Baccarat Guide

Have you played baccarat? If not, you should. It has one of the lowest house edges in the casino. Despite that, many people avoid learning how to play baccarat because they think it’s a difficult game to learn. That couldn’t be any further from the truth, though. We’ll show you how to play baccarat in our guide.

We find that it’s much easier to learn how to play a game when you take a hands-on approach. Our recommended casinos offer baccarat. You can find a free version if you prefer a risk-free approach to learning baccarat rules. Or play for low stakes and get a surge of excitement whenever you win a hand. The choice is yours.

Baccarat’s an easy game to learn. In fact, you could make the argument that baccarat’s easier to learn than blackjack. And that is because there’s little to no decision-making or strategy involved in baccarat, whereas in blackjack you have lots of decisions to make.

You don’t have to take our word for it, though. Just read the next section and see for yourself. We’re going to show you how to play baccarat, optimal strategy, and more. Here is everything we cover in our guide.

How to Play Casino Baccarat

Most casinos offer punto banco as their baccarat game. So that’s the game we’ll explain the rules for below. We cover additional variations and side bets later on in this guide.

Baccarat’s a relatively easy game to learn. The object of the game is to bet on who you think will have the best hand – the banker or the player. Or you can bet on whether you think they’ll tie. You can also bet on any two or all three of these outcomes.

Here’s what a sample hand will look like:

You and anyone else playing will place your bet(s). You can bet on the banker, player, tie, or any combination of those three options.

Once the bets are made, the croupier will deal two hands – one for the player, and another for the banker.

The player’s hand is dealt with first. The dealer gives it a point value so he can decide whether you’re given a third card or not.

That’s based on the value of your hand, which is based on the following values assigned to each card:

The highest score possible is nine points.

Whenever you have two cards that make a higher (double-digit) score, only the right digit is used.

For example, say you’re dealt two 6s for a total of twelve points. Only the furthest right digit – the two – is used. Your score is two points.

Here are more examples. On the left is the actual (double-digit) value of your hand. On the right is what your score will actually be once the left digit is dropped.

Once there’s a point value assigned, a third card may or may not be dealt. In punto banco baccarat, this is determined by the croupier and done automatically (based on somewhat complicated rules).

Don’t worry; there’s no need to panic. We list the rules for both the player and banker below. But you don’t need to memorize them because whether you play online or off, the croupier or software will do it all for you.

But it’s a good idea to have a vague understanding so you know what’s going on and why so you’re not confused about why sometimes you’re dealt a third card and other times you’re not.

Here’s what happens based on the value of your hand:

Once the player hand is dealt with, the dealer is next. Here’s what happens based on the total of their hand:

Once both hands are done, they’re compared. You’ll win the hand if you:

• Bet on the tie and both the player and banker tie. This pays 8:1 or 9:1, depending on the casino. That means that for every $1 you bet, you’ll receive your $1 back PLUS an additional $8 or $9.
• Bet on the player and that hand wins. This pays even money. That means for every $1 you bet, you’ll receive your original $1 back PLUS an additional $1.
• Bet on banker and that hand wins. This pays 0.95:1. That means that for every $1 you bet, you’ll receive your original $1 back PLUS an extra $0.95. That’s because the casino takes a 5% commission on banker bets.

Bet on the wrong outcome, and you lose.

Then the money’s collected and/or paid out. Then another round starts.

That’s all there is to playing punto banco baccarat. There’s no strategy and no decision-making. So this variation is easy to learn and play.

But there are other variations, including variants where you do make decisions. Let’s look at those now.

Baccarat Variations

There are many different baccarat variations, including the three core games, additional variants, and side bets. The first list covers the most popular variations you’ll find and what makes them unique. After that, we list the most common side bets.

Baccarat Chemin De Fer

This is the original version of baccarat and the most popular variation in France. This is the version used in the James Bond books. One player is designated as the banker and will deal. The banker will need to be able to cover all the bets made. The role passes counterclockwise around the table, giving everyone the opportunity to be the banker.

What’s unique about this variation is that when there’s an opportunity to receive a third card, it’s up to the player and banker to decide to accept or decline it. This is the only opportunity for any “strategy.”

James Bond played baccarat chemin de fer in several books, including GoldenEye, For Your Eyes Only, Thunderbolt, and Casino Royale. However, baccarat was swapped for Texas Hold’em in the movie Casino Royale because poker’s popularity was skyrocketing at the time.

Baccarat Banque

In this version, the banker only continues as long as he’s winning. Once he loses, the position is passed to another player.

What’s unique about this is that three hands are dealt – one to the first player on his right, one to the second player on his left, and then a third to himself. Each hand represents that side – the dealer, the left side (five players) and the right side (five players).

From here, the remaining rules – including whether to accept or decline a third card – are the same as baccarat chemin de fer.

