Baccarat

Baccarat Casino

Welcome to Baccarat info, an online resource dedicated to answering your questions, and providing you with quality information and entertainment about both casino and baccarat. Baccarat is a casino game unlike any other. It is simple to master, fun and easy to play, but still regarded as being one of the most sophisticated games at the casino. In Las Vegas you'll typically find the baccarat tables in a separate room or behind velvet ropes. Part of the casino's strategy is to entice players to play certain games. Baccarat is no exception to this rule. Quite the contrary; it's the perfect example. A couple of Vegas girls occupy the table area full time for added elegance, and the dealer dons a tux for the same reason. This of course all seems a little paradoxical. Aren't the sophisticated games supposed to be the ones you have to spend a lifetime learning? Apparently not, as baccarat, one of the world's easiest games, has shown.

Baccarat is played in a snooty roped off area to separate itself from the other games. The players are usually very well dressed and the table minimums are often high. The regular baccarat table is about the size of a craps table with 3 casino dealers and up to 12 or 14 players. Each player, including the player dealing, may still bet on either the player or the banker but it is customary for the dealer to bet on the banker.

Baccarat is the card game that is dealt from a shoe that holds 6 or 8 decks of cards. Two hands are dealt by the house dealer the "banker" hand and the "player" hand. Before the hands are dealt bets may be placed on the banker hand on the player hand or on a tie. Winning bets on banker or player are paid 1:1 but a commission of 5% is charged on bank bets making the net odds on such bets 0.95 to 1. Some casinos may charge a lower commission (e.g. at this writing Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas charges 4%.).

Baccarat is a tough game to beat. In fact, it took almost 2 years of intensive research, and testing to finally come up with a system that was a long term baccarat winner. But once the doors of revelation and understanding were opened, a flood of ideas came forth and one winning system after another was developed. You can read about the evolution of baccarat methods.

The object of the game of Baccarat is to have a total as close to 9 as possible so after the first two cards are dealt if either the player or banker hand has a total of 9 then that's called a "natural" and that hand is the winner. If neither hand has a total of 9 then the next best possible hand is a total of 8 (which is also called a "natural") and that hand would be the winner. If both the baccarat player and the banker end up with the same total then it's a tie and neither hand wins.

Now if neither hand has an 8 or a 9 then the rules of the game have to be consulted to decide whether or not a third card is drawn. Once that's done the values of the cards are added together again and whichever hand is closest to a total of 9 is the baccarat winner. If both hands end up with the same total then it's a tie and neither hand wins. As you've seen the casino advantage in Baccarat is very low (except for the tie bet) and the rules are set in advance so no decisions are made by either the players or the dealer about how to play the cards. This means that in baccarat unlike blackjack where you have to decide whether or not you want another card you have no decisions to make and no skill is involved. This also means that Baccarat is purely a guessing game so even if you've never played the game before you can sit at a table and play just as well as anyone who's played the game for 20 years! This is the only game in the casino where this can happen and that's why I tell people that Baccarat is an especially good game for the beginning player because you need no special knowledge to take advantage of those low casino edge bets.

If you want to BET on the player hand just put your money in the area marked "player" and if you win you'll be paid off at even-money or $1 for every $1 you bet. The casino advantage on the player bet is 1.36%. If you want to bet on the banker hand you would place your bet in the area marked "banker" and if you win you'll also be paid off at even-money but you'll have to pay a 5% commission on the amount you win baccarat. So if you won $10 on your bet you would owe a 50¢ commission to the house. The 5% commission is only required if you win and not if you lose. The dealer will keep track of the amount you owe by putting an equal amount in a small area on the table that corresponds to your seat number at the table of baccarat. So if you're sitting at seat #3 and won $10 on the bank hand the dealer would pay you $10 and then put 50¢ in the #3 box. This lets him know how much you owe the casino in commissions and when you get up to leave the table you'll have to pay the dealer whatever amount is in that box. After adjusting for that 5% commission the casino advantage on the banker bet is 1.17%

Finally in baccarat, if you want to bet on a tie you would place your bet in the area marked "tie" and if you win you'll be paid off at 8-to-1 or $8 for every $1 you bet baccarat. The big payoff sounds nice but actually baccarat is a great bet because the casino advantage is a very high 14.1% and this baccarat bet should never be made.