Baccarat is one of the world’s most popular casino games. It’s a game of elegance and mystery, the kind that makes you think of Sean Connery in the opening scene of James Bond. Yet it’s also the least intimidating game in the house, especially at higher limits, and offers a much lower house edge than blackjack. In fact, if you play smart, baccarat can be a very profitable game.
Baccarat begins with six fresh decks of cards that are cracked open, washed and grouped together to form the shoe. A scoreboard is then used to keep track of each hand, with the number and type of bets being noted. The board also serves as a promotional tool, drawing customers into the baccarat area by giving them a chance to check out different tables and patterns in the game.
There are from seven to 14 seats for players around a baccarat table and a dealer’s area. Players do not get their own cards; instead, the croupier deals two hands of cards to each player and the banker, adding up the values of the cards (picture cards count as zero points, cards numbered from 2-9 are worth their face value and the ace is worth one point). When the total goes over nine, the first digit is dropped. The side with the higher total wins. Bettors can choose to back the player, banker or a tie. Winning banker bets pay 19:20 (or even money less a 5 percent commission) while winning player bets pay 1:1, and ties pay 8:1.
The basic rules of baccarat are simple. Players can bet on either the player or the banker and can win by being closer to nine than the opposing hand. There are a few nuances of the game, including a rule that a 9 beats any other hand, but even those complexities do not add up to much more than a coinflip.
A common betting strategy is the Martingale system, in which bets are doubled after each loss until a win is made. This can work if the player has a large enough bankroll to cover all previous losses and is disciplined enough to stick with the strategy.
Keeping score is a critical component of the game and, in some cases, can be a very effective way to reduce the house edge. Some experienced baccarat players have claimed that keeping track of the scores allows them to divine trends and patterns. Sadly, this philosophy is nothing more than superstition. Statistically speaking, the odds are still ever so slightly in favor of the banker, and nothing — not trends, not patterns, not even the color of the dealer’s underwear — can change that.