Long thought to be a game just for the rich and famous who live their lives jet setting around the globe to exotic places spending their fortunes or making their fortunes at beautiful casinos around the world, but that conception of the game <!--more-->has long passed and you will find Baccarat games at any casino or online casino with tables of varying wager limits to appease even the smallest of small bettors. Land based casinos have rooms dedicated to just the Baccarat player because “yes” it’s a big money game for those playing on the tables with ridiculously high wager limits and even bigger payoffs, but at online casinos you can sit in your own “dedicated” living room and enjoy the game that used to be only for the elite.

Now, before I discuss the game and the types of bets it entails let's discuss how to play the game for those who have never played Baccarat before and are itching to give it a try!

How to play the game of Baccarat

The game is divided into three different bets, one is called the “player”, one is called the “bank” and the other is a “tie”, now let’s forget about the “tie” bet for right now and discuss the other two. First you must decide which bet you want by choosing either the “player” or the “bank”. The player hand is not your hand it’s just a hand that everyone at the table can choose to be the winning hand, and the bank is not the casinos hand, but just a name for the second hand in the game to choose. The object of Baccarat is to pick the hand which will end up with the highest score with “9” being the highest. Now you need to understand how you get the total number for each hand at the end of the deal so let me show you how this works:

All cards between 2 and 9 count as face value. Which means a 9 is a  9
All faces cards and 10’s count as “0”
Aces are considered as 1
To find out the total of the cards for any hand you have to add the cards up and then subtract the ten’s number from a total that has anything over 9. Example: 6 + 4 = 10 subtract the ten digit = 1. So that hands total is 1. If the hand has 4 + 2 + 9 = 15 so 1 + 5 = 6, this hands total is 6.

So now you choose which hand or hands  you  wish to bet on, also included is the “tie” hand which comes up few and far between but when it does happen and you have wagered on it the payoff is 9 – 1 odds which is a fantastic win, if you bet $10 you win $90. But it’s a risqué bet and only comes up once in a while but when it does, great! The player hand always goes first and once it has its first two cards if the total of those two cards are between 0 – 5 it must draw another card, but if the total is over 5 then no extra card is drawn. The bankers hand gets to draw a third card if its first two cards total fewer than 2, if its cards total 7, 8 or 9 no other card is drawn. But if the bank hand is between 3 and 6 then it continues to draw cards until it either beats the player, makes a tie or bust.

Bets and winning

When betting on the player hand you win back even money, if you bet on the bank you win even money minus a 5% commission to the house. If you bet a tie, you win 9 – 1.

These are the basics for understanding the game of Baccarat; I hope this helps anyone who ventures into this high rolling game of odds and chance!

Happy Gaming!