How do you play Baccarat?

Baccarat is a gambling game at cards, played by a banker, or dealer, and two patrons who lay stakes against the banker. Regardless of the number of patrons, just two hands – designated the ‘player’ hand and ‘banker’ hand – of two or three cards each are dealt and the object of the game is to bet on the hand that adds up closer to nine. The three possible outcomes are a player win, a banker win and a tie, and patrons can bet on any of these eventualities, but not on a player win and a banker win simultaneously. In the event of a tie, stakes laid on player win and banker win are returned.

For the purposes of calculating the value of each hand, tens and face, or picture, cards have a value of zero, aces have a value of one and cards between two and nine have their face values. Of course, this allows a hand to add up to more than nine but, in that event, the value of the hand is the second digit.

The player hand is concluded before the banker hand. If the player hand has a total between zero and five, unless the bank hand has a total of eight or nine, known as a ‘natural’, the player hand draws a third card. The player hand stands on total values of six and seven and, for obvious reasons, on eight and nine. A natural eight or nine for either hand wins outright, with no further cards drawn, unless the natural eight or nine is tied, or beaten, by the opposing hand. By contrast, while the banker hand always draws another card on values between zero and two and always stands on values between seven and nine, the response to values between three and six depends on the value of the third card in the player hand.