Last updated: December 29, 2022
Welcome to the Casino Today player guide, teaching you how to win at baccarat, here we cover everything you need to start playing games of baccarat smarter. The information we include here will help you understand how to improve your winning chances when playing at casinos or playing online baccarat. This complete player guide has been expertly curated to help players get the most out of this adrenaline-filled gambling game while also sharing a vast knowledge of the game’s more intricate details.
As always, our team at Casino Today has players covered with another helpful gambling resource for learning how to win at baccarat. If you are a seasoned player wanting to fine-tune your gameplay or a beginner just starting, be sure to read through this guide before playing your next round.
Baccarat has long been considered a high stakes game for the rich and glamorous, however, while the modern game has long been misconstrued as only for the VIP – the origins feature a humbling beginning.
The exact origins of baccarat as a game are not fully understood, although the first written historical records are from the 19th century. Many believe that early adaptations of the game were around in Ancient China, with links to ancient tile games similar to pai gow.
Pai gow also means ‘make nine’, which would translate well with baccarat given the premise of the game is that nine is the top score.
As we look ahead from Ancient Chinese times, aspects of playing baccarat can be found throughout Italy, France, England, and eventually the United States of America.
When we think about where it all started for the game of baccarat, it is often mistaken that baccarat originated from France. However, this is not the case. The game traces back well over 500 years to medieval Italy, where a man – Felix Falguiere was the first to dub the game ‘baccara’, which is Italian for ‘zero’.
It is believed the name was given as the face cards and tens are worth zero points.
As we said, players often mistook the game for being French because down the track, the French spelling of ‘baccarat’ was adopted worldwide as the norm.
The game of baccarat was played much differently during these times, with cards being dealt with from four different dealers. Plus, players could make bets against the dealer, as well as the other players. Back then, players all got a turn of being the banker too, whereas, in the modern game, only the casino staff are the banker – wagers can only be made against the house.
If you thought the old way of playing was weird, wait till you hear the folklore legend of how the game may have been invented.
Italians have widely believed that the early game of baccara was derived from an Etruscan legend, one which determined the fate of virgins via the roll of a dice with nine numbered sides.
It was the ultimate test of fate, roll well (which was an eight or nine) and live the life of a priestess, roll an average result (being a six or seven), and continue to live while being banished from religious and community events.
However, in true all-or-nothing gambling fashion, if the virgin were to roll poorly (which is a five or lower), then she would be banished to a watery drowning at sea.
Losing a $100 bill is one thing, but being sent out to drown at sea is seemingly not worth the gamble! We guess times really were different back then…
In the following century, baccarat began to be introduced into France following the soldiers’ return from the conflicts with Italy in the 1490s. As it was introduced, it is believed that the noble folk took a liking to the game – even continued to play in underground gambling houses after casinos were illegalized later in the late 1830s!
The game that was being played in France was a little different from the standard game and was called Chemin de Fer – which is loosely translated to ‘railway’.
Once things began to kick off in France, the game made the skip across the channel. Here the Englishmen created their own variation of the popular baccarat – punto banco, which is the closest to what is most commonly played today.
The first record of this casino favorite being enjoyed at a gambling house in the states can be traced back over a hundred years to 1911. Although, certain articles in the New York Times refer to players flocking to a clubhouse to play roulette and the ‘baccarat-board’ in 1871.
While it is clear the game made it across the Atlantic ocean, how did the game travel such a distance from Europe?
Well, baccarat did as it has often done before, through the memories and minds of travelers and soldiers. Many of the American servicemen returning from the first world war were the true messengers. Even though they were more accustomed to playing craps and blackjack, they still had memories of enjoying playing baccarat.
After the second world war, the game began to spread further throughout the Americas. This time, the game’s reach was more profound, given that gambling had been legalized in 1931, even though baccarat was not explicitly included in the bill.
It wasn’t until the late 1950s that baccarat became an actual casino game, courtesy of Tommy Renzoni, who introduced punto banco to Las Vegas casinos.
The Las Vegas Sands was the first casino to establish a punto banco game table, making history on 20 November 1959. The start didn’t go too well, with the casino allegedly losing $250,000.
The Sands Casino continued with punto banco, though, and made a profit eventually. Although the game was soon available at 15 different tables in Vegas, baccarat was often considered a game played only by the high rollers.
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It has long been a misconception that baccarat is only for those with an endless bankroll. A casino game that only suits the most glamorous players – this is far from the truth, though!
There are many advantages to playing baccarat casino games, and learning how to play baccarat isn’t too difficult either. In this chapter, we will explore some of the advantages of playing, hoping to pique your interest even further!
