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Baccarat

Baccarat (playnow) is a 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%.).

 

In its simplest form, the game of baccarat is played by two betters – a banker and a player – who each receive a hand comprising two cards. The object of the game is to have a pip count, called a point, of 9 or lower: the higher hand wins. The remaining betters at the baccarat table bet on the hand they think will win, and/or on whether the two will tie. Although a number of variations of baccarat are played under different names throughout the world, these basic rules of the game, and the order of play, are standard.

 

Table layout

Baccarat us played on a long, hour-glass-shaped, baize-covered table marked with seven betting positions around each short end. There are indents at the center of each long edge so that two dealers and a caller can stand close to the action. Each dealer is responsible for managing the chips and bets at his end of the table, while the caller directs the progress of play. Each position on the table has areas designated for the betters to place bets on the banker or player and/or on a tie. In front of the dealers are numbered boxes – one per better – for commission chips.

 

Shuffle etiquette

The game of baccarat played in most casinos uses six to eight decks of cards, which are shuffled and then placed in a box – called a shoe – on the table. On completion of the shuffle, a marker is inserted between the seventh and eighth card from the bottom to denote the end of the shoe. The hand in play when this card is reached is played out, and the remaining cards discarded. After the shuffle, the caller turns over the top card. The pip value of this card determines how many cards are burned (discarded) before play starts.

 

The Deal

Baccarat is one of the few games in the casino in which the cards are dealt by one of the betters: starting at position 1 on the table, the shoe passes to each person in turn and he takes on the role of banker. He is responsible for dealing until he loses a hand or no longer wishes to play, and the shoe passes to next better on the right – that is, anticlockwise around the table. The banker can bet on either hand to win, but must have a minimum bet on the table before taking up the role.

 

Once the banker has accepted the shoe (it is not obligatory) and all bets have been made, he deals a card face down to the caller, a card face down to himself, and a second face –down card to each. The banker’s card placed under one corner of the shoe, while the caller passes his hand to the better with the highest bet on the player hand. The better takes on the role of the ‘player’. (If nobody has bet player, the caller takes on the role). After the deal, and any draws that are necessary, the player reveals his cards, followed by the banker.

If either the banker or the player has a point of 8 or 9 with his two cards, he scores a ‘natural’ and this wins the game immediately. If both players have a natural where one has a point of 8 and the other a point of 9 , the higher hand wins. If they both have same point-value natural, the result is a tie – betters with a stake on either hand retain their bets.

 

Third-card rules

Should neither party have a natural, the game continues with the player going first, directed by the caller at the table. If he has a point of 6 or 7 the player stands, with the caller announcing ‘Player stands with 6’.  If he has point of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, the player must draw another card. The caller announces ‘Card of the player’, and the banker deals a third card, faces up this time.

Play passes to the banker, who has to follow strict rules depending on the player’s hand. In some situations, the banker is obliged to draw a third card, even if his original hand beats the final hand of the player – although he would not know this until the cards were exposed. Inevitably, this means he can go on to lose the hand depending on what he gains from the draw.

 

Betting in baccarat

Baccarat is one of the easiest casino games to master – it is a game of pure chance and there is no skill required from any of the betters. Furthermore there are just two bets – the player and the banker – and the odds are almost identical. (There is an option to bet on a tie, but this is often made as a side bet in addition to the banker or player bet, and is not particularly recommended.

 

However simple the rules, this is not a game for the faint – hearted. Table minimums tend to start high and maximums can reach extravagant levels. Anyone turning up at the baccarat table should have a reasonable bankroll and needs to be aware of popular betting strategies that could work for him.

 

Strategies

 

Unlike other table games in the casino – in particular, blackjack – there is no opportunity for lowering the house edge in the baccarat. The result of one hand has no affect whatsoever on the one that follows and you cannot influence the outcome in any way. This really is a game of chance. However, a good many high rollers try to detect ‘streaks’ in the game and adjust their betting accordingly, using one of several betting strategies.

 

Casino provide score card that make it possible to keep track of who wins each hand. This way, betters can easily tell when a game chops back and forth from player to banker or whether play progresses in streaks of runs for either banker or player. Better base their betting strategies on these observations although, in reality, there is no way to predict the outcome of any one hand.

 

The odds on winning

Mathematical calculations have shown that the banker has slight advantage over the player hand, winning 45.8 per cent of all hands, while the player wins 44.6 per cent (9.6 per cent of the hands result in ties). If the house paid even money on all winning bets, this would give the casino a house edge of 1.4 per cent on the player hand, but a disadvantage of 1.4 per cent on the banker hand. So although all winning hands are paid at even money, the casino charges a 5 per cent commission on all winning banker bets to compensate, converting its potential disadvantage into an edge of 1.1 per cent. The commission is collected in the form of chips in the commission boxes on the table in front of the dealers and is paid by the players either when they choose to leave the game , or at the end of each shoe. The tie bet is paid at odds of 8 to 1, but since the true odds are closer to 19 to 2, the casino gains a 14 per cent edge on a tie.