How to win Baccarat

Basic baccarat strategy

How to win baccarat? There are many basic baccarat strategy moves one can play to make the chances of winning higher. Also, there are misleading strategies best to avoid.
Among gamblers, a good baccarat strategy is usually considered a legend. The reason for this is that any strategy that promotes itself as a system is most likely full of false, deceptive, and useless information.
How to avoid useless strategies and casino traps
The scorecard
A major aspect of the baccarat games played at the local casino is the scorecard. It looks like everyone at the table is keeping track of the outcome on each hand, and that's exactly what they're doing. These players are trying to find patterns and then change their own betting patterns in order to take advantage of a streak. Since the casinos know it has no bearing on the outcome of the game they encourage this behavior. Chasing patterns in baccarat is as pointless as it is in roulette. Each hand is completely different from the next, and is never influenced by the preceding hands. This is a simple trap that gamblers all around the world fall into at one time or another. If you were betting on the flip of a coin, and it landed heads up 9 times in a row, part of your brain will without doubt yell out to you that it's likely that the 10th flip will land tails up. This reasoning is spurious; the chance of the coin landing tails up on the 10th flip is still exactly 50%, just as it was the first nine times. Any baccarat strategy that makes you change your bets based on previous hands is useless and should be completely ignored.
So, although you will see almost everyone around you at the baccarat table marking down numbers on casino provided cards, you should look at it only as personal entertainment. Don't be fooled into participating, its just another way for the casino to take your mind off the important parts of the game. Think about it, would Las Vegas casinos offer baccarat players a pencil and a chart if these could really help them win?
Card counting
The card counting is another false alley in published baccarat strategy. Card counting is usually associated with the game of blackjack, as it can be quite an effective strategy when utilized properly in the right casino. It would also appear at first, to be an authentically good strategy in baccarat, as it works off of a similar shoe. In baccarat specifically the problems with card counting derive from some basic differences in the game. Unlike blackjack baccarat does not offer opportunities to adjust your bet in mid-hand play. Blackjack offers this ability in a number of specific situations, and so you can increase your bet if your count changes during the session. The problem is of course the issue of used cards being fed back into the shoe before very many have been removed (thus making useless any count you had made to that point). Using card counting in baccarat offers hardly any situations with an advantage against the house and so the efforts become worthless.
The martingale system
Baccarat can be looked upon as a coin toss played with a lot of elegance and with quite an amount of pomposity. Many people let this oversimplified impression of the game tempt them towards using a martingale-based system.
These styles of systems have you double your bet each time you lose a hand, basing its logic on the fact that sooner or later your choice will win, and if you had doubled your bet each hand that win will regain all losses from preceding hands. This system is perfect and cannot be beaten in games like baccarat or roulette. But here comes the catch. Because this is true the casinos have issued new rules, which limit how much one can bet in one hand. Table maximums and minimums as they are referred to, put a complete end to the martingale system. For instance, you bet 5 dollars on banker and lost, next bet you put 10 bucks down on banker, next bet 20, and so on, and you keep loosing, it won't be very long before you double your bet right up to or over the table maximum. In this case of course you can't bet any higher, and your system has failed. If we only accomplish one thing with this web site, we hope it is convincing everyone that martingale systems have become absolutely horrific techniques designed to prey on the natural thought patterns of the human brain.
So if streak or pattern spotting, card counting, and systems are all ineffective strategies for baccarat, what's a good one? Looking at the numbers it becomes clear that the odds are always a little better when you bet on the banker. Does this mean you should always bet on banker? In a technical sense we suppose it does, but practically it would be the most boring use of your time ever if you just sat there betting on banker all night. However, there is the advanced baccarat strategy that can bring your odds up by far and help you win baccarat games.


Advanced Baccarat Strategy
Baccarat is a game of pure luck. The game is played using a fixed set of rules for the player and the dealer, and these rules represent the best odds of winning for both the player and for the house. Calculations have been made that show the odds of the player winning are 44.62%, losing 45.85%, and 9.53% to tie. Therefore it would seem to be to your advantage to bet on the house winning on every hand. To even out the odds the house charges a commission (usually 5%) on winning player bets placed on the house. How should this change the way you are going to bet?
Taking the commission into consideration it turns out that you are still a little better off by betting that the house will win. This theory is true when the commission is the usual 5%, however, if the commission changes then you have to change strategy. If the commission is less than 5% then it is always to your advantage to bet with the house, while if the commission is more than 5% it pays to bet on the player winning.
Removing the tie hands in the event there is no payoff, the probability of the player winning are 49.32% and for losing 50.68%. For various commissions we can calculate the following average payoffs then, assuming 100 wagers of $1 were made.
Baccarat sometimes allows for a bet to be made for a tie, and sometimes doesn't (mini baccarat typically played online usually does). Although the odds of 8 to 1 may sound tempting, it is known as one of the worst wagers in the casino, so don't bother making this bet part of your baccarat strategy.