As mentioned before in this chapter, players are commonly mistaken for thinking that playing baccarat requires you to have a considerable sum of cash to get started. It has often been said that because of this, many players are intimidated by playing baccarat, and the thought of playing with high rollers.
Let us remind you that this is not the case! You can play baccarat with a small bankroll if you’re lucky, you might find that you double your money quickly! It all comes with a risk, though, because at the same time, you might lose it fast.
The beauty of playing baccarat casino games is that there are both high stakes and low-stakes games. It won’t matter how big or small you want to bet, with many different game varieties to choose from, and there will always be a form of baccarat to play.
If you haven’t played at an online casino yet, then you are missing out. These websites are surging in popularity, and it is easy to see why. With online casinos like the ones we rank here, players can enjoy playing the beloved game of baccarat whenever and wherever they like, thanks to these sites being compatible with mobile devices.
Playing baccarat at online casinos is the same fast and simple game that you’d play at a casino. The added advantage is that players can also play free baccarat games with online gambling sites, which is a great way to practice learning how to play.
From a genuinely grass-roots level, learning how to play baccarat and win at casinos is fundamentally a simple game. You won’t need to be a genius to play, and having a better chance at winning isn’t too hard either.
The rules are simple, and the game is based on luck, which is why high rollers love to play baccarat. All you need to do is add numbers, and when you play, you will either win or lose; it’s that simple.
This means that not only do you get to enjoy a game with such easy rules, but you also have a nifty way of being entertained with that adrenaline-boosting feeling that gambling games are great for.
With baccarat, you get great odds without any mastering of the strategy being required. Better yet, those great odds are typically the same everywhere you go. Meaning there is no need to spend a substantial portion of your day/night looking for a table with good penetration and favorable circumstances, which is the case when playing blackjack games for better profit.
It is understandable that when you learn how to play a new casino game, you may be nervous or anxious about starting. Typically it is the fancy game tables that cause many of these issues, and it’s a good enough reason to be worried.
Casino tables are daunting if you’ve never seen a particular game table before. There are so many different pieces of information on the felt and specific rules and etiquette that should be followed.
Here we look to squash any of those gut-wrenching feelings that you may be having by giving you the lowdown on the baccarat table and what it looks like.
After reading this section, we hope you are invigorated with a new sense of excitement and confidence in learning how to play baccarat.
The layout of the game table keeps to a common trend – simple. Overall, baccarat is considered to have a basic table layout. However, we do appreciate that you might still be uneasy about it at first.
Typically there are three game types to play – traditional full-size baccarat games, mini-baccarat, and midi-baccarat. Surprise, the game types have tables that match them too.
In saying that, although there are three types of baccarat games available, you will often only find full-size games at the casino. This is for good reasons, as the full-size table means more players can sit.
Unfortunately, this is a significant contributor to the issues players face when learning how to play baccarat games. There can often be eight players seated at a table! Talk about an intimidating situation when they all know what they’re doing, and you don’t.
Moving forward, you won’t have to worry about this potential issue happening as we are about to smooth it all over for you!
The betting layout or grid on a baccarat casino table is basic, but note tables will differ depending on the casino you visit. Many casinos like to put their own spin on table design, but for the vast majority, the tables resemble a layout similar to the one we are about to describe.
So, on a typical baccarat table, the first thing you will notice is that the table is portioned out to player seats. This makes understanding how to play a lot better overall because it keeps everything that a player needs to be confined to their portion of the table.
Playing baccarat is already simple to do, while we will get into this later in this guide – there are three bets that players can make:
It’s as easy as that, but how does it translate to the table layout? Like we said before, it’s all together and in front of each player’s seat.
So, in your section of the table, you will find a box or part to place the player bet and typically marked with ‘player’. The banker bet will be in the next box or section and is marked with the word ‘banker’. The final box or section is for the uncommon tie bet, represented by the word ‘tie’.
Realistically, that is all you need to know about the baccarat table layout. The dealer will sit across from the players, and when it comes to the dealing of cards – the dealer will deal cards to the empty section in front of the player’s section of the table.
Whether you have played your fair share of online casino games, or you are a newcomer. Playing online baccarat is all about offering a player-friendly experience. We are big fans of online casino gambling (it’s just better in every aspect!).
The great thing about playing online is that the games mimic the casino environment, plus being able to play on your mobile phone is fantastic.
When you load up a baccarat game, the point of view you get is primarily a bird’s eye view of the table. You will traditionally see everything you usually would on a casino table; however, sometimes the table is modified to only show one player’s section.
