European Baccarat is a card game in which the player attempts to beat the banker with two or three cards in their hand. The game begins with bets being placed and then each participant will receive two cards initially. The hands will then be compared and the one with the higher score wins if it happens to be a “natural” 8 or 9.

Scoring Rules

To clarify, the rules of European baccarat dictate that numbers 2 to 9 will be scored based on the value that is shown. For example, a 2 is worth 2 and 9 is worth 9. However, a 10 is scored as zero because the left-most digit is never counted when the score is double digits.

As for the remaining cards, face cards are worth zero and aces are valued as 1. For example, let’s say that a player has A and 8 – this would be scored as a natural 9. If the hand comprises K and 8, this would be a natural 8.

Bets and Payouts

In European baccarat, the hand ends if either participant has 8 or 9. To confirm, 9 would be the winning score if the hands were 8 and 9. If a draw is the outcome, then the bet is pushed. When betting on the draw, odds of 8/1 can be received for a payout.

When 6 or 7 is drawn, that participant doesn’t draw another card. However, another card will be drawn by the dealer if they have 5 or fewer as their score. For the player, they must draw a card with 4 or fewer though will have the option to stand on 5.

When playing European baccarat, the house edge for betting on the banker is 1.06%, though the even-money payout will be taxed with a 5% commission. As for betting on the player, this even-money bet will have a 1.24% house edge.