Dragon Tiger Odds
Two cards from one shoe, compared by rank: the whole of dragon tiger can be counted from that, and this page counts it. For every common deck count it gives the chance of a Dragon win, a Tiger win and a tie, and from those the cost of each bet under each tie rule and at each tie payout a table might print. The side bets on a single card follow at the end.
The round itself, the card ranking and the layout are on the how-to-play guide. Where a figure depends on a rule the table chooses, the page says which rule it assumes, and the table's own layout is where to check it.
Dragon, Tiger and Tie by Number of Decks
Dragon and Tiger are always equal: nothing in the deal favours either spot. A tie needs the second card to match the first, which is likelier the more copies of each rank the shoe holds, so ties grow commoner as decks are added and a suited tie is impossible from a single deck.
The Main Bets Under Each Tie Rule
House edge as a share of each stake, paid at even money. The first row is the common table. The last row restates the first against only the rounds that were won or lost outright, the way some published figures are counted; it is the same price measured over fewer rounds, not a different price.
The Tie Bet at Every Payout
Most tables print 8 to 1 or 11 to 1. Each step of one unit in the payout moves the house edge by the chance of the tie itself, 7.47% from eight decks, which is why two tables that look identical sit at 32.77% and 10.36% on this one bet.
The Suited Tie
For a suited tie the two cards must share a suit as well as a rank, which from eight decks happens on 1.69% of rounds, one in 59.29. At the common payout of 50:1 the bet gives up 13.98% of every stake; at 40:1 it gives up 30.84%. From six decks the chance is 1.61% and the same payouts cost a little more.
The payout looks generous beside the plain tie's and is not. The chance is well under a quarter of the plain tie's, and at 50:1 the bet gives up more than a plain tie paid 11 to 1 does; only a plain tie paid 8 to 1 costs more.
The key number: One round in 59.29 ends in a suited tie from eight decks, which makes 13.98% the price of the usual 50:1 payout.
Side Bets on One Card
Six ranks win each of the four even-money bets, six lose, and the thirteenth rank, the 7, loses all of them. The chance of a 7 is 7.69%, one card in 13, and that single rank is the entire house edge on each. The figures hold for any number of decks, since the shoe's rank mix is the same.
Reading a Table's Price
Two printed lines settle what a table costs. Half loss or full loss on the main bets picks a row in the second table; the tie payout picks a row in the third. A table that prints half loss and 11 to 1 from eight decks costs 3.73% on Dragon or Tiger and 10.36% on the tie; one that prints full loss and 8 to 1 costs 7.47% and 32.77%, a different game at the same layout.
The deck count is the third line and the least important: moving from eight decks to six changes the main bets by a few hundredths of a point, and the one-card bets not at all.
The rule: Two printed lines price the whole table: what matched cards do to a main bet, and what the Tie area pays; the shoe size is a footnote.
Dragon Tiger Odds FAQs
3.73% on Dragon or Tiger from eight decks when a tie takes half the stake, and 7.47% when it takes all of it. The tie bet costs 32.77% at 8 to 1 and 10.36% at 11 to 1.
7.47% of rounds from eight decks, about one in 13.39; 7.40% from six and 5.88% from a single deck.
A little over 12 to 1 from eight decks: at 12:1 the bet still gives up 2.89%. No common table pays that much.
Each costs 7.69%, roughly twice the main bets on a half-loss table. The whole of that edge is the 7, which loses for both.
Because each spot receives one card from the same shoe and the cards are compared symmetrically. Whatever the shoe's state, the two spots face identical odds, and the results board cannot change that.