EZ Baccarat

This is identical to classic baccarat, with one exception: winning banker bets are paid even money (1:1) instead of 19:20, except for when it wins with a three-card point total of seven points. Then it’s a push or barred hand. This changes the house edge from 1.06% to 1.018% (for the banker). This rule is the same as the casino taking a 4.912% commission instead of 5%.

Super 6/Punto 2000

Even money is paid on winning banker bets (instead of 95%). The exception is when the banker wins with a 6 – in this case it’s paid 50% of the bet. The house edge is 1.46% compared to the standard 1.06%.

Mini Baccarat

This is a smaller, lower-stakes version of punto banco baccarat. The biggest difference is that it’s usually played at lower limits. Players also don’t pick up the cards.

Midi Baccarat

This is identical to mini baccarat, except the size of the table is larger. It’s also usually found in high-limit rooms instead of on the casino floor.

That’s it for variations. However, you’ll also find baccarat games with different rules depending on where you play. Here are some of the different rules you’ll find:

Baccarat Side Bets

Here are some of the most common baccarat side bets:

Dragon 7

Found in EZ baccarat. This pays 40:1 if the banker gets a winning three-card 7. This has a 7.61% house edge.

Panda 8

Found in EZ baccarat. This pays 25:1 if the player gets a winning three-card 8. This has a 10.19% house edge.

Royal Match

Reportedly offered in some London casinos. This is a bet on the player or banker getting a king and queen in the first two cards. This pays 75:1 for a suited king/queen and 30:1 for off-suit. This has a 2.13% house edge.

Bellagio Match

A game where multiple players play against an animated dealer. This bet pays 75:1 on a player three of a kind and 68:1 for the banker. This has a 5.27% house edge for the player and 8.57% house edge for the banker.

Dragon Bonus

A side bet most often offered in mini-baccarat. The payout depends on what you “win by,” with a win by 9 paying 30:1 (the max). This has a 2.65% house edge on the player and 9.37% house edge on the banker.

4-5-6

This is a side bet (rumored) to be seen/played in Atlantic City. There are three bets available on the total value for each hand. 4 pays 3:2, and 5 and 6 pay 2:1.

Big and Small

This is found at online casinos using Playtech software. This is the same as the 4-5-6 bet – a “small” pays 3:2 if the total player and banker cards equal 4. The “big” pays if the total equals 5 or 6. The house edge is 5.27% for the small and 4.35% for the big.

Either Pair

Found at casinos using Playtech software. This pays if the first two cards (for either the player or banker) form a pair. This pays 5:1.

Perfect Pair

Found at casinos using Playtech software. This pays if the first two cards (for either player or banker) form a suited pair. This pays 25:1.

Lucky Bonus

Found at commission-free baccarat games at the Pala Casino in California. This pays 18:1 if the banker gets a winning 6. This has a player advantage of 2.34%.

But due to the player advantage, you cannot bet more than 10% of your banker bet on the Lucky Bonus. Between both bets (banker and Lucky Bonus), the combined house edge is 1.11%. This is pretty good considering it’s not much more than the standard house edge for a side bet.

Three-Card Six

Found in the same games at Pala Casino. This pays 100:1 if both the player and banker get a three-card 6. It pays 8:1 if only one does. It loses otherwise. This has a 13.37% house edge.

Super 6

Found in UK casinos and some (online) live dealer casinos. This pays 12:1 on a winning banker total of 6. This has a MASSIVE 29.98% house edge. This is one bet you probably want to avoid.

Color in Majority

Available at some live dealer casinos online. This pays when one color is the majority. The payouts are 1.5:1 for red cards, 1.53:1 for blackjack, and 2.87:1 for equal of both.

All Red/Black

This is also available at live dealer casinos. This is the same bet as above, except you want the cards to be all red – which pays 22:1 – or all black – which pays 24:1.

First Two Banker/Player Cards Same Suit

This is available at live dealer casinos. This pays if the first two player or banker cards are the same suit and pays 2.87:1 (player) or 2.86:1 (banker). The house edge is 3.95% for the banker and 4.20% for the player.

Total Points Over/Under 9.5

This is available at live dealer casinos. It pays on the sum of the final player and banker points, and is sort of like an over/under sports bet. If both hands are under 9.5 points, the bet pays 1.23:1. If both hands total over 9.5 points, the bet pays .66:1.

Total Points Odd/Even

Also available at live dealer casinos. This pays on the sum of both the player and banker points being odd or even. If the total is odd, the bet pays .92:1. If the total is even, it pays .91:1.

Matching Dragon

This is a side bet found in Macau. There are actually thirteen bets, one for each rank. The player is paid based on the number of cards of the chosen rank that appear in the net hand. It doesn’t matter how many cards are dealt the next hand (4-6).

