Baccarat Strategy Guide

Baccarat is one of the simplest games in a casino to bet. As a player you make a wager on either the player hand or the banker hand. The cards are dealt, and if you’ve bet the correct side you win; if you’ve bet the wrong side you lose. It’s really a game as simple as choosing heads or tails; you don’t need to understand much about the game to play it.

How to Play Baccarat

Even though you don’t need to understand much about Baccarat, it is beneficial to know how the game is played. Why? Well first of all it will make cheering for the hands more exciting, and also will help you watch for dealer mistakes. We’ll give you a quick guide here on how baccarat is played.

The game starts with players making their wagers on player, banker and tie. It’s important to note that player and banker are just names for the hands: banker hand does not mean dealer, nor does player hand mean player. These are simply spots we’re betting on and could be called hand one and hand two for all it matters.

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Once bets are made the dealer will deal two cards out of the shoe to each the player hand and the banker hand. Depending on what these cards are, the dealer might then deal a third card to either or to both the player and the banker hands. Before explaining that let’s explain how baccarat hand values are calculated.

In baccarat the following rankings are used:

Face Cards are worth 0 points
Aces are worth 1 point.
Numbered cards are worth their face value.

The value of a baccarat hand is always a single digit, 0-9. So if a player is dealt an 8 and a 3 for a total of 11, this hand has a value of one. If a player is dealt a 7+7 for a total of 14 this is worth 4. The first number is dropped when cards add up to a two digit value.

When Third Cards are Drawn in Baccarat

As we already mentioned, the game starts with both the banker and player hand being dealt two cards. Once these cards are dealt the hands are generally not final as there are circumstances which dictate whether the player or banker gets a third card.

Natural hands: There is never a draw if either the player or banker is dealt an eight or a nine in their first two cards. These hands are referred to as natural hands (natural eight or natural nine_.

When the Player Draws: As long as the banker does not have a natural hand (natural hands end play) the player will always take a third card when their hand is scored between 0-5 and will always stand on 6-9.

When the Banker Draws: It takes a little practice to memorize the rules for when the banker draws a card, as it’s determined by the draw of the player hand. Here is how that works:

* If the Player did not draw a card, the Banker draws if he has 0-5, and stands if he has 6-7.
* If the Player drew a 2 or 3, the Banker draws if he has 0-4, and stands if he has 5-7.
* If the Player drew a 4 or 5, the Banker draws if he has 0-5, and stands if he has 6-7.
* If the Player drew a 6 or 7, the Banker draws if he has 0-6, and stands if he has 7.
* If the Player drew an 8, the Banker draws if he has 0-2, and stands if he has 3-7.
* If the Player drew an ace, 9, 10, or face-card, the Banker draws if he has 0-3, and stands if he has 4-7
Once all draws are complete, the value of the player and banker hands are calculated, and wins and losses are paid.

A winning player bet is paid even money, where a winning banker bet is paid 1.95 (or paid in full less 5% commission). This is because banker bets win slightly more often then player bets.

Tie Bets: Tie bets are a side bet. On a tie: banker and player bets are pushed, meaning no money is won or lost. The only time a tie bet is won or lost is when a player makes a side bet on the tie. If you’re a smart gambler you’ll likely avoid betting tie all together as it has the highest house edge in the casino.

Baccarat Strategy

There are countless systems out on the web on how to beat baccarat. These systems all have faults. Baccarat is purely a game of chance, and there is no way despite how good you are at tracking cards or devising betting systems to beat this game long term. After all, if there were such a system why would land based casinos provide players with score cards and double sided pens at Baccarat? These are designed to give players the illusion that baccarat is a skill game and smart players will win long term.

If you’re thinking about using a Baccarat doubling system, we suggest visiting wikipedia page: Martinangle System.

As far as which bet has the best odds: Banker, even with the 5% commission there is a higher expected value betting banker than there is betting player. The best chance to win playing baccarat is to bet every hand banker and hope to catch a lucky banker streak.

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