Baccarat rules
Baccarat, pronounced "Bah-Caw-Rah", is probably one of the easiest and uncomplicated
table games there is. The most important thing you need to know is whether
you are betting on the Player, on the Bank or on Tie.
Betting on Tie is not really recommended because it decreases your winning
chances. Baccarat is a game of chance, all you have to decide is which
hand you think will win. But anyway, knowing the basic rules will help you
understand what is going on on the baccarat table and will make the game more fun to play for
you.
It doesn't matter which seat you take at the baccarat table because
unlike in Black Jack you are not playing against other players or against
the house. The only thing you are betting against is the cards. So never
mind what the other players bet on or how much they bet.
Baccarat is played with eight decks of cards without Jokers. At the
beginning of a new game or when the Cut Card in the Shoe is dealt, the dealer will shuffle all decks together and put them back in the
shoe, also called "The Bank". Then he will take the very first card
out and whatever the value of this card is indicates how many cards will
be Burned. If the value of the first card is a four, for instance,
the dealer will take the next four cards out of the shoe and discard them
in a tray next to it along with the first card. The baccarat game is now ready to play.
At the beginning of the new game the shoe or the bank is given to the
player on the right of the dealer. Each player is given the bank in
turn and can hold the bank as long as the bank wins. Once the bank looses
it moves on to the next player. Before the cards are dealt each baccarat
player has to make his bet.
The player with the bank deals two sets of two cards, if of course the
game is played by two players. The hand closest to nine wins. If
the first two cards dealt count Eight or Nine it is called a "Natural" and wins
automatically, unless both hands have the same
value then it is of course a Tie. When nobody has a natural additional
cards are drawn to determine the baccarat winner. If the hand you bet on
wins you get a one to one payoff. You can also bet on a Tie where
you get a one to eight payoff but a Tie is very rare, it occurs
less than once in ten hands. When there is a Tie and you did not bet on it
nobody looses or wins.
Value of the cards in Baccarat:
- Tens, Jacks, Queens and Kings count as 0.
- The Ace counts as One.
- Cards from Two to Nine are at Face Value.
At first the value of the cards might seem a little odd, but it's
really simple to understand. In Baccarat you always have to keep in mind
that the fist digit in a two-digit number does not count. That is
why the Ten, Jack, Queen and the King count 0 and the Ace only one. This
is not only the case with single card values but also with the result of
two cards combined. So if you draw an eight in baccarat and a three, for
instance, the value of both together would be eleven but since the first
digit does not count your hand counts only one.
Unlike in Black
Jack it is impossible to overdraw in Baccarat.