Here are the payouts:

Example

Consider the following hands:

Player: Q22 Banker: KQ2

A bet on a 2 would have paid 20:1 for three 2s, Q 3:1 for two queens, K 1:1 for one king, and the other ten bets would have lost.

Lucky 8

Found at the Palace Casino in La Center, Washington. This pays on various outcomes where the player and/or banker have a total of 8.

This has a 13.65% house edge (player) or 16.60% house edge (banker).

Rabbit Play

Found in Las Vegas. This pays:

This has an 8.07% house edge (player) or 9.31% house edge (banker).

Quik

This is based on the combined total of the player and banker points. If the combined points are:

This has an 8.155% house edge.

Those are the most common side bets you’ll find. Now let’s look at playing baccarat online and what you should expect.

Playing Baccarat Online

Playing baccarat online is a little different than playing it live.

For one thing, you won’t have the chance to be the dealer, because you’ll be playing the punto banco variant.

In fact, for most online games, you won’t have a dealer at all. The casino’s software will handle all that, except for live dealer baccarat.

Most punto banco games are straightforward. Some will pay 9:1 on ties. Others will pay 8:1. Some offer commission-free games. Others don’t. Some call it punto banco. Others call it baccarat.

Betting limits will vary, though. Most online casinos start stakes at $1. From there, you’ll find limits that range from $100 to $250 to $500 per hand. Depending on the casino, though, you can find limits that exceed $1,000. Pinnacle is one of those casinos – they offer limits as high as $5,000/hand.

An interesting baccarat variant you’ll find online is live dealer baccarat games. These are games dealt by a real human dealer. Baccarat is one of the more common live options (as are blackjack and roulette).

One thing that makes these games unique is the dealers. They come from different backgrounds, ranging from European to Asian countries. There are different themes, too, such as dealers wearing Playboy costumes.

Live dealer games tend to have higher stakes because they have more overhead. That’s not always the case, though. Stakes can vary wildly from $1 to as much as $75,000. Some even offer side bets and commission-free games, too. You can see a list of live dealer baccarat options here.

And though it depends on where you play, you can find baccarat on your mobile device. Some casinos, especially ones with smaller selections of mobile games, won’t have it. But if you stick to larger casinos like Bet365, you’ll find it.

One other thing – another unique aspect of online gambling is that most casinos offer bonuses. However, since baccarat’s a low-edge game, you’re going to find that most casinos will either not let you participate in their bonuses, or they’ll severely handicap the offer.

We’ll give you an example:

888Casino.com offers a 100% match bonus up to $200. This means that for every dollar you deposit, they’ll give you an additional dollar. You can receive as much as $200, for a total of $400.

To be able to keep and eventually cash out that dollar, you’ll need to wager so much money. Casinos call this “rollover” or “playthrough requirements.” The exact amount you’ll need to wager depends on the casino, offer, and games you’re playing

Slots have the lowest playthrough since they have the highest house edge. But we want to play baccarat, which has a lower house edge.

And at 888Casino.com – and most other online casinos – if you want to play baccarat while clearing a deposit bonus, your wagers will count less than wagers made on slots. In 888 Casino’s case, your wagers will count as only 10% of what a slots wager will.

So say you’re supposed to wager 50x for slots. Here’s what that looks like for baccarat players:

A big difference, right?

This is important to pay attention to because instead of wagering $10,000 or $20,000 for the slots bonus (depending on how exactly 888Casino.com structures their offer), you’ll have to wager 10x that – or $100,000 to $200,000.

And that’s BEFORE you can request a cash-out.

You’ll have to decide if that’s worth it before you make a deposit. And for most players, it won’t be.

Online Baccarat on a Mobile

One of our favorite features of the top baccarat gambling sites is that you can play on the go. There are plenty of baccarat tables that are available on the likes of iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows Phones.

You have to either download the apps or open their responsive websites from the browser of your device. Either way, the whole experience is seamless and allows you to play baccarat at any given moment.

How to Win at Baccarat: Strategy and Systems

There’s no way to win at or beat baccarat. Not really.

Brick-and-mortar casinos give you score cords and pencils you can use to keep track of the outcome of every hand. Online, they have what looks like a (live) keno scoreboard that tells you the outcome of the last several hands.

Players will track these religiously. They look for patterns like “big road,” “bead road,” “big eye road,” “small road,” and “cockroach road.”

However, experts say that this is a waste of time – that there’s really no way to gain an edge over the casino. Card counting doesn’t work, either.

And according to Jim Thorp (a known gambling analyst, blackjack player, and author):

‘Advantages in baccarat are very small, they are very rare, and the few that occur are nearly always in the last five to twenty cards in the pack.’

What about betting systems?

