Online Baccarat

Baccarat rules

The baccarat table can be played by up to 14 players in a land casino

and comes in both single handed and multi player variations in online casino's.

We recommend sticking to the singe handed games until you are familiar with the game

and can watch trends in cards etc yourself.

There are 3 choices of bet:

Player - meaning the players hand

Banker - meaning the bankers hand

and Tie - meaning you both get the same total.

Two hands are dealt and you bet which one will win (or a tie).

Each player may bet on player or banker or tie, just because you are the player does not mean you can't bet that the bank will win!

This style of betting is best compared to betting on red or black in roulette, the zero foils both bets but is very rare, same as the tie bet in baccarat. Similar to red and black bets on the roulette table the banker and player bets both pay even money on a win (1:1), the stand off pays 8:1 in most land and internet based casinos.

The big rule to remember here is that the banker bet will incur a tax or commission if you win, whereas the tie and player bets will not. The reasoning behind the tax / commission is that over an 8 card deck the bank will win 3 to 4 hands more than the player. So the tax/commission bring the odds back towards the favour of the house. It should be noted that this still only makes the house edge around 1.17% which is the most favorable odds in the casino today!

Moral to the story: Baccarat is the best bet for you winning at the casino!

The banker and the player are dealt 2 cards, the value of a hand is determined by adding the face values of the card, remembering that aces count as 1, and tens and picture cards count as 0. If either banker or player has a total of 8 or 9 the hand is called a "natural" and wins.

If there is not natural the following rules are applied:

Rules for the player hand: If the players first 2 cards total 5 or less the player is dealt another card.

If the total is 6 or more the player stands.

Rules for the Bankers hand: If the bankers hand totals 0, 1, or 2 the banker draws.

If the bankers hand totals 7 he stands.

However if the total of the first 2 cards is 3, 4, 5 or 6 then the banker hitting depends on whether the player drew -

If the player does not draw a third card, then the bank's hand stands on 6 or more and takes a third card on a total of 5 or less.

However if the player did draw:

If the banks total is 3 then the bank hits unless the players third card was an 8. (ie hits on a 9)

If the banks total is 4 then the bank hits unless the players third card was a 0, 1, 8, or 9.

If the banks total is 5 then the bank hits if the players third card was 4, 5, 6, or 7.

If the banks total is 6 then the bank hits if the players third card was a 6 or 7.

If the banks total is 7 then the bank stands.

This is shown better in the table:

                Bank Drawing vs. Player's 3rd Draw Card
                                        
                        Bankers Total        
         0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
        ------------------------------------------
        None D D D D D D - - - -
        0 D D D D - - - - - -
        1 D D D D - - - - - -
        2 D D D D D - - - - -
        3 D D D D D - - - - -
        4 D D D D D D - - - -
        5 D D D D D D - - - -
        6 D D D D D D D - - -
        7 D D D D D D D - - -
        8 D D D - - - - - - -
        9 D D D D - - - - - -
        ------------------------------------------
        D = draw, None = no 3rd card drawn by player
                                        

The winning hand is the one that totals a higher single digit value.

In the case they are exactly the same then the Tie bet wins.

Well that's enough of the rules, time to visit strategies page to beat the game!