How To Play Baccarat?

Every player, as well as the dealer, may place his/her bet on Banco or Punto. However, dealers normally place their bets on Banker (Banco). Sometimes, players pass the 'Shoe' to their next player, if they do not want to deal in a particular round. The Shoe will remain with a player until Bank wins. Further, if the player wins, then the shoe will be passed on to the next player.

Players bet on of the two hands dealt either to win or to tie the game. The game is quite similar to Roulette, just like placing bets on either Red or Black. The payoff in Baccarat is 1:1 (even money). However, the payoff for standoff is either 8 for 1 or 9 for 1. The basic difference between bets on Punto and Banco is that, if you win the bet placed on Banco, then you have to give a 5% tax or commission levied by casino. You may use this as an advantage to think about where to place your bet. The main reason behind imposing tax on Banco is that in games played with 8-deck cards or more, the Banco on an average will have 3 to 4 hands of victory than Punto.

Every hand will have at least two or at the most three cards. The player dealing will place two cards, tucked below the Shoe without disclosing them to other players present on the table and provide other players by placing a biggest bet on Punto.

Then Punto player will look at the cards and hand over these cards to the player, who deals in this game. Next, the player, who deals will expose the cards held on both hands and a casino dealer announces the winner with the results.

Rules of Playing:

In this game, both the hands of players deal cards, and once the dealing is finished, the hand containing the maximum count wins the game. Nine is the maximum count in this game, whereas the cards with numbers 2 to 9 have respective values, ace card is considered as 1 and all the face cards and cards of 10 have no value in Baccarat.

In Baccarat, the casino dealers who pay will first collect the defeated bets and then pay the victorious bets. Next, dealing players are not responsible for paying the payouts. In addition, these dealing players are also the players who play against the casino.

To play this game, you may select any one among the three kinds of bets either on player, on banker or on a standoff. To start this game, banker and each player are given with two cards. If you win the bet, you are paid according to 1:1. For example, if you bet for $10 and win, then you will obtain an additional $10 on your $10 bet. The payouts of bets placed on tie are 8:1, wherein players that placed bet of $10 may receive an additional $80 into their original bet of $10.

The main goal of this game is to bet on the hand, which is nearest to 9. In addition, an interesting fact in Baccarat is that, if the first hand of player totals to a number of two digits, then the first digit is eliminated from that number. For instance, if the initial total of hand is 14, then 1 is eliminated and the total is counted as 4.

Generally, player starts the game based on following rules:

If the total of a player's initial two cards is equal to 6,7,8 or 9, or any hand having less than these values, then the player may draw a third card. In Baccarat, each player will draw only three cards regardless of what the total is.

A player's round is followed by the banker's round based on the following rules:

The hand of banker is quite complicated and is played based on the condition and value of the player's third card. If you do not deal a third card (which means the total of two cards is either 6 or greater), then the third card will be drawn by banker only if the banker's total of two cards is less than or equal to 5. If the banker's hand totals to more than 5, then the banker will stand.

If a player bets on banker, then the player has an advantage to win, as chances of winning the game will increase by 0.18%. Many players may think this advantage as worthless, however in the world of gambling this advantage is highly valuable.

If the total of hands comes to 8 or 9, then it is termed as "natural" and the player wins. However, this situation will differ, if a tie occurs between naturals of any two players. The game will end if one of the players has natural and that player will be paid off. If none of the hands have their totals as naturals, then a third card will be dealt to both or either of the players in order to complete their hands and thereby determining the winner. However, every casino follows strict set rules to deal the third card.



If player (Punto) deals the third card, then the third-card rules came into play such as:

1. In the situation of natural, both the players stand and the one having a hand with the natural wins the game.

2. If the hand of player totals equal to or below 5, then there is a need to deal a third card.

3. If the total of the hand is more than 6, then the player stands.

4. In case of no result and the hand of player stands with only two cards, then the bank draws the third card only if the total is either 3, 4 or 5. However, if the total is 6, then the banker has to stand.


After the player draws the third card, the banker will have the chance to deal the third card based on the following rules:

1. If the total of bank is less than or equal to 2, then bank will draw its third card despite of the player's third card.

2. If the total of bank is 3, then a third card will be dealt by the bank. However, if the player draws the third card as 8, then the bank will not be able to draw a third card.

3. If the total of bank is 4, the bank will draw a third card. However, if the player's third card is either 0 or 1 or 8 or 9, then the bank will not be able to draw the third card.

4. If the total of bank is 5, then the bank will deal a third card only if the player's third card is either 4 or 5 or 6 or 7.

5. If the total of bank is 6, then the third card will be drawn by bank only if the player's third card is either 7 or 6.

6. The bank will stand if the total of bank is 7.

You may enjoy playing Baccarat either online or in land-based casinos. Generally, online Baccarat comes in two different modes, playing with fun-money or playing with real-money. While playing online, you feel as you are playing in a land-based casino, because of the graphics and virtual design of the web sites.



If you want to master in this game, then practice is the only way to improve your skills, develop higher confidence and to know the variations of Baccarat games. You may download the free version of Baccarat playing software to play this game in fun-money mode. This will help you to become an expert in playing the game without having any fear of losing your cash.

You may even ask your problems and doubts to the customer support team, while playing online. It is important to select those casinos that provide contact details such as email address, toll-free phone number and live chat address. In addition, play only on those software, which are developed by highly reputed developing companies to ensure optimal security as well as excellent audio and visual qualities.