General Info

Baccarat is an exciting card game game which originated in Europe. It originated in Italy during the middle ages and derives its name from the Italian word for "zero", because the face cards and Tens – which normally are high value cards in most games – are counted as zero in Baccarat. Today, Baccarat is a favorite game of high rollers and famous gamers around the world.

Baccarat is played with a single deck of 52 cards (no Jokers), shuffled after each hand and placed in a "shoe”.

Players can wager on the player, the banker, or a tie, while trying to obtain a total card value closest to nine. Two hands of two cards are dealt, one representing the player's hand and one representing the banker's hand. Depending on the value of the hands, a third card may be drawn for each hand. The winning hand is the one with a card total closest to nine.

Some casinos let the players deal the cards in turn and others have a casino dealer to deal the cards. In online Baccarat the cards are dealt automatically by a virtual dealer. Online casino versions of baccarat are pretty easy to play. Your task is simply to bet on the player, the banker, or a draw. If you win by betting on the banker or the player, the payout is even money. If you win by betting on a draw, the payout is usually either 8:1 or 9:1, depending on where you play. All you need to know is that the banker has a slight edge (approximately 1.36%) and the house has a 1.17% advantage on banker bets and a 1.36% advantage on player bets when ties are taken into consideration. Calculations have been made that show the odds of the player winning are 44.62%, losing 45.85%, and 9.53% to tie. Thus it would seem to be to your advantage to bet on the house winning on every hand.

My advice. Don't play at an online casino that takes more than a 5% commission on Baccarat.

Card values

Tens and face cards are worth Zero,
Aces are worth One and All Other Cards are worth their Face Value.
If the value of a hand exceeds nine, then the value is adjusted by subtracting 10 from the total. No hand receives more than three cards.
The scores will always range from 0 to 9, unlike Blackjack, it is impossible to bust.

Examples of point scoring

Example 1

8 + 0 = 8, the score of this hand is 8

Example 2

4 + 0 + 8 = 12, the score of the hand is 2

Example 3

7 + 6 = 13, the score of the hand is 3

A Natural

Since the object of each hand is to get as close to 9 as possible, getting a score of 8 or 9 with the first two cards is a good thing. This is called a "natural", and if either hand scores a natural, both hands must stand. Naturally, the only score that will beat a natural 8 is a natural 9.

Rules

Two cards are dealt face up to both the Player and the Banker. If one hand has a natural, that hand wins. If both hands have a natural, the higher natural wins. If both hands have the same natural, it's a tie. If neither the Player nor the Banker has a natural, then play goes to the Player. The Player's hand stands on a score of 6 or 7. If the score is less than 6, the Player draws one card and receives a new score based on the value of all three cards.

Rules of Play for Player

Now it is the Banker's turn. When the Player stands on 6 or 7 (and therefore did not draw a third card), the Banker's play is quite straightforward. The Banker must draw on scores of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 and stand on 6 or 7.

Rules of Play for Banker when Player Stands on 6 or 7

When the Player's first two cards total:	Player Action
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5	DRAW
6, 7	STAND
8, 9	STAND (“Natural”)

However, if the Player did draw a third card, the Banker's play gets more interesting. In this case, the Banker stands on a score of 7 but draws or stands on scores of 6 or less depending on the value of the Player's THIRD CARD (not on the score of the Player's HAND). The rules governing whether the Banker draws or stands are as follows:

Baccarat Glossary

Banco - Banker.

Bankroll - A player’s total gambling money.

Coup - French for a round of play.

Croupier - French for dealer.

Down Card - A face down card.

Face Cards - The Jack, Queen, and King of any suit of cards.

High Roller - A player that wagers big bets.

House Edge - The casino in-built advantage, usually gained by paying less than the odds.

Ladderman - Casino employee who oversees the baccarat game. Personnel working this game are two dealers seated together at the center of the table, a caller standing at the table across from the dealers, and the ladderman, supervising the action from a chair above the table.

Le Grande - French for natural 9.

Mini-baccarat - A smaller version table baccarat.

Natural - An 8 or a 9 with the first two cards.

Palette - The tool (usually a long flat wooden baton) used in the Baccarat game to move cards on the table.

Punto - Player.

Shoe - Device, usually a wooden box, used for holding and dispensing playing cards to be dealt.

Shuffle Up - Premature shuffling of playing cards by the dealer.

Standoff - A tie.

VIP - A Very Important Person. Usually a big bettor or a high roller.

Upcard - A face up card.

The Playing Strategy

The 1-3-2-6 System

The name of this system says it all. Your initial bet is 1 unit, the second 3 units, the third 2 units and the fourth 6 units.
Let's assume that each unit is $10 and the odds are 1:1 - even money. The first bet is $10. You can place a bet on the Banker every time. When winning, $10 is added to the $20 on the table making the second bet $30. When winning again on the second bet, there would be $60 on the table. Of this you take down $40 and the third bet is now $20. If the third bet wins, you will have $40 on the table to which you add $20 making a total of $60 for the fourth bet. If the fourth bet wins, there would be a total of $120 on the table, all of which is net profit. Now all the bet is taken down and you start the system all over again at $10. Also, each time you lose, at any level, you start all over again at $10. If you lose the first bet, your loss is $10. The second level loss is $20 (because you added another $10). At the third level, a loss will give you a net profit of $20 (because you have taken down $40). At the fourth level, a loss leaves you breaking even (because you put back $20 out of the $40 taken down).
The attraction of this system is that you risk $20 at a chance of making $120 net profit. This means you can lose six times at the worst level (second bet), and with one win (a set of four wins in a row) get your money back.
This system will work only in the short term. The casino's always win in the long run... don't doubt it.

The Labouchere System

This system is also called the “Cancellation” system. There are many variations. In its simplest form, you write down a series or a set of numbers. The series can be short or long and not necessarily sequential such as 1 2 3 4 5 6. Each number represents the amount in units or chips to bet. You bet the first and last of these numbers. In this example 1 and 6, which totals 7 units.
If you win, you cross out the two numbers and bet the next two “ends” (the outside numbers). In this instance 2 and 5. If you win again you bet on the next two remaining numbers 3 and 4, and if you win that too, you would have made a “coup” or completed one game. Then you start all over again.

If you lose, then you add that one number to the end of the series. Say you lost your first bet of 7 units (1+6). Then you add number 7 to the end of the series to look like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and your next bet would be 8 units (1+7). If you won the first bet but lost the second 2 and 5, then the series of numbers would look like this: 2 3 4 5 7. If you work it out, you will see that when the series is completed or when you make a “coup”, there is always a profit. The negative side of this system is that you could end up betting large sums of money even if your initial bet is small.

Consider this

What about card counting you ask?

After all, everyone seems to do it on TV. Save yourself the trouble because it's a facade. Baccarat is not a countable game. Statistical analysis has shown that card counting in Baccarat is totally ineffective until the game hits the bottom of the shoe and even then it's a miniscule advantage. It basically boils down to paying yourself $10 an hour for risking $1,000,000. You're better off getting a squeegee and washing people's windows for spare change.