Baccarat Rules

Baccarat is an extremely popular casino table game which tends to attract some of the casinos best customers who often play the game for many thousands of dollars per hand.  One of the great things about the advent of online casinos is that these days you can find a number of great casino sites which offer the game with low minimum of $1 per play.  On this page you will find a complete overview of the rules of how to play Baccarat, including both the player and dealer moves in the game and how betting works for each round of play.  Baccarat takes a while to get the hang of but is quite an enjoyable game once you learn the rules.

How to Play Baccarat Online

The object of Baccarat is to bet correctly on the hand that reaches closest to a point total of nine.  Hand totals are calculated using certain rules which are outlined later in this article.  The game begins by the players placing a wager before the deal on one of three options - the player, the banker or a tie.  These are the only bets that can be made in a baccarat game and each one pays different to the player.  A bet on the player pays 1:1 even money, a bet on the banker pays 1:1 minus a 5% commission and a winning tie bet pays out 8:1.

Once the players have made their bets for that round, the dealer will begin giving out the cards for both the player and banker hands.  Two cards are given out to start like in Blackjack and from there the dealer will continue dealing until the hand is over.  When and how the dealer deals the cards is dictated by the following rules:

  1. Remember the object of the game is to bet on the hand that reaches closest to nine according to the following card values
  2. Game begins with the dealer dealing two cards to both the banker and player slots on the Baccarat table
  3. Both hands are compared and if either hand has a value of 8 or 9 it is known as a natural and that hand immediately wins, unless it’s a tie
  4. All tens and face cards have a value of zero in a the hand
  5. If a hand reaches a value of 10 or higher the 10 is taken out of the score, so for example if a hand reached 12 the new value of that hand would be 2
  6. Once the hands are dealt, if neither hand is a natural than both the player hand and banker hand must take additional cards as outlined below

 

Player Hand Drawing Rules For Third Card

  1. If the players hand total is valued at 5 or less, than the player will always be dealt another card by the dealer, for example if the player was dealt a 10 and a 5 the 10 value would be dropped and a 5 would remain meaning another card would be dealt to the player to finalize the score
  2. If the player hand does not require a third card (is above 5), than the banker position will have to stand on a hand of 6 or more and must take a third card if their hand total is below 5 similar to the player
  3. If on the deal to the player position the player must take a third card (meaning a total of 5 or under) than the dealer will take a third card as outlined below

 

Dealer Drawing Rules For Third Card

  1. If the banker has a total of 2 or less than the banker position must draw a card
  2. If the banker total is 3 than they must take a third card unless the third card which was dealt to the player hand was an 8
  3. If the banker bet total is 4 than they must take a third card unless the third card taken by the player was a 0, 1, 8 or 9
  4. If banker total is 5 they must draw unless player third card was 4,5,6 or 7
  5. If banker’s total is 6 they must draw unless the player card was 6 or a 7
  6. If the banker’s hand total is 7 off the draw then they must stand

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