Betting systems don’t work, either. Many players will use the popular Martingale betting system. This strategy may be somewhat effective because the likelihood of you losing six to ten or more hands in a row is rare. However, this or any other type of negative or positive progressive betting system won’t help you beat the casino. If anything, it’ll help you lose your money faster.

The WizardOfOdds.com mentions multiple times how negative or progressive betting systems DO NOT change your odds of winning at baccarat. He also shows why betting systems are flawed (in general).

Nope, none of it works. The biggest advantages you’ll find are in borderline tactics like edge sorting. Some consider this cheating. Others don’t. We talk more about it in the following section.

Other than that, there’s not a ton you can do to gain an edge at baccarat, other than maybe making a few smart decisions. Here are some tips for what you can do:

Other standard casino “tips” also apply. You should only play what you can afford to lose. You should have a bankroll and/or stop-loss. And you shouldn’t chase your losses.

The bottom line is that gambling is a form of entertainment and baccarat’s no different. This is stuff you should know already.

One final thing: please don’t buy “systems” or other programs which guarantee to show you how to beat baccarat for a profit.

They claim to show you how you can consistently beat the casinos for $300+ per hour. And if you sign up today, you’ll also receive tips on how to beat keno. All for a measly $67.

If the $300/hour wasn’t a dead giveaway that you’d be wasting your money, the fact that you’d also get winning keno secrets should be.

These systems just don’t work. They probably don’t use the tips themselves, but instead make their money by preying on people stupid enough to buy them.

Don’t be one of those people. You can’t beat baccarat. You just can’t. Not unless you cheat.

Cheating at Baccarat by Edge Sorting

The most common form of “cheating” in baccarat is edge sorting.

We put cheating in quotation marks because not everyone feels that edge sorting is cheating. Some people feel it’s fair since it’s a flaw or mistake that the casino can look for and catch, but didn’t.

First things first, though – what is edge sorting?

Edge sorting is a tactic where you look for subtle and intentional differences on the backs of playing cards, and then figure out whether they’re a high or low card.

Once the player figures this out, they’ll ask the dealer to flip the cards around (rotate them 180 degrees) so all low cards face one way, while high cards face the other. They say it brings them luck.

Edge sorters will also ask the dealer to use an automatic shuffler, as it doesn’t rotate the cards 180 degrees like manual shuffling will. That way the low/high cards are in the same position.

Players who pull this off can gain a big statistical edge over the casino, even in a game where there’s usually no advantage to be found.

Phil Ivey, a popular high-stakes poker player, is one example of someone who used edge sorting to gain an edge. In 2012, Ivey and an accomplice won $9.6 million USD playing baccarat at the Borgata. The Borgata filed a lawsuit against Ivey in 2014 for his winnings.

Also in 2012, he reportedly won $11 million USD playing punto banco at Crockfords in London. Crockfords refunded his $1 million stake and agreed to send him his winnings. When they later refused, Ivey sued for payment. He lost the case in the UK High Court.

The UK High Court ruled that edge sorting is cheating in civil law and that casinos are justified in refusing players their payment.

While Ivey thought he gained an edge fairly, since the casino easily could’ve protected itself, the judge said that Ivey used the croupier to gain an edge, rather than simply finding an error or anomaly.

It’s a small difference, but it’s enough of a difference to where Ivey wasn’t getting paid. Not yet, anyway.

It was reported at the end of 2015 that Ivey was given permission to appeal his case after a judge ruled that his case “raises an important question of law and has ‘a real prospect of success.’”

It should go without saying that we don’t condone cheating, though this is definitely one of those cases where it’s up to your own moral compass as to whether edge sorting is cheating or not.

Instead, we’ll tell you that if you use edge sorting, you do so at your own risk.

High Stakes Baccarat

Since baccarat is known for being tied to the glitz and glamor of 007, it’s no surprise that it is a favorite amongst high rolling players. If you’d like to join them, we have some special tips for high limit players:

If you haven’t played online before, this can be a bit of a shock to find that you’ve played 10 or 20 without realizing it – all at $5,000, $10,000 or $25,000 a pop.

Use one or all of these tips to maximize the large sums of money you’re spending at the baccarat tables online.

Conclusion

That’s baccarat in a nutshell.

It’s a really easy game. All you REALLY need to know is that you should bet on the banker if you want to win more money.

The rest is out of your hands – at least for punto banco. The only reason to understand the other stuff is so you know what’s going on, can follow along – which is where all the excitement will come from – and so you’re not confused as to why you were paid or not.

That’s why it’s sort of funny to us how people mistake this for a hard game to learn. If anything, it’s one of the easiest and most hands-off casino games out there, between the lack of decision and strategy.

If you’re into that sort of thing – a game where you can place your bets, relax, and enjoy the lower house edge – then you should give baccarat a shot. Because few other casino games can say the same thing.

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