Baccarat or Punto Banco is usually played in a separate casino area. The playing table is about the size of a craps table with three casino dealers and up to 12 or 14 players.
There are just two principal bets to make: banker or player - Banco or Punto, plus the rarely used Standoff. Some casinos let the players deal the cards in turn and others have a casino dealer to deal the cards. In online Baccarat the cards are dealt automatically by a virtual dealer.
Each player, including the player dealing, may bet on either Punto or Banco but it is customary for the dealer to bet on Banco. Players may opt not to deal, passing the 'Shoe' to the next player. The shoe remains with one player as long as the Bank wins. If Punto wins, the shoe passes on to the next player.
Two hands are dealt and you bet which one will win, or that they will tie. It is just like betting on Black or Red at roulette, and the payoff is even money, 1:1 (except for the standoff, which pays 8-1 or 9-1). The only difference between the Banco and Punto bet is a win on Banco will cost you 5% commission or tax levied by the casino - the in-built advantage.
The reason for taxing the Banco is because it has been established that over an 8-deck cards play on average the Banco will win three to four hands more than the Punto.
Each hand consists of a minimum of two and a maximum of three cards. The person dealing will put two cards, face down, tucked under the shoe, and give the player with the largest bet on Punto the other two cards, face down.
The Punto player then looks at the cards and gives them back to the player who is dealing. Then the player who is dealing will turn over the cards of both hands while one of the casino dealers will announce the results and the winner.
If either hand has a total of 8 or 9 (nine is the highest), then it is called a 'Natural' and no more cards are dealt. If it is not a natural, then depending on the value of each hand the casino dealer may instruct the card dealer to deal a third card. The decision when to deal a third card follows precise set rules used by all casinos.
Once dealing is completed, the hand with the highest count wins. The paying casino dealers will collect the losing bets first and then pay the winning ones. The player who actually deals the cards is not responsible for the payouts. He is just like any other player, playing against the casino.
Baccarat is a card game that is dealt from a shoe that holds 6 or 8 decks of cards. Two hands are dealt by the house dealer, the "banker" hand and the "player" hand. Before the hands are dealt, bets may be placed on the banker hand, on the player hand, or on a tie.
Winning bets on banker or player are paid 1:1, but a commission of 5% is charged on bank bets making the net odds on such bets 0.95 to 1. Some casinos may charge a lower commission (e.g., at this writing, Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas charges 4%.).
Some sources report that tie bets are paid 8:1, while others claim that tie bets are paid 9:1, so this may vary from casino to casino. If there is a tie, bets on the banker or player are returned. Once a bet has been placed, there are no opportunities for further decisions -- both the banker hand and the player hand are dealt according to fixed rules, resulting in final hands of either two or three cards for each.
The value of a hand is determined by adding the values of its individual cards. Tens and face cards are counted as zero, while all other cards are counted by the number of "pips" on the card face. Only the last digit of the total is used, so all baccarat hands have values in the range 0 to 9 inclusive. The hand with the higher value wins; if the hands have the same value, the result is a tie.
Rules for the player hand:
If the player's first two cards total 6 or more, then the player must stand without drawing a card.
If the player's first two cards total 5 or less, the player must draw one additional card.
Rules for the banker hand:
If the banker's first two cards total 7 or more, then the banker must stand without drawing a card.
If the banker's first two cards total 0, 1, or 2, then the banker must draw one card.
If the banker's first two cards total 3, 4, 5, or 6, then whether the banker draws is determined by the whether the player drew, and if so the value of the player's draw card.
Baccarat is really a game of chance and there is no need to know the third-card rules. In any case, play is closely monitored by the casino dealers and errors are very rare.
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Avoid standoff or tie bets altogether.
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Don't bet against a streak of either Banco (banker) or Punto (player). After three consecutive Banco or Punto, either stop betting until the streak chops or bet with the streak.
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Don't be put off by the 5% tax on Banco wins. This is compensated by the fact that Banco wins more times than Punto.
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If a shoe chops four times in a row bet with the chop on the fifth bet and treat the chop as a trend until it breaks with either a bank or player duplication
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