Baccarat How to play – Object of baccarat

Let’s take a look at how the game is played. Baccarat is a card game, and it has two sides: the Bank and the Player. To understand baccarat, it helps to compare it to Blackjack, a game with which most people are familiar.

In blackjack, you hope to get 21 in two cards. In baccarat, you try to get a total of 9 in two cards (this is the highest card total you can ever get in two cards, because you ignore 10’s and face cards, and you subtract 10 if you reach it). If you get a count of 9, that’s called a natural. It can’t lose. The other side may tie however. A count of 8 is also called a natural, and it beats everything but a natural 9. Natural hands are great for you, because they prevent the other side from having a chance to draw to improve its hand.

Aces count as one, picture cards as 10 and the others their face value. If your hand total is in double figures, then the first figure is ignored. So a hand totalling 18 would count as eight.

In baccarat, you can bet either side to win, or even to tie. In fact, you don’t have to bet every hand if you don’t want to. You can sit and watch until you decide what you want to bet.

Both games are played out of a shoe. In baccarat, the casino normally uses eight decks (416 cards). There is an elaborate shuffling ritual before the cards are put in the shoe. They are cut after the shuffle, and the dealer then inserts a red plastic marker toward the end of the shoe. When this marker is reached during play, the hand after that will be the last hand for that shoe.

After they’re shuffled and marked, the cards are inserted into the plastic shoe (it does, infact, resemble a shoe). One card is then drawn from the shoe. Its value (1 to 10 for face cards) determines how many cards are then removed (“burned”) from the shoe. The shoe is now ready for play.

Both blackjack and baccarat are played at tables.There are numbered positions around the table. In baccarat, the betting area for each position has a marked area for Player, for Bank, and for Tie. To bet, you place your chips in the area of the side you think will win the next hand. If you think it will be a Tie, you put your money in the “Tie” zone. Winning bets on Player or Bank pay even money, If you bet Tie and win, it pays 9 for 1.

The casino doesn’t take sides in baccarat. It does however, take 5% of the winnings (the “commission”) each time the Bank wins the hand. It doesn’t take a commission if there’s a Tie, but the payout is less than the actual odds so they don’t have to.

Table limits range from a minimum of $5 per hand (red chip) to $100 per hand (black chip). There are maximum bets per hand which range from $2,000 to $10,000. If you have the funds, they can arrange a higher maximum per hand bet for you.

The particular rules for when a Player or Bank draws are somewhat involved, and we’ll get to them a bit later. Fortunately, you don’t have to know them to be able to play, because you have no decision to make about drawing or not drawing anyway. What is important for you to know is how the drawing rules affect which side wins during the game.