Baccarat is the game of the aristocrats. Rules and strategies

Most card games involve gambling. The exception is solitaire. Some games are simple; others are so intricate that it can take years to figure out the intricacies. Baccarat is somewhere in the middle. And it’s a game so popular that it’s present in both regular, traditional casinos, as well as in the virtual space of online gambling. Therefore, it makes sense to understand how to play it.

A bit of history

Baccarat is one of the oldest card games. Legend has it that it was invented by an Italian named Felix Falguere. During the Dark Middle Ages, baccarat was played with tarot cards. In 1490, it came to France and for a long time was the game of high society. Plebeians never even heard of it.

Still today, though, it is a card game reserved mainly for the elite, as the stakes are often very high. They now commonly appear as “mini baccarat” or “punto banco”. The players battle it out against the casino represented by the croupier.

Rules and proceedings

The aim of each player in a game is to accumulate nine points (or as close to nine as possible), with two or three cards being dealt. The value of each card is variable. For example, cards two through nine are valued at their face value. An ace will bring you just one point, and tens and pictures are worth nothing at all.

If you pick up a card with a sum of points equal to or greater than 10, the tens will be subtracted from the sum. That means if you get a 3 and a 7, you don’t really get any points: 3 + 7 – 10 = 0.

You can bet on three variations of events.

• Punto is a bet on a player. You may win as much as you bet.
• Banco is a bet on the dealer. Proportions are also 1:1, but 5 per cent commission will be deducted from the winnings.
• A draw is the most profitable, but also the riskiest bet. If you’re lucky, you’ll make a handsome sum of money, sometimes 8 or 9 times what you bet.

Before the cards are dealt, the player bets a certain amount of money. Each table has its own limits – you can’t bet less than the lower limit, but you won’t be allowed to exceed it either. Only then will the dealer dealt two cards to the gambler and himself. If a player scores 8-9 points, the dealer’s hand is compared to the dealer’s hand. If the participant got a card with a sum of points less than 6, he throws a third.

Then it is the dealer’s turn. He will buy a card in accordance with the dealer’s deal. The dealer’s behaviour is governed by a number of rules and should be read before sitting down at the card table.

At the end of the game, the dealer’s ‘hands’ are compared against the player’s, the winner (i.e. the player with the most points) is determined, and the bets are settled. You’re ready to start a new round!

A little Strategy

In all games of chance, gamblers have at all times tried to figure out, or invent, “no-win strategies”. In baccarat and in poker, gamblers use the same techniques. Popular strategies are Donald-Nathanson, Whitaker, the martingale method and a number of other variations.

However, practice shows that none of the strategies one hundred percent guarantee a win. The only way to win more often than lose – all the time to bet on the dealer. But the big score with this rip just do not get – not for nothing casinos put the upper limit on the amount set. A draw, which could present a tidbit, falls very, very rarely.

Baccarat games

The most popular is the American version of the game, but there are alternatives: with more decks (there can be up to 8), with more participants – up to 14 people, with different versions of the deal and buyout rules. All of these details must be researched, otherwise success in the game of aristocrats is harder to achieve.