Casinos Baccarat Casino Online

Baccarat History

The present form of Baccarat can be traced back to Italy. 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.

How to Play Baccarat

There are three bets available: The Player’s hand, the Banker’s hand, or a Tie. The winning hand is the hand that holds two or three cards totaling closest to nine. In the classic game of Baccarat the deal rotates among the players. In Mini Baccarat a casino dealer handles the deal. If neither hand is 9 a hand with a total of 8 is a Natural winner. 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. 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. The infamous Dunes casino introduced baccarat in the late 50's. There exists quite a diversity today, especially so since it has made its way onto the world wide web. Although a few rules have been changed here and there to accomodate the individual taste of a certain country, the style has remained the same. Unlike the heavily ordered and systematic American casinos, these Portuguese tables often allow multiple players to bet on a single spot at the same time, while the expert dealers mentally keep track of each players commission on winning bank bets. A number of casinos have installed a smaller version of the baccarat game played on standard blackjack-sized gaming tables. The limits are lower and usually range from a $2 to $5 minimum, up to $500 maximum.

Baccarat Rules

The most important thing you need to know is whether you are betting on the Player, on the Bank or on Tie. At the beginning of a new game or when the Cut Card in the Shoe is dealt, the dealer will shuffle all decks together and put them back in the shoe, called "The Bank". The baccarat game is now ready to play. At the beginning of the new game the shoe or the bank is given to the player on the right of the dealer. At first the value of the cards might seem a little odd, but it's really simple to understand. In Baccarat you always have to keep in mind that the fist digit in a two-digit number does not count. So if you draw an eight in baccarat and a three, for instance, the value of both together would be eleven but since the first digit does not count your hand counts only one. Unlike in Black Jack it is impossible to overdraw in Baccarat. The hand closest to a total value of nine wins. The other is how drawing a third card is determined. Please note that both hands are allowed a maximum of one card draw. All other cards (tens and picture cards) are worth zero points. For instance, a hand of 5, Queen and 9 has a value of 4 (5 + 0 + 9 = 14 - 10 = 4) Card draw determination is slightly more involved and is often explained with a chart. I will try to simplify this as much as possible with a few brief guidelines. First off, know that right from the beginning a hand of 8 or 9 automatically wins. If such is not the case, the Player Hand makes the first move. Player shows a 6, 7, 8, or 9 (8 and 9 win) Player Hand must Stand. Banker shows a 7, 8 or 9 (8 and 9 win) Banker Hand must Stand. 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. (Thus the value of a hand is always between 0 through 9). If the players cards total 15, 10 is subtracted and the value of the hand becomes 5. The payout for winning a bet on the banker's or the player's hand is even money, or 1 to 1 and winning draw bets are paid off at 8 to 1 odds or 9 to 1 depending on where you are playing. If the player or banker has a two card total of 8 or 9, he/she turns the cards over immediately. 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. Baccarat rules state that winning banker bets are subject to a 5% house commission. Baccarat has a reputation for being a high rollers game and the tables are normally separate from the rest of the casino in there own section called the pit. All picture cards count as 10 and aces count as 1. 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 0 then he must draw. 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 4 then he must draw if your card is a 2-3-4-5-6-7.

Tips

- The banker hand does carry with it a 5% vig, or commission, bringing the House Edge up to 2%. in the long run, a player should be making more bets on the banker than on the player. 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 slight difference of only one hundredth of a percent shows, which is apparent when looking at the House Edge. For an eight deck game, the casino advantage on the banker hand is 16%, whereas it is 15% in a six deck game. 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.
- 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.
- If you want to take your chances, then by all means use a system - just know when to quit. As for other bankroll management strategies, a good one is posted on this website.

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