Baccarat may have served as a pastime for French royalty when it migrated from Italy to France in the 18th century, but it’s far more accessible now. Not only can you play mini baccarat for low betting minimums at most land-based casinos, you can also play online baccarat for real money right here at Cafe Casino.
Those who’ve never played baccarat before may recognize the game from the 1962 version of Dr. No, where James Bond goes on a winning streak against Sylvia Trench before getting called away from the table. That version of baccarat is called Chemin de Fer and was played in France. One unique aspect of Chemin de Fer is that the players at the table take turns acting as the Banker and dealing cards from the shoe. Outside of France, most casino players are used to playing Punto Banco, which has a traditional Dealer running the game.
Beyond the fame that James Bond brought to baccarat in the ‘60s, baccarat’s popularity can be attributed to its easy gameplay. Beneath the glamorous façade is a simple game that involves betting on three different options, making it possible for anyone to join a table and immediately get in the action.
Baccarat is played with six or eight decks of cards and run by the Dealer. As a spectator, the only decision you make is where to place your bet at the start of each round. You have three options: you can bet on the Banker, the Player, and the Tie. Note, you aren’t considered “The Player” in this game; it’s simply a betting option available to you. Bet on the Banker or Player, and the side that gets a higher score in their two or three-card hand wins.
A round of online baccarat starts with your bet. At Cafe Casino, you can bet between $1 and $500 using the chips on the screen. Once bets are placed, both the Banker and Player receive two cards each. Their scores are tallied and displayed, based on the following point system:
Aces: 1 Point
Ten to King: 0 Points
Two to Nine: Face Value
Any time a score exceeds 9 points, the first digit is removed. For example, if the Banker gets a Five and Nine for a score of 14, the first digit is removed and the score is modified to 4 points. With this method, the highest score possible is 9 points.
Once the two-card hands are dealt, the round could end, or continue, depending on the score of each side. If either side has a score of 8 or 9, which is called a natural, the round ends there; whoever has the higher score wins the round. If neither side gets an 8 or 9, a final third card may be dealt to the Player and Banker, depending on the game rules.
Third Card Rule for Baccarat
Player Rules
• The Player gets a third card with a score of 5 or below.
• The Player stands with a score of 6 or 7.
Banker Rules
• When the Player stands with a 6 or 7, the Banker follows the same rules as the Player, drawing a third card with a 5 or below and standing with a 6 and above.
• When the Player draws with a 5 or below, the Banker’s move depends on the Player’s draw card. View our table for the mandatory Banker moves.
In order to win, you must have correctly “predicted” the side to get a higher score, or guessed that a tie would occur between both sides. When the result is a tie, both the Banker and Player bets push.
Baccarat Payouts
Correctly betting on the Banker pays 1:1 minus 5% commission. With our online baccarat version, decimals are rounded up to the next quarter. If you bet $10 on the Banker and win, you’d get $9.50 and your $10 bet back. Correctly betting on the Player pays 1:1 (even-money). No commission is deducted from Player payouts.
As for the Tie, our casino pays 9:1, so a $10 bet would yield a $90 payout plus return your original $10 stake. Many brick-and-mortar casinos pay just 8:1 for the Tie, so keep an eye on the payout board when browsing baccarat games.
Advanced Baccarat Strategies
Since you’re not making decisions throughout the round, baccarat strategy is all about making shrewd choices before the action begins. Should you bet the Banker, the Player, or the Tie? We’ll consider win probability, house edge and payout to determine a verdict.
The Player is at a slight disadvantage positionally since his moves are made first—without consideration of the Banker’s cards. His win probability is 44.62%. The Banker’s positional advantage translates into a slightly higher win probability of 45.86%. The house edge for the Player is 1.24% and 1.06% for the Banker. Based on this data, the Banker is the clear favorite, which is why a 5% commission is deducted from Banker wins, but not from Player wins.
Predicting a tie between both sides leads to a far bigger payout than even-money. Betting $5 can net you $45 plus your wager back. However, the probability of a tie occurring is just 9.5%, and with the 9:1 payout, the house edge is a beefy 4.93%. Keep in mind, casinos that offer 8:1 payouts for the Tie have a 14.44% house edge on the bet.
Overall, the best bet you can make in baccarat is on the Banker, the second-best bet is the Player, and the bet to avoid (unless you’re feeling lucky) is the Tie. That being said, baccarat is designed for entertainment, so if you’re not focused on maximizing your returns, try your best to predict the outcome. It can be a fun and rewarding experience.
Play Online Baccarat for Real Money
More and more casino players are powering up their computers and smartphones to play online baccarat for real money. When you play baccarat at Cafe Casino, you get better payouts for the Tie, and get to use two tracking systems: the Bead Plate and the Big Road.
The Bead Plate is a 6X6 grid with color-coded beads. Blue is for Player wins, red is for Banker wins, and green is for Tie wins. Each outcome is recorded with the appropriately-colored bead, starting at the top of the first column and progressing downward. It’s the simplest way to keep track of past outcomes.
The Big Road is a larger 6X20 grid that uses the same color codes as the Bead Plate. Out of the 20 columns displayed, a new one is started every time the wins switch from Player to Banker and vice versa, making it very easy to see which side has more wins and how long those win streaks lasted. If you don’t like the Big Road feature, simply disable it in the baccarat game settings.
Now that you know how simple baccarat really is, give it a try in the Table Games section of our online casino. You can start on Practice Play mode and switch to Real Play to start collecting real money payouts for every round you accurately predict. James Bond would be proud.