From sticky-floor California card rooms to tuxedo-laden casinos in Monaco, Baccarat has long cultivated an aura of sophistication. It’s even featured in one of the James Bond movies. But if you’re not familiar with the game, it may seem intimidating and out of your league. But the truth is that baccarat has an easy-to-understand ruleset, and it’s just as simple to play as betting on a coin flip.
The basic idea of the game is that players place chips in either the Player or Banker boxes, with a third option to bet on a Tie. Each hand receives two cards initially, and additional cards are drawn according to specific rules (e.g., tens count as zero while jacks, queens, and kings count as one). The goal is to predict which hand will have a total value closest to nine. If the player or banker hands have a total value of eight or nine, they win; if neither has a total of eight or nine, it’s a tie.
When the dealer deals the first two cards, they are placed face up in front of all the players at the table. Then players bet on which hand will have a total value closer to nine, with the Player and Banker hands having the highest values. Any hand total over ten has the first digit dropped, so a seven and a six would be a three. The rules also dictate that the Player hand must be dealt a third card if it is lower than a five, and the Banker hand must draw a third if its total is lower than a four.
While the exact origin of baccarat is unknown, it is widely believed that the Italian version of the game created by Felix Falguiere in 1500s Rome was based on an Etruscan ritual that decided the fate of a young virgin girl through a game of life or death with dice. The game later made its way to France where it became known as Chemin de Fer. It’s also thought that the French changed the rules slightly to create modern Baccarat.
One important change was the introduction of a scoreboard that shows the previous results in a variety of formats. These scoreboards also serve as advertising, drawing attention to the game and highlighting patterns that might attract certain customers. The scoreboards can even help in case of a third-card drawing error. Instead of burning the mistake card, which is standard procedure in blackjack, the dealer places it aside and deals a free hand. This helps to keep the order of the shoe consistent and maintains customer perception that a hand is not rigged.
Another factor in the growth of baccarat is that it is an ideal casino game for Asian high rollers who want to gamble but don’t want the high minimum bets found in other games. In fact, one consultant who literally wrote the book on managing casino games claims that baccarat is now the game of choice for most Asian high rollers.
