Baccarat Rules
As important with any game that you are sitting down to play, especially when it is for money, know the rules before you begin playing. The object is to make a hand with the cards dealt to you as close to nine as possible; a perfect hand is one that totals nine with the first two cards you receive. Eight is the second best hand.
These two hands are called natural hands. The only hand that beats a natural eight is a natural nine. When either of these hands exist, all bets are cancelled and no one may draw a third card. Aces count as one and face cards count as 10. When your hand equals a number in double digits, the first number is ignored and only the second number is taken into consideration. Players must stand on six or seven and draw on four or less.
How to Bet
The only real strategy you need to develop when playing Baccarat is deciding what type of bet you want to make at the beginning of the game. You can bet that the bank will have the best hand, you can bet that you will have the best hand, or you can bet that there will be a tie.
Betting on Your Hand
The first type of bet that you can make is to bet that you will have the best hand. This type of bet is sometimes referred to as a Punto Bet. To win this type of bet you will need to accomplish two things. First you will need to end up with the best hand either because you are dealt a natural opening hand, or because you drew the best hand, and secondly you will need to have bet that you would have the best hand. If both of these conditions are in place then you will win even money on your bet. However, if you bet that the bank would win this hand then you lose your bet. You should bet on your own hand to test the waters, and to follow winning trends set by the shoe chop. This is especially true if the shoe chops for the player four times in a row.
Betting on the Bank's Hand
In the game of Baccarat you have the option to bet on the bank's hand instead of on your own hand. In this can you would win the hand if you bet the bank will have the best hand and the bank's hand is a natural hand, or if they draw the best hand. In this case you would win even money on your bet minus a 5 percent commission paid to the bank. Some people are put off by the 5 percent commission, and as a result they don't bet on the bank. However, this is a mistake. In the long run the 5 percent commission doesn't make much of a difference if you are able to win a couple hundred dollars each time you win because of betting on the bank. For example if you bet $200 on the bank and it wins, you would receive $190 ($200 - $10 commission). That's still a 95% return on your bet, not a bad raking.
Betting on the Tie
The final bet that you can make is to bet that their will be a tie. Some Baccarat players claim that this is a safe bet to make, but others claim that this is a stupid bet to make. In general it is a bad bet to make. Although it pays 8 to 1 when making a tie, the house edge is more than 14% on every wager.