Baccarat is a fun casino game that involves betting on the outcome of hands. It is played with three to six standard 52-card decks, and the croupier deals the cards from a shoe. When it comes time to bet, players place wagers on either the Bank or the Player hand, or on a tie bet.
The winning hand in baccarat is the one that is closest to nine without going over. Aces, kings, and tens have no value, but all the other cards count at their face value. A pair of eights and a face card don’t add up to nine, so they don’t count. However, a pair of threes and a four equals nine.
Winning player hand bets qualify for 1 to one payout. Winning bank hand bets, on the other hand, require 5% commission. This reduces the payout odds to 19-20, but a tie bet results in a payout of eight-to-one. In the case of a tie bet, a player who is willing to risk the most money is named the second banker. If a player’s hand comes closest to nine, he wins twice his stake.
Baccarat is a game that can be played anywhere from a sticky California card room to the tuxedo-clad casinos of Monaco. In fact, a scene in the first James Bond movie shows Sean Connery playing the game elegantly.
