Baccarat
Baccarat is one of the oldest games that you will find in casinos and has traditionally been regarded as a game loved by high roller casino players. Although this game is favoured by the big bettors, players will find a number of lower limit baccarat games available in both live and online casinos alike. This page focuses on how to play online baccarat including an overview of the rules, advice on using Baccarat Strategy as well as popular Baccarat Betting Systems. If you have never learned how to play casino baccarat before we suggest that you start out at online casinos since you can play for free and improve your strategy from your own home.
How To Play casino Baccarat
Baccarat is played in a similar style to blackjack in that it is a table game where the players play against the house. The main difference in casino baccarat is that the player can choose to either bet for themselves (player) or for the house (banker) to win each session in the game. Baccarat uses a normal deck of usually 6 to 8 cards and assigns a value to each card in the deck which is used to determine the outcome of hands dealt on the table. All face cards and tens are counted as 0, an Ace is counted as 1 point and cards 2-9 are taken at face value.
The object of baccarat is to get a hand as close to 9 as possible. Play begins once all bets are placed and then the dealer will deal the player and banker 2 cards each which represent their hands. If either one receives an 8 or 9 point total they will be forced to stand. If they have over 10 as their point total they will need to add another card to the hand. From there what happens is dependant on different drawing rules for the baccarat game which are outlined and explained below.
Baccarat Drawing Rules (Player):
- If players hand has a value of 6 or 7, they must stand and dealer must hit 5
- If player has 5 or less, they must hit & will receive a third card in their hand
- Once the third card has been dealt, the banker must act according to the total
Baccarat Drawing Rules (Banker):
- If banker has total of 0, 1 or 2, they must take another card for their hand
- If banker total 3, banker will will only draw with player 3rd card being 0 or 1
- Exception to that rule is if banker has an 8 in which case they must stand
- If banker has a total of 4, banker will draw if 3rd player card between 2-7
- If banker has total of 5, banker will draw 3rd player card between 4-7
- If banker has total of 6, banker will draw 3rd player card between is 6 or 7
- If banker has a total of 7, they must always stand
Baccarat Betting
Once you have mastered the way that a baccarat game works (and it does take time to learn well), the next step is learning about the different bets that can be made as a player at the baccarat table. Please note that banker bets are subject to a 5% commission in all casinos since they are more statistically likely to win. Bets in baccarat can be made for as little as $1 up to the table limits depending on where you are playing. There are three bets available, including player bet, banker bet and a bet that both baccarat hands tie in the match. Below are the different baccarat bets which are allowed to be made by players playing in the casino.
Player Bet: The player bet in baccarat means that you are betting on the player to win the round and get the closest total to 9. The player bet pays back 1:1 on all wagers and usually has a house edge of around 1.29% depending on rules.
Banker Bet: The banker bet in baccarat means that you think that the banker will have the best hand and win the round. This bet pays back 1:1 minus a 5% commission which is dedicated from your bet at the end of a winning hand. The house edge associated with a banker bet is 1.01%, hence the 5% commission.
Tie Bet: The tie bet in baccarat means that you are betting on both the player and the banker tying their hand values. Winning this bet will pay back 8:1 however is one of the hardest bets to win in the game with a house advantage of 15.75%.