It’s incredible to see as you will feel like you are sitting across from the dealer.
Depending on the game developer that created the game you are playing – your chips to bet with will either be part of the table and integrated into the user interface (your control buttons mainly). Otherwise, they will be solely a component of the interface display.
There isn’t much of a downside to either design standpoint; however, the integrated style feels more authentic. As long as the controls aren’t finicky or tacky, we aren’t bothered much.
In chapter four of our how to play baccarat guide, we dive into the basics of what you need to do actually to get started playing. You must get a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of baccarat, and this resource will help you get a grip on how to play while touching on some of the more advanced concepts.
You’ve heard it so many times before in this game guide, but the game’s object is so simple that you might think that playing would be boring. Baccarat is far from it, though!
In baccarat casino games, players are tasked with playing one-on-one against the dealer, and the objective is to have a hand that values a total of nine points or only closer to nine than the hand of the dealer.
A hand can sit on two cards, however, depending upon specific drawing rules, the player may draw a third card.
Baccarat revolves around cards being dealt to players with their card values determining whether a hand wins or loses. It might appear to be daunting at first, as many players often associate the rules of blackjack and baccarat together because of the game’s similar features.
Don’t take this the wrong way and think that the same premise applies to baccarat; the games are still very unique to each other.
Back to the topic of card values, while various games may include a varying number of decks – the most common is a shoe that consists of eight decks. This slightly impacts the odds, but won’t necessarily change the gameplay (this is where baccarat differentiates itself from blackjack).
During gameplay, there are three possible points of value options:
It won’t matter what the suit or color of your card is, when you are dealt a card with a face value of between two and nine – your card is worth that value in points.
The number ten-card, as well as all of the face cards, are worth zero points in baccarat; therefore, this means any ten, jack, queen, or king are worth nothing.
If you are dealt an ace, your card is worth a lowly one point.
This is a question we hear way too many times, and baccarat is unique compared to other casino card games because if you go over a hand value of nine with your first two cards, you do not initially lose.
Instead, you remove the first digit from your hand value (i.e., remove ten points from your value) and go from there. An example of this would be if you were dealt a six and a seven, your hand value would be 13. This means that following the baccarat gameplay rules for card values, 13 would become a value of 3.
This ‘adjusted’ hand value means that a further rule will kick into effect, which you can read all about further along in this chapter of our guide.
The rules of baccarat games are basic, so if you are a beginner, they’re straightforward. As you would remember from our object of the game section, the aim for players is to get a hand with a value closer than the dealer, to a nine.
Using our card value knowledge from the previous section would mean that the best possible hand would be a ten plus a nine – which is called a natural. The second best hand would be a ten plus an eight, which is not referred to as a natural but still automatically wins the head.
The opposite end of this would be what’s called a ‘baccarat’, which is a hand worth zero points (so any two face cards or a ten).
Given the game plays smoothly, there aren’t many rules that you need to follow. Before we run through playing a round of baccarat, let us first outline the foundations of the game.
In many of the typical baccarat games, there are three choices that players can make for their bet:
This is all you need to do because the gameplay operates automatically under the direction of set rules. This is why high rollers love the game of baccarat so much, everything is predetermined, and players won’t have to decide whether to hit or stand. Plus, the odds are great!
The game of baccarat is fast, and here you can find what to expect in a typical round:
The third card rule is not as stressful as it sounds. We mentioned this rule in our play-by-play previously. However, in this section of our how to play baccarat guide, we’ll break it down for you again and share our handy baccarat strategy chart to understand when the third card rule comes into play for the dealer.
As a player, you will draw a third card if your hand totals a value of between zero and five. The banker will draw a third card if the player stands on a six or seven, and the banker’s hand totals between zero and five.
In the event you do draw a third card, the banker will also draw a third card in any of the situations outlined below in our chart. The ‘D’ represents when the banker will draw a card, and the ‘S’ shows when the banker will stand.
| Banker Score | Player’s Third Card | |||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| 0 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| 1 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| 2 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| 3 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | S | D |
| 4 | S | S | D | D | D | D | D | D | S | S |
| 5 | S | S | S | S | D | D | D | D | S | S |
| 6 | S | S | S | S | S | S | D | D | S | S |
| 7 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S |
Here we are, the final chapter of the Casino Today how to play baccarat guide. In this chapter, we are specifically looking at the different types of baccarat games available to play, both at casinos and through the popular online casinos.
Now, before we dive into the different games, we feel that we should make known that if you are playing at a local casino, then the games below are what you will traditionally find. However, if you are playing online, you will find a ton of different variations, each with their spin on how the game works or how it looks.
