The basic premise behind Baccarat is to beat the banker by correctly guessing which hand will be closest to 9 points. There are three possible outcomes you can bet on:
- Banker wins.
- Player wins.
- A Tie.
You must place your bet before the cards are dealt during the betting round. Your table's dealer will let you know when the betting round is open, and there will be on-screen prompts as well. When the betting round has finished, two cards will be dealt to the player box and two cards to the banker's box
Card Values
You can calculate points by adding the card values together. Tens and Royal cards are worth zero points. All other cards are worth their face value, for example, a 4 card is worth 4 points, an 8 card is worth 8 points. But if the points exceed 10, then only the second digit of the hand is counted. Here are some examples:
- 2 + 5 = 7 points in total. The hand value is 7.
- 4 + 8 = 12 points in total. The hand value is 2.
To win, you must correctly bet on which hand will be closest to 9, the player's hand or the banker's hand.
3rd Card Rules
There are house rules that will determine when a third card will be drawn, and there's a max limit of three cards per hand.
The player hand must draw a card if the first two cards total 0 – 5, and will stand on points totalling 6 to 9.
A 'natural win' can occur if the first two cards dealt are equal to 8 or 9. If this happens the game is over, and you'll be awarded your winning bets, no third card will be drawn.
The third card rule for the banker is different because it depends if the player stood or took a card, but you don't need to memorise it because the dealer will deal with all the necessary cards.
- Banker will draw a card if the first two cards total 0, 1 or 2.
- Banker will stand if a 'natural win' is dealt.
- Banker will stand if the initial hand value is 7 points.
- Banker will stand if the hand value is 6 points and the player did not draw a hand.
- If the banker's initial hand total is 3, 4, 5 or 6 points AND the player drew a third card, then the banker will act according to the below table:
Bank Hand Initial Total | Banker draws a card when player's third card is | Banker stands when player's third card is |
3 | 0-7 and 9 | 8 |
4 | 2 to 7 | 0, 1 and 8, 9 |
5 | 4 to 7 | 0 to 3 and 8, 0 |
6 | 6 and 7 | 0 to 5 and 8, 9 |