Akio Kashiwagi: The Most Extraordinary Baccarat Player
Actually, not much can be told about the personal and professional life of one more baccarat expert - Tokyo real estate investor Akio Kashiwagi: his business and his incomes were so secretive that nobody knew exactly what he did for living. Anyway, the most interesting moment of this person's life is clear for everybody: his enormously huge winnings and losses at baccarat casino game, thanks to which he became a well-known personality in the world of gambling.
Just a Business
They say Akio Kashiwagi had strong ties with the Yakuza: maybe that is why all the details of his business with real estate, his income and the company he run - Kashiwagi Shoji Co. - were always hidden from publics; Akio always called all this stuff in official documents to be just a "Business".
He had an apartment in Tokyo and he run his "business" from his office there.
His ties with the Yakuza had not passed without leaving a trace: in 1992 (January) Akio Kashiwagi was found dead in his home; in about 150 wounds were found on his body and all of them had been made by samurai sword. At the moment of his death Akio still owed casinos in about $9 million.
Akio and Baccarat
Baccarat card game was chosen by Kashiwagi as a favorite one: he could spend many hours at baccarat table and usually he made very big bets on baccarat - $100 000 - $200 000 as a single bet. Akio was not afraid of gaming and for this character's feature he got the nickname "Warrior" from all casino employees.
But Kashiwagi is famous not only for his crazy single baccarat bets but also for his huge baccarat winning and losses: 1990 had brought his both luck and fail.
Atlantic City's Trump Plaza Casino was really crucial for Akio: in February of 1990 he played baccarat there, made his usual bet of $200 000 and won $6 million for one evening! Gosh, it was really cool - Kashiwagi had become the owner of the biggest baccarat winning ever! But the truth is that luck is cruel: May of 1990, the same casino, the same baccarat table. Akio makes a bet of $1 million (such a deal was) and leaves the casino with $2 million in chips. What is bad? Well, he had lost $10 million then.
Such an irony of fate is: one person had become the owner of both biggest baccarat winning and biggest baccarat loss. This case helped Akio Kashiwagi to become one of the most famous baccarat players, the craziest one indeed!
This variation is often use for playing baccarat online: Punto Banco is considered to be American Baccarat.
This baccarat variation is believed to be the classical one: it was the first variant of the game.
It is played preferably in Europe and it is difficult to find in land-based casinos of America.