Baccarat Gambling

Baccarat Rules & Strategy

Basic Play
The object of baccarat is to hold 2 or 3 cards which count 9 or as near to 9 as possible. The values of the cards are: face cards and tens are 0; aces are 1; any other card is worth its face value. Units of 10 points are disregarded so that 9+7 count as 6, not 16. Baccarat is a standard game at most online casinos and you might start your look at Portofino Casino, InterCasino, and Sci-Fi Casino.

You have the choice of betting on either the player's hand or the dealer's hand. The dealer will deal out cards to both the player and dealer. Depending on the value the initial 2-card hands, a third card may be dealt to either one of the hands. Ultimately the winning hand will be the one closest to 9.

Strategy

Guest columnist Michael Shackleford, the Wizard of Odds, offers this strategy.

Except for the tie bet, baccarat is one of the best bets in the casino. The following table shows the house edge on all available bets. Usually a tie will pay 8:1 but sometimes it will pay 9:1.

Probabilities in 8-deck Baccarat
Bet	Combinations	Probability	House Edge
Bank	2,292,252,566,437,888	45.86%	1.06%
Player	2,230,518,282,592,256	44.62%	1.24%
Tie	475,627,426,473,216	9.52%	14.36%

Note: If the tie bet pays 9:1 the house edge on that bet drops to 4.80%.

One and Six Deck Baccarat

Real Time Gaming online casinos offer a six-deck baccarat game, and Microgaming online casinos offer a single deck game. The fewer the decks the lower the house edge on the banker bet and the greater the house edge on the player and tie bets. The following tables show the specific numbers.

Probabilities in 6-deck Baccarat
Bet	Combinations	Probability	House Edge
Bank	403,095,751,234,560	45.87%	1.06%
Player	392,220,492,728,832	44.63%	1.24%
Tie	83,552,962,932,288	9.51%	14.44%

Probabilities in single deck Baccarat
Bet	Combinations	Probability	House Edge
Bank	6,737,232,640	45.96%	1.01%
Player	6,548,674,432	44.68%	1.29%
Tie	1,372,227,328	9.36%	15.75%

Every baccarat table will have plenty of scorecards and pencils for the players to keep track of the outcome of every hand. Most players will do so religiously and carefully analyze their card for trends as the winning hand switches back and forth from the banker to player. This is a big waste of time! The smart player will bet on the banker every time and leave the scorecards alone.

Our thanks to the Wizard of Odds. If you have a question, feel free to ask the Wizard.