Playing Baccarat

Baccarat is played with eight decks of cards in a shoe. Cards under 10 are worth their face value while 10, J, Q, K are worth 0, and A is 1. Bets are placed on the ‘banker,’ the ‘player’ or for a tie (they represent the two hands to be dealt).

Two cards each are then dealt to the ‘banker’ and ‘player’. The score for each hand is the sum of the two cards, but the first digit is dropped. For example, a hand of 8 and 3 has a score of 1 (8+3=11; drop the ‘1’).

A third card can be dealt depending on the following rules:

• If the player has 5 or less, they hit. Players will stand otherwise.
• If the player stands, the banker hits on 5 or less. If the player hits, a chart is used to determine if the banker stands or hits.
• If the player or banker has a score of 8 or 9 then both players stand.

Baccarat Odds

The higher of the two scores wins the game. Winning bets on the banker pay out 19/20 (even money less a 5 percent commission. Commission is kept track of and cleared out when you leave the baccarat table). Winning bets on the player pay at evens. Winning bets for tie usually pay 8/1 and sometimes 9/1 (This is a bad bet as ties occur less than 1 in 10 hands).

Played correctly baccarat offers relatively good odds, but it does tend to encourage very high bets.

Baccarat Strategy

As with most casino games Baccarat has some common misconceptions. One of which is similar to a misconception of roulette. Past events do not have any bearing on future ones. Keeping track of past results on a chart is a waste of time as it does not benefit you in any way.

The most common and probably most successful Baccarat strategy is the 1-3-2-6 method. This method is employed to maximise winnings and minimising risk.

Begin by betting one chip. If you win, add one more to the two on the table for a total of  three on the second bet. If you win you will have six on the table, remove four so you have two on the third bet. If you win the third bet, add two to the four on the table for a total of six on the fourth bet.

If you lose on the first bet, you take a loss of one chip. A win on the first bet followed by loss on the second creates a loss of two. Wins on the first two with a loss on the third gives you a profit of two. Wins on the first three with a loss on the fourth mean you break even. Winning all four bets leaves you with twelve, a profit of ten. This means you can lose the second bet five times for every successful streak of four bets and still break even.