How to Play Baccarat

Baccarat is a card game that is played by 2 players. The first player is the banker; he is the player with the most money at the table. The banker deals the cards and has the house edge but is not in any way employed by the casino.

The Object of Baccarat is to make a hand that totals 9 or as close to 9 as you can. This may sound similar to Blackjack but in blackjack if you go over 21 you have lost. In baccarat you can not go over 9. All cards with a value greater then 9 are worth zero in Baccarat. So if you have a king and a 5 your hand value is 5. The same goes for a hand that adds up to more then 9 if you have a 5 and a 6 that totals 11 but in baccarat it equals a 1.

On the draw if either player gets a hand of 8 or 9 that is called a natural baccarat and that player instantly wins. Assuming no one got a natural then each player may take one more card. Then the hands are revealed and the player with the best baccarat hand wins.

The betting in baccarat is done by the spectators. They have 3 bets they can make. The spectators may bet on the banker to win, the player to win o the player and banker to tie.

A straight win pays off at 1 to 1 and if you bet on the dealer the casino take a 5% rake because the banker hold the house edge. If the game is a tie and someone bet the tie it pays off at 9 to 1 but it is very rare for that to happen.