Baccarat Game

It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the “player” and the “banker”. In Baccarat, Aces are low, 10s and face cards are worth 0, and all other cards are worth their pip value. 

How to Play Baccarat

The dealer then deals out the cards face up — two each for the player and banker — and whichever hand totals closest to nine wins. If you’ve bet on the player’s hand and it has the closest to nine, the winnings are simply double what you bet.

If you’ve bet on the banker hand and it wins, it pays 95 percent of your wager.When the cards dealt are greater than nine, you have to add the two together and drop the one (or two) to get the value.

For example, a hand of nine and seven cards dealt would add up to 16, and with the first digit dropped, the value in the game is six.

Here are some more rules to help you ace a baccarat game:

  • If either the player or banker is dealt a total of eight or nine, both the player and banker stand.
  • If the player’s total is five or less, then the player will receive another card. Otherwise, the player will stand.
  • If the player stands, then the banker hits on a total of 5 or less.
  • The final betting option, a tie, pays out 8-to-1. Conveniently, there are also sheets at the table for you to keep track of your score.

Mechanics of the game

When playing offline the dealer will shuffle the shoe then draw the first card showing the player. This card is read as its pip value with face cards counting as 10. The dealer will then draw the corresponding number of cards from the top of the shoe and immediately discard, or ‘burn’, these cards. A plastic card, called the ‘cut card’ will be inserted 16 cards from the bottom of the shoe. When this card is drawn it signifies that the next round of play will be the last before the shuffle.

Online the game is automatically shuffled after every hand and the above process of burning cards and placing the cut card are abandoned.

Once all players have placed a wager the dealer will then deal 2 cards to the Player hand and 2 cards to the Banker hand. It should be stressed that only a single Player hand is dealt regardless of how many players there are on the table. Each hand value is determined by adding the value of the two cards together and only considering the units column of the resultant figure. For example, if the player hand was dealt a 9 and a 7 you would add these together giving 16, then only consider the units column, so the hand value would be 6.