Baccarat is among the best table games you will find at licensed and reliable online casinos. It is a card game which utilizes anywhere between 6 to 8 decks of cards. The house or dealer will deal out two hands of cards – the player and the banker hand. Before each hand is dealt, players place their wagers on either the banker or the player hand, or on tie.

Both the banker and the player hand pays even money but bank bets require a 5% commission, which in turn makes the net odds on this wager closer to 0.95:1 instead of 1:1. The commission may vary from casino to casino.

Tie bets can vary with their odds, with some online casinos offering 8:1, while other offer 9:1 odds. In case of a tie, all bets on the player or banker are returned. Once players have made a wager, both the player and banker hand are dealt according to the odds, with the final hand counting either 2 or 3 cards each.

The value of each hand is determined by the values of each individual card. 10s and face value cards count as zero, while the rest are valued on account of the pips on the cards. Baccarat uses only the last digit on the card, ranging from 0 to 9. The hand with the higher value wins, but if both hands have the same value, the hand is a tie.

Hand Rules

There are different rules for each hand, the banker and the player:

• Player Hand: If the first 2 cards amount to 6 or more, players must stand and not draw more cards. If the first two cards amount to 5 or less, players must draw one more card.
• Banker Hand: If the first two cards amount to 7 or more, the banker will stand. If the total of the first two cards is zero, 1 or 2, the banker will draw another card. If the total is 3, 4, 5 or 6, whether the banker draws is determined by whether the player drew and on account of the player’s draw card value.