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Baccarat History
More
recently, a lot of US casinos have offered “Mini Baccarat”. Mini
Baccarat has the same rules as Baccarat but has lower stakes and is
played on a standard Blackjack shaped table.
How to Play Baccarat
Baccarat is a very simple game to play with no decisions
made after a bet is placed. There are three bets available: The
Player’s hand, the Banker’s hand, or a Tie. A bet on a Tie pays 8 to 1. All
Tens and face cards have a value of 0. If the Player did
draw a third card, the Banker follows the rules at right. 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. D. Eventually,
baccarat evolved into European baccarat and the French game 'chemin de fer'. The title of banker rotates around the table in a manner similar to the dice at a craps table. 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 Baccarat we know today originated in Great Britain and was then passed along to South America and finally to Nevada. In casinos based in the Portuguese territory of Macao, near Hong Kong, the popularity of baccarat is unrivaled. Lacking the formality and large group of players, mini-baccarat is played fast and is a good place to learn how to
play.
Baccarat Rules
Baccarat, pronounced "Bah-Caw-Rah", is probably one of the easiest and uncomplicated
table games there is. Baccarat is a game of chance, all you have to decide is which
hand you think will win. The baccarat game is now ready to
play. Once the bank looses
it moves on to the next player. Before the cards are dealt each baccarat
player has to make his bet. The hand closest to nine wins. If
the first two cards dealt count Eight or Nine it is called a "Natural" and wins
automatically, unless both hands have the same
value then it is of course a Tie. At first the value of the cards might seem a little odd, but it's
really simple to understand. The game begins with players placing bets. Essentially, only three bets can potentially be made - A
bet for the player's hand to win, the banker's hand to
win, or a tie. 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. All
cards numbered 2 through 9 are worth their numeric
value. A hand of seven and four has a
value of 1. I will try to simplify this as much as possible with a
few brief guidelines. If one hand is an 8 and the
other is a 9, the 9 wins. If such is not the
case, the Player Hand makes the first move. 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. Winning bets on the player hand pay back 1 to 1, while
winning bets on the banker hand do the same, but with a
5% vig (commission) winning tie bets pay back 9 to 1. If the players cards total 15, 10 is subtracted and the value of the hand becomes 5. An ace counts as 1, two counts as 2,
etc,, , up through nine counts as 9, but tens (jacks, queens and kings) count as 0. There are two hands dealt regardless of how many players there are: the banker's hand and the player's hand. The task for you as a player is to bet on the banker's hand, the player's hand, or a draw, which means that the two hands are tied. Although the payoff for winning a draw bet is much more appealing, the chances of actually getting it are pretty low. 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. Three dealers run the game and one of these is the caller who runs the game and stands between positions 1 and 15. When the bank wins the house claims a %5 cut of the winnings and the total amount is collected every time the shoe is reshuffled. If the hand is greater than 10 then 10 is subtracted from the total, this means that the value of the hand is always 0-9. A 9 is the best hand and beats all other totals followed by 8, if both the dealer and the player has an 8 or 9 the hand is tied and no money changes hands. If the dealer has 2 then he must draw. If the dealer has 8 then he must stand. Once all the hands are dealt it is closest to 9 that wins.
Tips
- Bet on the Banker Hand most of the time. When more 4's are leaving the deck, the banker bet has slightly better odds, whereas when 6's leave the deck, the player bet has a slightly better chance of winning than it does from the start of a fresh deck.
- 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. For an eight deck game, the casino advantage on the banker hand is 16%, whereas it is 15% in a six deck game. For the player and tie hands in an eight deck game, the edge is slightly better in the eight deck games.
- On the banker bet, the casino charges a vig, or commission to counter the players advantage. Usually this commission is 5%, which returns a House Edge of approximately 15%.
- Any system like the Martingale, which is designed to cover losses, should be avoided. As for other bankroll management strategies, a good one is posted on this website.
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