Baccarat is the game of choice for high rollers and is played in special rooms away from the main casino floor. This classic card game is known for its slow pace and ritualistic nature. It is also one of the only casino games where players actually get to deal the cards.
The game itself is simple: a player places a bet on either the Banker hand, the Player hand or the Tie and the dealer then deals two cards to each of these hands. A hand with a total closest to nine wins the round. The Banker hand is usually dealt from a shoe and the Player hand from a deck of six or eight cards. The only thing that differentiates the Banker and Player hands is whether or not a third card is drawn.
A banker’s decision to draw a third card is entirely based on the total of the first two cards that have been dealt and how much money has been placed on each bet. In addition to the standard bets of Player, Banker and Tie, players can also place a Super Six bet (the highest possible total for the first two cards) or a Pair Bet (two matching cards). The payout on winning a Super Six bet is 12x your original bet amount. A pair bet pays out 11x your initial bet amount.
Once the players have placed their bets the dealer calls “no more bets” and then deals one card into the Player box followed by a second card into the Banker box. The player’s job is to determine which of these two hands has the highest total and then win that bet. Baccarat is a game of chance but with a bit of skill can be very profitable.
Baccarat is not an easy casino game to play and it has a reputation for being complicated, but in reality the game is very straightforward. The most important things to remember are to set your limits before you play and to stay within them. Baccarat is a casino game and as such it will have some house edge, but you can minimize this by sticking to the two most common bets – the Banker bet and the Player bet. The tie bet is more complex and has a higher house edge, but intelligent players should ignore it and stick to the two main bets. As with any gaming venture it is best to enter the table with a plan and be prepared to walk away at any time you have reached your loss limit. It is always better to lose some than to bet recklessly and end up losing more than you could afford to lose.