Baccarat Gambling

Baccarat History

Targeted towards high rollers, Baccarat tables used to be exclusive territory with roped off access and dealers dressed in tuxedos. More recently, a lot of US casinos have offered “Mini Baccarat”.

How to Play Baccarat

Baccarat is a very simple game to play with no decisions made after a bet is placed. Aces count as One and Two through Nine are counted at face value. If neither hand is 9 a hand with a total of 8 is a Natural winner. The Player’s hand is dealt to first, and only if the current value is 5 or less. If the Player did draw a third card, the Banker follows the rules at right. There are many debates pertaining to the history of baccarat, particularly where the game was invented: France or Italy. According to many, the game was first invented in Italy by a gambler Felix Falguiere, where it acquired the Italian name 'baccara', meaning zero in English. It's been suggested that the game was first played with a deck of Tarot cards in the middle ages. And remained an exclusive game to the French nobility for some time before becoming a casino game. The result of the die decided her fate. If an eight or a nine was thrown, she would become the priestess; if she threw a six or seven, she would be banned from any further religious activities; if she threw any number less than six, she would walk into the sea. It is played by the exact same rules, but lacks the accoutrements of the formal version. The layout, conforms to the regular baccarat table and each of the seven seat positions correspond to a number and betting box with spots for banker, player, and tie.

Baccarat Rules

So never mind what the other players bet on or how much they bet. Then he will take the very first card out and whatever the value of this card is indicates how many cards will be Burned. Once the bank looses it moves on to the next player. When nobody has a natural additional cards are drawn to determine the baccarat winner. If the hand you bet on wins you get a one to one payoff. 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. When there is a Tie and you did not bet on it nobody looses or wins. At first the value of the cards might seem a little odd, but it's really simple to understand. After all bets are made, which cannot be added to or retracted once play begins, the House will deal four face-down cards - two cards each to both the player and banker (House) After the cards are finished being dealt, they are revealed and tabulated. The hand closest to a total value of nine wins. If both hands are the same, the game is deemed a tie. The other is how drawing a third card is determined. All other cards (tens and picture cards) are worth zero points. For instance, a hand of 6 and 10 will have a total value of 6. I will try to simplify this as much as possible with a few brief guidelines. If both hands have an 8 or 9, the game is deemed a tie, in which all Tie Bets win. Banker shows a 7, 8 or 9 (8 and 9 win) Banker Hand must Stand. Banker shows a 5 Banker Hand must Draw if player's draw card is a 4, 5, 6, or 7 Banker Hand must Stand if player's draw card is a 0,1, 2, 3, 8 or 9. Banker shows a 6 Banker Hand must Draw if player's draw card is a 6 or 7 Banker Hand must Stand if player's draw card is a 0,1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 or 9. Both the banker and the player are dealt two cards, and depending on the value of the hand, might be dealt a third in either case. (In online baccarat cards are always face up) A 9 value wins over any lesser total, and if neither player has a 9 then 8 wins over any lesser total. 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. With a total of 6 or less, his selection depends on the value of his two card total and the value of the card that the player drew. This is of course because there is more of a chance for a banker win. Each player takes it in turns to deal from the shoe there is however no advantage to be gained from it and it is just part of the tradition of the game. All picture cards count as 10 and aces count as 1. Player and dealer are both dealt two cards to start with, if either of them has a two card total of 8 or 9 then they must immediately turn over the cards. If the dealer has 2 then he must draw. If the dealer has 3 then he must draw if your card is a 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-9. 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

- Bet on the Banker Hand most of the time. 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.
- Many online casinos will offer different versions of baccarat, such as a one deck version, and a 6 or 8 deck version with higher minimum betting amounts. For an eight deck game, the casino advantage on the banker hand is 16%, whereas it is 15% in a six deck game.
- On the banker bet, the casino charges a vig, or commission to counter the players advantage. If you can get a 4% commission, by all means take advantage of it - and bet on the banker every time.
- Whatever you decide to follow, be sure you plan ahead of time. At the least, set yourself limits on losses and stake amounts.

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