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Baccarat History

The present form of Baccarat can be traced back to Italy. Targeted towards high rollers, Baccarat tables used to be exclusive territory with roped off access and dealers dressed in tuxedos.

How to Play Baccarat

Baccarat is a very simple game to play with no decisions made after a bet is placed. In the classic game of Baccarat the deal rotates among the players. In Mini Baccarat a casino dealer handles the deal. After players make their bets the dealer deals a two-card hand to the Banker and Player. 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. 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. It was later on introduced in France around 1490 A. 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. 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. 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.

Baccarat Rules

Baccarat, pronounced "Bah-Caw-Rah", is probably one of the easiest and uncomplicated table games there is. The most important thing you need to know is whether you are betting on the Player, on the Bank or on Tie. Baccarat is a game of chance, all you have to decide is which hand you think will win. 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. 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. Depending on hand outcomes, the player hand will either draw a third card or stand. The hand closest to a total value of nine wins. The other is how drawing a third card is determined. Tabulating the hand value is straightforward and only takes simple mathematics of addition. 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 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. 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. After the dealer has finished drawing, the hands are added up and a winner is declared. 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. (Thus the value of a hand is always between 0 through 9). There are two hands dealt regardless of how many players there are: the banker's hand and the player's hand. (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. 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. So from reading this page you should have picked up enough about baccarat rules to play a game. 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. Dealers normally wear tuxedos and the surrounding are is quite lavish. The table layout is quite simple and consists of fourteen numbered positions seven on each side of the dealer; the number thirteen is omitted as it is considered unlucky. Player put their bets on the numbered box in front of the players after the winner is called the other two dealers pay out or collect from the winners and losers around the table. All picture cards count as 10 and aces count as 1. If the dealer has 0 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.

Tips

- Bet on the Banker Hand most of the time. 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. As for the tie wager, it should be out of the question since it gives a casino advantage of nearly 15%.
- 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. Looking at the House Edge, it is lowered, albeit not substantially, for every deck taken out of the equation. These same probabilities in a baccarat game with six decks are 457% on the banker hand, 443% on the player hand, and 91% on the Tie.
- sometimes casinos will only impose a 4% commission, which brings the House Edge on the banker bet down to only approximately %. 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. Whatever you decide to follow, be sure you plan ahead of time.

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