Online Baccarat
History: Baccarat was created in Europe more than five centuries ago by an adventurous Italian gambler. Since its inception, Baccarat has evolved with its rules and game play. There are now four popular versions: American - the most popular, European, Chemin de fer, and Baccarat en Banque.
Our site will focus only on the American Baccarat version for the time being.
Baccarat Strategy: there aren't many Baccarat strategies, since the game relies on rules set forth by the house and once you place your bet, you are relying only on your luck.
Strategies of the game aside, you can use strategies while placing your bet. For example, never bet on a tie - the average house edge for a tie is 15.75%, roughly. You should place your bet on the lowest house edge, which would be betting on the bank's hand, itself. The average house edge for betting on the bank's hand is a mere 1%, while beting on your own hand has a house edge of 1.29%.
Despite the house edge, Baccarat has one of the lowest house edges and best odds.
How to Play Baccarat
The perfect hand is one that comes to a total of nine in the first two cards. That's it. Make a hand as close to 9. Nothing could be easier, right? Eight is the second best hand. The only hand that will beat a natural eight is the natural nine.
If either the bank or the player hand has a natural eight or nine, the others can not draw a third card. In a tie, the bets are called off.
Aces count as 1, the Royal cards as 10 and the others are their face value. If your hand total is in double digits, then the first digit is ignored. So a hand totalling 15 would count as 5.
The player that has the most money is usually is declared the banker. The banker deals three hands of two cards each, which are dealt face down. These hands are for two players, one to the right and one the left of the banker, plus the bankers own hand.
Other players at the table may bet on either the players hand, the bankers hand or both to beat the banker's hand. If a player declares "banco", it means they are betting the total amount of the bank's funds and all other bets are withdrawn.
If either player has a count less than eight or nine, he may stay (saying "non"), or get one more card face up (saying "carte"). The player must stay on a six or a seven and must draw on a four or less. Casinos usually take their percentage from the bank and bets as their fee for the game.
