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Baccarat Winner’s Guides

What is Baccarat?

Baccarat is what high rollers love. This casino card game involves comparisons of the face values of players’ cards. In this activity, each player has two or three cards. The hand with the highest score is the winner. This thrilling game has a lot of suspense and fascination but is one of the simplest card games that even beginners can try. There are three possible outcomes in every baccarat coup or round of play:

  • Player win
  • Banker win
  • Tie

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How to Play Baccarat

You now know what baccarat is. It’s time to learn how to play baccarat. The game begins after you sit at the table and buy chips. Participants play the card from a shoe filled with eight card decks. Cards are assigned values as follows:

  • Aces are worth one point each
  • Face cards and tens (king, queen, and jack) are worth zero points
  • Numbered cards are worth the number they have on them from 2 to 9

You can participate by placing a bet on the player or banker’s hand. There’s a third choice to wager on a tie or place side bets. However, these are sucker bets with awful odds. This is how to play the game: you just flow with it.

After placing your bet, wait for the dealer to deal you the first and second card. Then, wait for the announcement of the outcome. If you bet on the banker or player and your hand’s total is 8 or 9, you’re the winner (also called a natural winner). Otherwise, you may have to draw a third card to continue playing, depending on the rules of the house.

How to Win Baccarat

Every casino game has a house edge. It’s a mathematical advantage the casino has on each bet a punter places. For instance, if the house edge is 2%, the casino theoretically expects to win $2 on every $100 wager.

To get this edge, the house pays off bets at lower odds compared to winning odds. For baccarat, the advantage varies from one bet to another. The house edge for bets in this game is as follows:

  • 1.06% for the banker bet
  • 1.24% for the player bet
  • 14.36% for the tie bet

Like in most casino games, the best plan in this game is to take the banker bet since it has the lowest house edge. In some cases, you could find the player bet more exciting. After all, there’s only a 0.18% difference between this bet and the banker bet.

However, the banker bet is often the best. Sometimes, the casino can choose to offer a reduced commission on this bet. Consequently, the house edge becomes lower. If you get a casino offering a reduction in the commission, then going for the banker bet is the best option. This is how to win baccarat.

How to Deal Baccarat

Before you know how to deal baccarat, it is important to note that there are three types of this game. These are:

  • Mini-baccarat
  • Midi-baccarat
  • Big baccarat

It’s also profitable to begin by learning how to deal the simplest form of this game, mini-baccarat, before heading to the other two. Here is the procedure you need to follow to deal mini-baccarat. However, casinos differ one from another. Therefore, the rules at your house might be different from the ones here.

Dealing on tables requires you to scrutinize your layout. Aside from considering items like smartphones and purses, consider the players’ bets. Understand who is wagering what and where. Armed with this information, you can know what to do with the outcome of the hand. Here are some general rules to observe:

  • Do not deal the cards until all bets are made.
  • Deal one card to the player and another to the banker. Deal another set of cards, with both sides receiving one card each.
  • Each side can only have a maximum of three cards.
  • Call the hand at all times for the players to hear the outcome.
  • During the call, do not show partiality. Remain neutral.
  • Do not announce your hand by saying, “Win” or “Lose.” Just declare the winning hand and mention its total points before reporting the losing hand with its total.
  • When turning the cards over, pinch their tops using your forefinger and thumb. Then, flip them from top to bottom. Finally, lay out the cards using your fingertips.
  • Incoming dealers do not usually burn cards.
  • In case the cut card appears in the middle of the hand, just deal one hand before you shuffle. If it is the first one to come out, shuffle after dealing two extra hands.
  • If less than one deck remains in play, then shuffle the shoe.
  • Cut cards should be placed at the back of the decks.
  • The number on the first card you take from the shoe indicates how many cards you should burn.

How Many Decks are in Baccarat?

This game is among the card games that utilize multiple decks of cards in a single session of play. The number of decks in baccarat differ from one form of this sport to another. While most casinos use the 8-card deck, some prefer the 6-card deck variant.

Each deck consists of 52 cards. This means the 8-deck version of the game has a total of 416 cards, while the 6-deck variant has 312 cards. Like in all card games, the number of decks in baccarat and cards in each deck impact the odds.

How Does Baccarat Work?

Now let’s learn how baccarat works. After the punters have bought their chips and placed bets, the dealer deals out two cards, one to the player and the other to the banker. Then, the house will deal the second player and banker card.

The dealer will then announce the outcome. A natural win happens when the point total for either the player or the banker’s first two cards dealt is 8 or 9. As a result, the house cashes out the already wagered bets.

For totals of 10 and above, the number after the 1 is the total. For instance, a point total of 13 means 3 since the 1 is ignored. If there’s no natural win, a player can draw a third card. However, it depends on another set of rules:

  • The card is drawn if the player’s point total is between 0-5 or 10. However, if the banker’s total is 8 or 9, the bank hand gets the victory without drawing any more card.
  • The third card is not drawn if the player’s total is 6 or 7.
  • The additional card is not drawn in the case of a natural win.

Neither the player nor the banker wins or loses when there is a tie. In this case, the bets of the player or banker will be returned. However, in a tie bet, a win comes when the point totals for the player and banker’s hand are equal. This is how baccarat works.

What are the Odds in Baccarat?

Odds in baccarat are chances of a player winning or losing against their casino. As we already mentioned, the game’s rules are such that the house edge is minimal on the player bet (1.24%) and the banker bet (1.06%) but higher on the tie bet (14.36%). The only advantage of tie bets is that their payouts are significantly higher than those on the other two bets.

Here are the odds in this game:

  • The chances of a player hand winning and losing are 44.62% and 45.85%, respectively.
  • The odds of a hand ending in a tie are 9.53%.
  • If you exclude the chances of the outcome being a tie from the calculations, the banker hand’s winning odds are 51%.
  • For non-tie bets, the player hand and the banker hand wins 49.32% and 50.68%.

However, these chances can also vary depending on the number of decks and cards involved in each session. Fanatics of the card game provide the following information about how deck numbers impact the odds in baccarat:

  • The winning odds for the banker are 45.96% for a one-deck shoe game. The chances of winning on the player hand are 44.68% for this variant.
  • The 6-deck shoe has lower odds of 45.87% and 44.63% for wagering on the banker and the player, respectively.
  • The 8-deck shoe also has lower odds of 45.85% and 44.62% for wagering on the banker and the player, respectively.
faq
What is baccarat?

It’s a high roller card game played at casinos. It involves comparing the face values of cards in the hands of players.

How many players does a game require?

It depends on the variant of the game. The number of seats for players range from 7-14. However, the dealer only deals two hands of cards.

How costly is it to play this game?

It depends on the casino of your choice. Minimum bets range between $20-25.

What happens if the player gets a total of 9 and the bank 8?

The player will be the winner. The hand with the highest total always wins.

How do houses payout bets?

The payout is 1 for 1. This means that you will get $200 for a $100 bet if you choose the player hand and $195 for a $100 bet for the banker hand. There is a commission of 5% on the banker.

Should I try out the side bets like dragon and panda bets?

Never. These are sucker bets.

What happens if I receive two tens?

All tens are accounted as zero. Therefore, if the opposite hand’s total is less than 8, then you could be dealt a third card.

Posted by George Hansen
Live Games Promoter

Started his carrier as a casino dealer and was promoted to managerial positions. He is currently working as a consultant for different brands and advises how to promote their live games portfolio.

Now George Hansen also collaborates with us to help players make their best choice. He evaluates portfolios and operations and trying to find the most convenient brands where our players can start playing.

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