How To Play Baccarat

Baccarat Overview

The player's aim is to get a hand that is closer to 9 in value than the banker's. The game is played modulo 10, that is if the total of the hand is larger than 10, then 10 is subtracted from the total. (Thus the value of a hand is always between 0 through 9)
For instance, if the player's cards total 15, 10 is subtracted and the value of the hand becomes 5. An ace counts as 1, two counts as 2, etc, up through nine counts as 9, but tens (also jacks, queens and kings) count as 0.
Playing the game

To start to play baccarat both player and banker are dealt two cards face down and the next move depends on the cards in the hands.
If the player or banker has a card total of 8 or 9, he turns the cards over immediately. The other must do so also. (In web based baccarat cards are always face up) A 9 value wins over any lesser total, and if neither player has a 9 then 8 wins over any lesser total. Tied 9s or tied 8s are a stand off; no money changes hands. (Unless the other players around the table can bet ties)
If neither player nor banker has a natural (a total of 8 or 9) then play goes to the player. The player stands (does not draw) on a total of 6 or 7, but if the player has a total of 5 or less he must draw one card (face up).
Now it is the bankers' turn. With a total of 7, he stands. With a total of 6 or less, his selection depends on the value of his two card total and the value of the card that the player drew. The rules are as follows:
Baccarat rulesThe next tables sum up the rules for the player and the dealer:

Player Rules
Card Action 10, J, Q, K Draw card 1 Draw card 2 Draw card 3 Draw card 4 Draw card 5 Draw card 6 Stand 7 Stand 8 Turn Cards Over 9 Turn Cards Over

Dealer Rules
Card Draws When Giving Does Not Draw When Giving 10, J, Q, K Draw card Draw card 1 Draw card Draw card 2 Draw card Draw card 3 0 (10, J, Q, K) - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 9 8 4 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 0 (10, J, Q, K)-1-8-9 5 4-5-6-7 0 (10, J, Q, K)-1-2-3-8-9 6 6-7 0 (10, J, Q, K)-1-2-3-4-5-8-9 7 Stand Stand 8 Turn Cards Over Turn Cards Over

Baccarat betting

Baccarat has quite reasonable odds for the player. On player bets the house has a small edge, to balance this the house takes a commission (usually 5 percent) on winning bank bets. Bets are made before any cards have been dealt. The banker plays against only one player at a time, but any or all the other players can bet on the hand.
Up to 12 or 14 players can sit around the baccarat kidney shaped table depending on its size. Three dealers, called croupiers, run the game; one handles the cards, while the other two handle the wagers and the commission that is paid on winning bank bets. Although where the players sit is not important, bets must be made in a marked area on the table that corresponds to the players seat. Players can bet three different ways: on the bank, on the player's hand, or for a tie. It is very common to see players switch from betting on the bank to betting on the player's hand and vice versa. Betting for a tie while having a larger payoff is not usually smart; it is considered one of the worst wagers in the casino. A bet is made by placing money on the table in your marked area on the wagered spot. For example if you are player number 5 and wish to bet on the bank you place the desired wager amount on the table layout place for player number 5 marked bank.
Winning player and bank bets pay even money (excluding commissions). Hands that result in a tie pay off tie wagers at 8 to 1 and a bank or player bet is treated as a push with the money sitting on the table for the next hand.

Baccarat History

Baccarat history can be traced back to the middle ages. It has been said the game was first played with Tarot cards. It was not long before baccarat made its way from its home country, Italy, to France. There it found a new (and welcoming) home among the upper class aristocracy. Further evolution of the game shows it split to European baccarat, and a French game that goes by the name 'chemin de fer'.
'Chemin de fer' is very similar to baccarat as it's played in American casinos today. The difference is that one of the players banks the game instead of the casino. The title of banker rotates around the table in a manner similar to the dice at a craps table. The casino of course is taking no risk here; they simply charge a fee from each banker.
The Baccarat we know today originated in Great Britain and was then passed along to South America and finally to Nevada. The infamous Dunes casino introduced baccarat in the late 50's, and since then it has made its final voyage onto the World of web based gambling.
Baccarat's popularity among the Asian population who visit Las Vegas each year is clear evidence that baccarat history can be found overseas too. The chief high rollers often come from abroad to try their hand under the chandeliers of the elegant Vegas baccarat rooms. In casinos based in the Portuguese territory of Macao, near Hong Kong, the popularity of baccarat is matchless. Unlike the heavily ordered and systematic American casinos, these Portuguese tables often allow multiple players to bet on a single spot at the same time, while the expert dealers mentally keep track of each players commission on winning bank bets.