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Baccarat History

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

How to Play Baccarat

There are three bets available: The Player’s hand, the Banker’s hand, or a Tie. Even though the player dealing is acting as the Banker, he is not obligated to bet on the Banker’s hand. In Mini Baccarat a casino dealer handles the deal. Natural hands always immediately win or Tie (although a 9 beats an 8). 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. It was later on introduced in France around 1490 A. Chemin de fer is very similar to baccarat as it's played in American casinos today. The interesting bit to observe of course is that the casino is taking no risk here; they simply charge a fee from each banker. Falguiere based the game on an old Etruscan ritual of the nine gods, who prayed to a blonde virgin on their tiptoes waiting for her to throw a nine-sided die. The infamous Dunes casino introduced baccarat in the late 50's. It has kept it's elegant trait and is still one of the most appealing games to the well situated individuals in our society. In casinos based in the Portuguese territory of Macao, near Hong Kong, the popularity of baccarat is unrivaled. 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.

Baccarat Rules

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. It doesn't matter which seat you take at the baccarat table because unlike in Black Jack you are not playing against other players or against the house. Each player is given the bank in turn and can hold the bank as long as the bank wins. 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. When there is a Tie and you did not bet on it nobody looses or wins. Unlike blackjack, but rather, like craps, multiple players around the table can bet on which hand will win. After all is said and done, the hand with a point total closes to nine wins. The game begins with players placing bets. After the players turn, and depending on both the outcome of the players hand and its own, the dealer hand will either draw a third additional card or stand. If both hands are the same, the game is deemed a tie. One factor is how hand values are tabulated. 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. First off, know that right from the beginning a hand of 8 or 9 automatically wins. 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 4 Banker Hand must Draw if player's draw card is a 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 Banker Hand must Stand if player's draw card is a 0, 1, 8 or 9. 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. 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. 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. The advantage is slim, in the area 0,,8%, but in the world of gambling that's really not that small. So from reading this page you should have picked up enough about baccarat rules to play a game. The game of baccarat is unlike most casino games as the is no level of skill involved the reason for this is that neither the player or dealer has any options or decisions to make during the course of the game. 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. The aim of the game is to get as close to 9 as possible and if you are nearer then you win. 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 the dealer has 2 then he must draw. If the dealer has 7 then he must stand. If the dealer has 9 then he must stand.

Tips

- 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. 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.
- 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. 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. sometimes casinos will only impose a 4% commission, which brings the House Edge on the banker bet down to only approximately %.
- 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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