Online Baccarat

Baccarat is a classic card game that’s played against the house. It’s extremely popular in land based casinos with high rollers due to its extremely low house edge, and is of course a favorite game of James Bond. Baccarat is also known as Punto Banco, and there are two hands dealt in the game, and somewhat confusingly these are called the Player and the Banker, however players do not participate in the action in any way, and the player of the game does not actually get a hand. Baccarat is very simple to play and many US online casinos will allow you to play for free until you have the confidence to play for real money.

The Goal of Baccarat and the Betting Options

There are only three possible bets in Baccarat, and those are 1) Player 2) Banker and 3) Tie, and to play the game, the participants must bet on which hand will have a closer score to 9. The card values in Baccarat are different to other card games in a casino, and the Ace is worth 0, 10’s, Jack’s, Queens and Kings are worth 1 and numbered cards from 2 to 9 are all face value.

How the Game is Played

To begin with players must make a bet, and that will be on either Player, Banker or Tie and 2 hands of 2 face up cards are dealt, one to the player and one to the dealer. If either hand has a score of 8 or 9 then both hands stand and this is called a natural and the hand is either tied or the hand with either 8 or 9 has won should the other be lower.

If neither hand has 8 or 9 then one more card may be dealt and the player hand always draws first. The player hand will be dealt a card only if the score of that hand is 5 or under and will simply stand on 6 or 7. Depending on the amount that the player card was dealt on will determine on when the banker draws. For example if the player hand was 3 or under then the banker must draw on a score with 0-4, if the player had 4 or 5 and stand with 5 or 7, then the banker would draw on a 0-5 and stand on 6 or 7. Should a baccarat hand exceed 9 then the digit on the right is the score, e.g a score of 11 would be 1 and a score of 17 would be 7.

Sounds Complex? Play For Free and Learn

Baccarat can seem a little complex at first, but it is a very simple casino game to play and after a short time you’ll find that you fully understand what seem very complex rules. The best way to learn is of course to play for free and right here you’ll find plenty of online casinos that allow you to do just that.