dealt independently, and the roads come out red about half the time over many shoes.
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