Baccarat

Baccarat is a high-class card game with high minimum bets, generally played in a special roped-off part of the casino, with well-dressed players. James Bond played it in one of the movies. Some casinos have Mini-Baccarat in the regular gaming areas which is the same game except the minimum bets are lower, you don't have to dress like James (or Jane) Bond, and the players don't get to take turns dealing the cards themselves. Baccarat has one of the lowest house edges of any casino game (1.06%), making it an excellent value. In the long run you'll get back nearly 99% of what you wager. But a possible pitfall is that Mini-Baccarat is dealt very quickly, perhaps 300 hands per hour. So although the odds are good, you're playing faster, and the more hands per hour, the more you'll lose. I liken baccarat to a table-based version of a slot machine because after placing your bet you make no decisions. The cards are dealt and then you see whether you won or lost. So it's a good, simple game for those graduating from slots. But anyone who likes a challenge will get bored with this game quickly. Baccarat (pronounced bah-kah-rah) does have a couple of things in common with blackjack. Two hands are dealt, and the higher hand wins. You can bet on either hand to win. One hand is called "Banker" and the other hand is deceptively called "Player", but you can bet on either hand. They might as be called Hand 1 and Hand 2. Note also that there's only one player hand dealt no matter how many players there are, because the "Player" hand isn't really the player's hand, it's just one of the choices you can bet on. Betting on Player has a house edge of 1.24%, and betting on Banker has an edge of 1.06%, so betting on Banker is the best Baccarat play. The low 1.06% edge includes the 5% commission you have to pay on winning Banker bets. Binion's Horseshoe in Downtown Vegas took only a 4% commission on the Banker bet for years until they went out of business in 2003. They reopened with a new owner but didn't resurrect the 4% commission. You can also bet that there will be a tie between Banker and Player, but this carries a whopping 14.4% house edge. In regular Baccarat each player gets a turn to deal the cards. In Mini-Baccarat a casino employee deals the cards. Preset rules dictate whether a given hand gets third card. (More on that later.) Three cards is the max, though, no matter what. The hand closer to 9 wins. Only the last digit of the two-card total is counted. For example, a hand of 5 and 7 (12) is counted as a 2. Aces count as 1, and face cards have no value. There's no such thing as a bust in Baccarat. A 9 is an automatic win unless the other side also has 9, which is a tie. An 8 is also an automatic win, unless the other side has a 9 (loss) or an 8 (tie). For all other totals (0-7), the drawing of additional cards depends on Baccarat rules. That is, you don't decide whether to draw another card; you have to hit or stand depending on the rules. For Player hands, the player hits on 0-5, and stands on 6-9. (Remember that 8 & 9 are usually automatic wins.) For Banker hands, a whole table is necessary to detail whether the Banker hits or stands, but it doesn't really matter, because you can't base any strategy on it anyway. This is why Baccarat is so appealing -- it's an easy game to play because there's no strategy to learn. Most games with a low edge require you to learn some strategy; in Baccarat, you get the some low edge no matter what, because the only decisions you make are how much to bet and which of the two low-edge hands you want to bet on, Player or Banker. The only way to screw this up is to make the Tie bet which carries a high edge. The casino takes a 5% commission on winning hands when you bet on Banker. The dealers keep track of this and you pay the commission when you cash out at the end of your session. Even with this commission, betting on Banker still has a lower house edge, because the Banker hand is much more likely to win against the Player hand. Baccarat is generally played at about 50-120 hands per hour, and Mini-Baccarat is played at about 150-300 hands per hour. Remember the slower you play, the longer your money will last. Try to play Baccarat at crowded tables, because that slows down the play. It's also more fun to play with more people. Check out our Expected Loss table to see how much you're likely to lose for a weekend of Baccarat play. You can practice baccarat online for free at Bodog. You have to download the software; it's not yet available in the Flash version. Drawing rules Here are the rules which determine whether a third card is dealt, just as FYI -- because you have no choice about whether a third card is drawn, and you can't base any strategy on it.

When Player's first 2 cards total...	Player will:	and Dealer Will:
0-5	Draw one card	(see next table)
6-7	Stand	Draw if Banker has 5 or less, Stand if Banker has 6 or more
8-9 (Natural)	Stand	(see next table)

When Banker's hand totals...	Banker DRAWS when player's third card is:	Banker STANDS when player's third card is:
1 or 2	any card	(always draws)
3	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10	8
4	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7	1, 8, 9, 10
5	4, 5, 6, 7	1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10
6	6, 7	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10
7	Stands	Stands
8 or 9 (Natural)	Stands	Stands