Baccarat is one of the easiest casino games to play, but despite this fact the game is often played by players with a lot of betting experience and heavy wallets. In most land based casinos you’d be hard pressed to find a game of baccarat with a minimum bet less then $20. With online casinos though, you’ll be able to play baccarat now with a lot smaller stakes.
You can play baccarat using six decks of cards or eight decks of cards and it should be noted that face cards have absolutely no value in this game. Cards 1 through 9 are worth face value and then aces are worth 1 in baccarat. In order to begin a hand of baccarat you need to decide whether you would like to bet on the player hand or the banker hand. In baccarat the banker hand has a slightly better chance of winning, but it should be noted that you’ll pay a 5% commission when you bet on the banker. When you bet on the player hand you don’t need to pay any commission on your winnings.
Once each player has made their bet the dealer will begin dealing out the two cards to each player. The objective is to bet on the hand that you think will have the highest value. If the hand is valued at 10 or higher then you need to take away the first digit (left side). An example would be if the hand value was 14 you would take away the 1 and the actual hand value would be 4.
There is a chance that each hand can receive a third card and there are a set of rules in place to determine whether a third card is given. In order for the player hand to receive a third card they need to have a hand value of 5 or less. If the player isn’t allowed to take a third card then the banker hand will always need to stand on a hand value of 6 or better. If the banker hand has a hand value of 5 or less then they can take a third card. If the player takes a third card then there are a new set of rules to determine whether the banker hand is allowed a third card as well. The banker hand needs to stand on 7 or higher, but if it’s lower they will receive a potential third card which is dependant upon what the player’s third card was.
Typically when you bet on the banker hand you should prepay your commission so that you don’t need to pay it at the end of your session or every hour. It will be a lot easier to keep track of your chip stack this way and you won’t have any unexpected surprises. The game is really simple to play, but unless you’re going to play online you probably will need to have a big bankroll to play since most land casinos have large minimums on this game.
