Cockroach Pig Baccarat: How to Read the Stick Road

Key takeaways

• The Cockroach Pig is calculated from the Big Road. Red and blue describe the shape of the Big Road — not Banker or Player.
• It compares each new Big Road result with the column three places to the left.
• It starts at the 2nd row of the 4th Big Road column (or the 1st row of the 5th column).
• Ties are ignored, because they do not take a cell on the Big Road.

What is the Cockroach Pig?

The Cockroach Pig — also called the Cockroach Road or the Stick — is the third of the three derived roads, after the Big Eye Boy and the Small Road. It is drawn with short slashes, red or blue.

Like the other two, it does not tell you who won. For every new result on the Big Road it answers one question: is the Big Road repeating its pattern (red) or breaking it (blue)? The difference is how far back it looks. The Cockroach Pig compares with the column three places to the left, so it is the derived road that looks furthest back.

The rules are exactly the same as for the Big Eye Boy — only the comparison column changes. If you have not read part 1 of this series yet, start with the Big Eye Boy guide, or see the short definition in the glossary.

Where does the Cockroach Pig start?

The first mark appears at:

• the 2nd row of the 4th column of the Big Road, or
• the 1st row of the 5th column, if the 4th column has only one result.

Before that point there are not enough columns to compare with, so nothing is drawn. After it, every new Big Road result adds exactly one mark — the same as the Big Eye Boy and the Small Road.

The two rules

Rule 1 — the result starts a new column (column N). Compare the length of the column just to the left (N−1) with the column three places further left (N−4).

• Same length → 🔴 red
• Different length → 🔵 blue

Rule 2 — the result continues down column N (row r). Look at the column three places to the left (N−3):

• It has a result on row r → 🔴 red
• Row r is empty, but row r−1 is filled (that column ended exactly one row higher) → 🔵 blue
• Rows r and r−1 are both empty → 🔴 red

Marks are laid out like the Big Road: the same colour goes down, and a change of colour starts a new column.

Worked example

Here is a sample Big Road (B = Banker, P = Player), written column by column:

B B | P | B B B | P | B B | P P | B | P P P | B B | P P P P

As a grid, with the columns numbered C1 to C10:

Row	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6	C7	C8	C9	C10
1	B	P	B	P	B	P	B	P	B	P
2	B		B		B	P		P	B	P
3			B					P		P
4										P

Column lengths: C1 = 2, C2 = 1, C3 = 3, C4 = 1, C5 = 2, C6 = 2, C7 = 1, C8 = 3, C9 = 2, C10 = 4.

Column C4 has only one result, so there is no 2nd row of C4. The Cockroach Pig therefore starts at the 1st row of C5. Now we calculate it, result by result:

Step	Big Road result	Rule	Check	Mark
1	C5, row 1	New column	C4 (1) vs C1 (2): different	🔵
2	C5, row 2	Same column	C2 row 2 empty, row 1 filled	🔵
3	C6, row 1	New column	C5 (2) vs C2 (1): different	🔵
4	C6, row 2	Same column	C3 has a result on row 2	🔴
5	C7, row 1	New column	C6 (2) vs C3 (3): different	🔵
6	C8, row 1	New column	C7 (1) vs C4 (1): same	🔴
7	C8, row 2	Same column	C5 has a result on row 2	🔴
8	C8, row 3	Same column	C5 row 3 empty, row 2 filled	🔵
9	C9, row 1	New column	C8 (3) vs C5 (2): different	🔵
10	C9, row 2	Same column	C6 has a result on row 2	🔴
11	C10, row 1	New column	C9 (2) vs C6 (2): same	🔴
12	C10, row 2	Same column	C7 row 2 empty, row 1 filled	🔵
13	C10, row 3	Same column	C7 rows 2 and 3 both empty	🔴
14	C10, row 4	Same column	C7 rows 3 and 4 both empty	🔴

The Big Road has 21 results. The first 7 (columns C1 to C4) come before the starting point, and each of the remaining 14 adds one mark. So the Cockroach Pig for this shoe reads:

🔵 🔵 🔵 🔴 🔵 🔴 🔴 🔵 🔵 🔴 🔴 🔵 🔴 🔴

Laid out like the Big Road, that is 8 columns of slashes: blue ×3 | red ×1 | blue ×1 | red ×2 | blue ×2 | red ×2 | blue ×1 | red ×2.

A quick tip for Rule 1: the column that has just been completed (N−1) is compared with the column three places before it (N−4). In step 6, C8 starts, so C7 is compared with C4 — not C8 with C5.

You can see how the three derived roads look side by side in the roadmap guide.

How to read a finished Cockroach Pig

• Long red columns: the Big Road has been regular when measured against columns three places back — for example, column lengths repeating at that distance.
• Long blue columns: the Big Road has kept changing shape compared with three columns earlier.
• Red and blue alternating: no clear structure in either direction.

Because it looks further back than the Big Eye Boy and the Small Road, the Cockroach Pig often shows a different picture from them for the same Big Road. That is normal — each road simply measures regularity at a different distance.

Remember that this describes what has already happened. It does not make any next result more likely — every hand is independent, and no road can predict the next one.

Common mistakes

• Reading red as Banker. In the Cockroach Pig, red and blue never mean Banker or Player.
• Starting too early. Nothing is drawn before the 2nd row of the 4th column (or the 1st row of the 5th, if the 4th column has only one result).
• Using the wrong columns in Rule 1. For a new column N, compare N−1 with N−4 — three places apart.
• Counting ties. Ties are only a mark on the Big Road and are skipped.
• Mixing up the roads. The Big Eye Boy compares with the column one place to the left, the Small Road two, and the Cockroach Pig three.

Practise on LabxPlay

On LabxPlay, open any live Evolution table and switch to the Stick tab to watch the Cockroach Pig update round by round. Use the P next and B next buttons to preview how the roads would change before the result comes in — try to work out the next slash yourself first, then check.

For a faster pace, try Labx Speed tables A–F. These are LabxPlay's own tables, with results from LabxPlay's own system rather than Evolution.

LabxPlay is free and uses virtual points only. Points cannot be bought or cashed out, and they reset to 600,000 every day. LabxPlay is not affiliated with Evolution and is for players aged 18+.