Baccarat is a casino game that’s often tucked away in high-limit gaming areas, but it’s an easy game to learn if you stick with it. All you need to do is choose whether to bet on the player hand, banker hand, or a tie. The goal is to have the hand you bet on (or the one the dealer deals) get closer to nine than the other. The number of points is determined by adding up the pips on each card – the dots that represent clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades – with the first digit being dropped in the case of a hand that’s higher than nine. So, a seven and six would add up to 15, but that number is dropped to three when playing Baccarat because the rules say that hands should be closest to nine.
The game is played on a table about the size of a craps table with three dealers and up to 12 players. Unlike other casino games, there’s no joker in Baccarat, and all cards are worth their numerical value. Picture cards like Queens (Q), Jacks (J), and Kings (K) are worth zero, while tens are worth ten points and aces are worth one.
The Player and Banker bets pay out 1:1, but the game’s house edge depends on how many decks are used. When using eight decks the banker bet has a lower house edge at 1.06%, but players must pay the casino 5% commission on wins.