Baccarat is a popular casino table game that’s easy to learn and fun to play. It’s a classic James Bond-style gambling game that has one of the lowest house edges in the casino.
The rules of baccarat are straightforward and the dealer pretty much does all the work. The Player and Banker have two betting options: a win, which pays out 1 to 1, or a tie, which pays 8 to 1.
A third option, the ’Bellagio Match’ bet on the banker having three of a kind in their hand, is also available at some casinos. This side bet is a good place to start for newcomers to baccarat because it’s low-risk, with a house edge of just 5.27% on the Player hand.
High rollers are attracted to baccarat for many reasons. According to Bill Zender, a former gaming control agent and current consultant, high rollers from Asian countries have a strong preference for the game because of its cultural similarities with their own cultures.
Another reason that baccarat is so attractive to high rollers is its simple rules. The game is played with eight decks of cards and each card has a numerical value, just like a standard deck of playing cards. The only difference is that 2s through 9s have a value of zero in baccarat, while picture cards and tens have a numerical value equal to their face value. In addition, if the count of the player’s or banker’s hand exceeds 9, they have to drop the first digit in order to calculate their total value.