Our first baccarat variant is also the most commonly found version of baccarat, and it is called punto banco. If you are playing at the casinos throughout Australia, the USA, the UK, and Macau, among others, this will more or less be the go-to game of choice.
In terms of what you will hear out and about, punto banco is primarily referred to as just baccarat.
Now, this specific game is different from the other variants that we’ll talk about. In punto banco, the dealer is the only one that plays as the banker. Players will instead go one-on-one with the banker.
This variant of baccarat is basic and has the banker following set rules to determine the results of drawing any further cards.
The consensus amongst our team of experts is that punto banco is our favorite game of choice.
Next up, we have chemin de fer, which, as you might have guessed – is a French variant of baccarat. This version of the game has quite the history attached to it, being one of the first variants played.
Chemin de fer is translated to ‘railway’ or ‘railroad’, which supports the understanding that the game was played by workers who were building the first railway tracks in France in the 1830s.
This variation of baccarat is quite different from punto banco and others. The most noticeable aspect is that players go up against one another instead of playing against the banker.
In chemin de fer, players will take their respective turns being the banker and deal cards for the other players. The players then decide what their max bet against each player is. The player who bet the most is suddenly up against the dealer’s head to head and represents the other players.
The gameplay is from there, much the same as other games. However, the standout rule here is that the game does not require players to hit or stand on specific numbers.
If the player up against the dealer wins, then every player wins back their wager, plus an equal amount from the banker.
However, if the player loses to the banker, then all bets placed by the players are lost to the banker. A tie would push the stakes to the next hand.
Another variation of baccarat that is commonly played among the French is baccarat banque. In this game, you will find that the dealer (the banker) does not change after the players defeat the banker.
The banker will only change after the entire shoe has been dealt out. The typical shoe in baccarat banque will consist of three decks, and the game determines the next banker by way of an auction.
This auction is handled simply by whichever player that is willing to put up the largest bet on the next game, that player will then earn the role of being the banker.
Mini-baccarat is precisely that! It is a smaller version of the game that is played with a smaller table. This means that the number of players is generally no larger than seven.
These mini-baccarat games include lower stakes and limits and result in much faster games. This is because players do not typically get to control their cards either.
This is quite a downside as most of the fun in baccarat is slowly seeing whether you get a good hand!
As a variation of punto banco, EZ baccarat embodies everything about millennials and the new age. This game mode is quite different from usual and also features a different payout for banker bets.
In EZ baccarat, the banker bets pay even money, and if the banker wins on three cards totaling a value of seven, the game is pushed.
To include extra excitement to the game, there are two bonus bets called Dragon 7 and Panda 8. Dragon 7 hits when the banker wins with a three-card hand worth a total of seven points. Panda 8 is, yep, you guessed it, when the banker wins with a three-card hand worth eight points.
Throughout this how to play baccarat guide, the experts at Casino 6Today have prepared you with the important aspects of learning how to play baccarat casino games. We hope that with our help, this guide helps you to enjoy this often misunderstood game.
Here we discussed the brief history of baccarat while also looking at some of the game’s plausible origins. We also explored the journey the game has been on and how it changed along the way from its humble beginnings as a ‘fate-determination-tool for virgins’.
There are many advantages to playing baccarat is your go-to game at the casino. Not only from a complexity standpoint – the game is super simple to play! But also from the aspect of playing a chance-based gambling game with lucrative odds for players.
In our how to play guide, we wanted to solve one of the most commonly found problems among newcomers to baccarat. This being the anxiety that comes with learning to play a game that is associated with the rich and high-rollers. We looked into what the baccarat table looks like and what to expect when you get started playing.
No player game guide would be complete without a detailed section on how to actually play baccarat! Our experts shared their knowledge of the game, including some of the specific ways that the third card rule operates in a game that otherwise is predetermined entirely!
Finally, we wrapped up this excellent resource by looking at the various types of baccarat games, as well as what makes them different from each other. The variations we explored included punto banco, chemin de fer, EZ baccarat, mini-baccarat, and baccarat banque.
If you want to find out more about how you can play baccarat and improve your chances of winning at this casino game, be sure to continue reading our how to win at baccarat resources.
Susan is a verified gambling support specialist who has helped thousands of problem gamblers get back on their feet through therapy and financial counseling. She’s also worked as a cage manager in four Las Vegas casinos and spent two years in Macau in her 30s, where she became extremely savvy at Sic Bo and other Asian table games. Her knowledge and expertise have and continue to play a priceless part in how we structure our content, particularly when it comes to game guides and casino reviews.
