Trying out Baccarat

Baccarat is another casino card game that doesn’t get talked about that much. It originated in France and still draws some high stakes.

The objective of baccarat is a total value of 9 (or close to it as possible) in two or three cards dealt. 2 through 9 count as face value and aces count as 1. 10’s and face cards have a value of 0. If your value totals more than 9, 10 is subtracted. So, a 4 and a 7 has a value of 1 (11-10=1). In other words, you don’t want to go over 9.

You may not receive more than three cards in a baccarat hand. If the value of your first two cards is 6 or higher, you may not take a third card. When the first two cards total 8 or 9, it’s called a natural hand. When this happens, the dealer can not draw a third card, and vice versa. As many as 14 players can play at any time. The dealer shuffles and places the cards in the cardshoe and players take turns dealing. A full table has three dealers. The middle dealer is known as the caller, who announces the totals and oversees third-card draws. The two dealers on either table end calculate wins/losses and money owed to the banker.

Players have three options to bet. They can bet that their hand will win, bet that the banker’s hand will win, or bet that the two hands tie. The table has corresponding rows for each. Baccarat is a steal for players as far as casino games go with only a 1.4% house edge.