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Baccarat History

Although it has always been a popular game in European and Latin American casinos, it never caught on as strongly as Blackjack in US casinos. 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

Baccarat is a very simple game to play with no decisions made after a bet is placed. The winning hand is the hand that holds two or three cards totaling closest to nine. A bet on the Banker pays even money minus a 5% house commission. After players make their bets the dealer deals a two-card hand to the Banker and Player. A Tie at any point in the game ends the hand and pays Tie bets. There are many debates pertaining to the history of baccarat, particularly where the game was invented: France or Italy. 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. D. Eventually, baccarat evolved into European baccarat and the French game 'chemin de fer'. The basis of this game is very similar, but the rules and payoffs are much less dramatic. The Baccarat we know today originated in Great Britain and was then passed along to South America and finally to Nevada. It is played by the exact same rules, but lacks the accoutrements of the formal version.

Baccarat Rules

Betting on Tie is not really recommended because it decreases your winning chances. Baccarat is a game of chance, all you have to decide is which hand you think will win. Knowing the basic rules will help you understand what is going on on the baccarat table and will make the game more fun to play for you. 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. Each player is given the bank in turn and can hold the bank as long as the bank 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. When there is a Tie and you did not bet on it nobody looses or wins. Much like blackjack, two hands are played - a dealer and a player hand pitted against each other. Unlike blackjack, but rather, like craps, multiple players around the table can bet on which hand will win. Two components of the game need clearing up at this point. Please note that both hands are allowed a maximum of one card draw. 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. If one hand is an 8 and the other is a 9, the 9 wins. Once the player hand is finished and standing, the bank hand will determine whether it must draw a third card. 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 3 Banker Hand must Draw if player's draw card is a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 Banker Hand must Stand if player's draw card is an 8. 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. If the players cards total 15, 10 is subtracted and the value of the hand becomes 5. There are two hands dealt regardless of how many players there are: the banker's hand and the player's hand. Although the payoff for winning a draw bet is much more appealing, the chances of actually getting it are pretty low. With a total of 7, he stands. 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. Dealers normally wear tuxedos and the surrounding are is quite lavish. 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. If either you or the dealer has a 6 or 7 then you must stand if you stand on a 6 or 7 then the dealer must hit on a score of less than 5. If the dealer has 7 then he must stand. If the dealer has 8 then he must stand. If the dealer has 9 then he must stand.

Tips

- 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. 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.
- 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%.
- Manage your money wisely, without a "system". Unless you have a very hearty bankroll, and do not mind losing every bit of it, play with a money management system that does not try to chase after losses.

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