Baccarat Card Games

Baccarat History

In the 1950’s the game was popularized in Vegas because of the efforts of Frank Sinatra, a co-owner of The Sands at the time. More recently, a lot of US casinos have offered “Mini Baccarat”.

How to Play Baccarat

There are three bets available: The Player’s hand, the Banker’s hand, or a Tie. A bet on the Player pays even money. All Tens and face cards have a value of 0. In the classic game of Baccarat the deal rotates among the players. After the Player’s hand is complete, the Banker’s hand is dealt out according to the following set of rules: If the Player did not draw a third card, then the Banker only draws a card to a hand of 4 or less. It's difficult to trace back the origins of this game mainly because slight variations of it name are used in both countries, each wanting to claim it as theirs. It was later on introduced in France around 1490 A. Chemin de fer is very similar to baccarat as it's played in American casinos today. The interesting bit to observe of course is that the casino is taking no risk here; they simply charge a fee from each banker. The infamous Dunes casino introduced baccarat in the late 50's. Baccarat has a history overseas too, which is evidenced by its popularity among the Asian population who visit Las Vegas each year. A number of casinos have installed a smaller version of the baccarat game played on standard blackjack-sized gaming tables. The table is staffed by only one dealer who is responsible for handling the cards.

Baccarat Rules

The most important thing you need to know is whether you are betting on the Player, on the Bank or on Tie. Baccarat is played with eight decks of cards without Jokers. If the value of the first card is a four, for instance, the dealer will take the next four cards out of the shoe and discard them in a tray next to it along with the first card. When nobody has a natural additional cards are drawn to determine the baccarat winner. You can bet on a Tie where you get a one to eight payoff but a Tie is very rare, it occurs less than once in ten hands. At first the value of the cards might seem a little odd, but it's really simple to understand. That is why the Ten, Jack, Queen and the King count 0 and the Ace only one. This is not only the case with single card values but with the result of two cards combined. Much like blackjack, two hands are played - a dealer and a player hand pitted against each other. The game begins with players placing bets. Two components of the game need clearing up at this point. One factor is how hand values are tabulated. a baccarat hand will never exceed three cards total. Tabulating the hand value is straightforward and only takes simple mathematics of addition. If this sum goes over ten, subtract ten and you will have the final value. A hand of seven and four has a value of 1. First off, know that right from the beginning a hand of 8 or 9 automatically wins. The following guidelines determine what action the Bank Hand will take: On a side note, if the player hand does not draw a card, the banker hand will always draw if its value is lower than the player hand or if its own two-card value is 0, 1, or 2. Banker shows a 4 Banker Hand must Draw if player's draw card is a 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 Banker Hand must Stand if player's draw card is a 0, 1, 8 or 9.

The maximum number of cards in a baccarat hand is three,,
If the banker or the player has an eight (natural eight) or a nine (natural nine) on the first two cards dealt, no further cards are drawn,,
The player always draws when the hand is a five or less, unless the banker has a natural, and stands on a six and seven,,
the banker always stands if the player stands on a six or a seven

. There are two hands dealt regardless of how many players there are: the banker's hand and the player's hand. Tied 9s or tied 8s are a stand off; no money changes hands (unless ties can be bet on) If neither the player or the banker has a natural (a total of 8 or 9) then play goes to the player. The player stands on a total of 6 or 7, but if the player has a total of 5 or less he/she must draw one card (face up) Now it is the bankers turn. This is of course because there is more of a chance for a banker win. The advantage is slim, in the area 0,,8%, but in the world of gambling that's really not that small. The game of baccarat is unlike most casino games as the is no level of skill involved the reason for this is that neither the player or dealer has any options or decisions to make during the course of the game. This means the game is quite simple especially as there are only three possible bets that can be made. Three dealers run the game and one of these is the caller who runs the game and stands between positions 1 and 15. If the dealer has 1 then he must draw. If the dealer has 4 then he must draw if your card is a 2-3-4-5-6-7. If the dealer has 5 then he must draw if your card is a 4-5-6-7. Once all the hands are dealt it is closest to 9 that wins.

Tips

- When the wager is counter-weighed by the player hand, the edge lowers to more near the 1% mark. This tip is not to say that a player should never bet on the player hand, for sometimes a hunch can be the best thing going for a gambler. Going back the card-counting issue, if a player does indeed insist on counting cards, they should pay attention to 6's and 4's.
- A baccarat game using eight decks will deliver a probability of 456% of winning on the bank hand, 442% of winning on the player hand, and 92% of winning on a Tie. Although this difference is so negligible that most players do not advise picking one version of baccarat over the other, it is advisable to take all the advantage one can possibly take.
- Usually this commission is 5%, which returns a House Edge of approximately 15%. Any informed player would see that this bet is one of the best in the casino.
- Any system like the Martingale, which is designed to cover losses, should be avoided. If you want to take your chances, then by all means use a system - just know when to quit.

Baccarat game for United Kingdom players: find tips for baccarat, strategies, terms, top baccarat casinos and other gambling information at Baccarat9 UK