The Basics of Baccarat

With origins dating back as far as 15th century Italy, Baccarat has long maintained an image as a high class game played by well-dressed and well-to-do people. In many casinos you'll find the Baccarat table in a roped off area that's reserved for high stakes gamblers.

The game may look like all class and sophistication from the outside, but it's actually a pretty simple game. Two hands are dealt, you bet on one of three outcomes and the rest is decided by pure chance. It's really not much different than flipping a coin and betting on heads or tails.

Baccarat Rules

If you can get past the odd points system that Baccarat uses, the rules are very easy to learn. At the beginning of each round you bet on one of three outcomes: the Banker winning, the Player winning or a tie.

If you guess correctly on either the Banker or Player, you are paid even money on your bet. If you guess correctly on a tie, you'll win 8 to 1 on your bet. The game is not played against the house, so the terms "Banker" and "Player" do not designate the customers or the house. These terms are just used to bet on one hand or another.

At the beginning of each round, two hands with two cards each are dealt by a casino employee. One of the hands is called the Banker and the other called the Player. The hand with the most points at the end of the round wins.

Points

Hand values are determined by a points system. The cards 2-9 are ranked at face value, the hands 10 through K are worth 0 points and Aces are worth 11 points. After two cards are dealt to each hand, the points total is added up.

Now here's the part that confuses newer players at first: When the points total is added up, the tens digit is ignored. So if the Banker gets an 8 and a 5, his points total would be 3 (8 - 5 = 13 = 3).

Hands that add up to ten, such as 7 and 3, end up being worth 0 points (7 + 3 = 10 = 0) and are the worst possible hands. A hand with a points total of 0 is called a "baccarat." This is where the game gets its name.

After the points total is calculated, the rest of the round is played according to a specific set of rules. You do not need to memorize these rules are automatically enforced by the house.

If either the Banker or Player has an 8 or 9 after the initial draw, they both stand and compare point totals. The hand with the most points wins. If neither the Banker nor the Player has an 8 or 9, the play is determined by the following rules:

Player

If Player has 0-5 points after the initial deal, he draws a single card.
If Player has 6-7 points after the initial deal, he stands.

Banker

The Banker's play is determined primarily by the Player.

If Player didn't draw the third card, the Banker stands if he has 6-7 points and draws if he has 0-5 points.
If Banker has 0-2 points after the initial deal, he must draw no matter what the Player's third card was.
If Banker has 3 points after the initial deal, he must draw if the Player's third card was anything other than an 8.
If Banker has 4 points after the initial deal, he must draw if the Player draws anything other than 0, 1, 8 or 9 for the third card.
If Banker has 5 points after the initial deal, he must draw if the Player draws anything other than 4, 5, 6 or 7 for the the card.
If Banker has 6 points after the initial deal, he must draw if the Player draws either a 6 or 7 for the third card.
If Banker has 7 or more points after the initial deal, he must stand.

After the necessary draws have been completed, the Player and Banker compare hands. The hand with the most points wins.

Baccarat Strategy

Baccarat is a rigidly structured game so there's not a whole lot you can do after you choose your side (Banker, Player or Tie) except watch the action go down. But that doesn't mean you can't use a little strategy when playing Baccarat to give yourself the best chances of winning.

First of all, you'll always want to skip the Tie bet. Even though this bet pays 8 to 1, the house edge is a whopping 14.44%, making it the worst bet in the game. The Player and Banker bets are almost 50/50.

Outside of the Tie bet, the casino gets its edge in Baccarat by charging a 5% commission on Banker bets. This means that any time you place a bet on Banker and win; you'll be paid back 1:1 minus 5%. This is the only house edge in Baccarat other than tie bets.

Despite the 5% commission, the Banker bet is still the best bet in Baccarat. The Banker will win slightly over 50% of the time. Bets on the Banker have a 1.06% house advantage while bets on Player have a house advantage of 1.24%.

So if you want to make your money last the longest, your best bet is to bet on the Banker every time. The odds are so close to 50/50 that you'll be able to stay in the game for a long time unless you catch an unfortunate run of cards.

A lot of people expend great energy tracking the results of every hand, hoping to pick up on trends or get in during a winning streak. Don't waste your time. Baccarat is completely random and the results of the next hand never have anything to do with the last hand.

You'll see people think that just because the Player or Banker has won the last few hands that there's either a hot streak or it means that the opposite side is due for a win. It really doesn't matter either way. The Banker could have won the last 40 hands and he would still have a 50% chance of winning the next hand.

My last piece of advice to is to make sure you check the table limits before you join a game of baccarat. In many casinos this game caters to the wealthy and you'll find table minimums much higher than you'd expect.