One of the oldest and most popular games among the worlds biggest high rollers is baccarat. It is a very simple casino game which also offer s a very low house edge on two of the bets. This makes baccarat a good choice if you are new to gambling and are looking for a game that is easy to play.
The game is usually played with eight decks of playing cards. The aim of the game is to bet on the hand that equals nine or as close to nine. The dealing of the cards follows specific rules and as a player you have no control over this part of the game.
The only decision you have to make as a player is which outcome to bet on. These choices are banker, player or tie. The house advantage and payoffs for each of the three choices are listed below.
As you can see from the above figures the best bets to go for are banker or player. The tie bet while it does offer a big 8 to 1 pay off has a huge house edge compared to the other two. Note that as the banker bet has the lowest house advantage that the casinos even this out with a 5% take on wins.
Once you have decided which position to bet on you are ready to go. Card values in a game of baccarat are as follows; cards 2 to 9 are face value, aces are worth 1 and 10, J, Q, K are worth zero. This is because a baccarat hand can only have a single digit value. Anything over nine removes the second digit. For example a hand total of 15 is worth 5 and 11 is worth 1.
On the deal if either the player hand or the banker hand total 8 or 9 no additional cards are dealt. If however this is not the case the Third Card Rule is applied. The player hand is always drawn first with the following rules. If the hand total is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 the player must draw an additional card. If the hand is 6 or 7 the player stands. The third card rule works as follows.
If the Banker total is 7 then no additional card is dealt. If the banker total is 6 and the player total is 6 or 7 the banker gets an additional card. If the banker total is 5 and player has 4,5,6 or 7 the banker gets another card. If the banker hand is 4 and player hand is 2 to 7 the banker gets a card. If the banker hand is 3 to 0 the banker is dealt another card.
The most common variation of baccarat the you will find online is mini baccarat. This is a version where the casino deals all of the cards as opposed to the big table baccarat that you will find in land based casinos where the players get to deal the cards.
Overall if you are looking for a casino game with a low house edge that offers a good chance of winning then baccarat is an excellent choice. The game is available at all of our recommended UK Online Casinos.
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