Baccarat

Baccarat, also known as 'Punto Banco' is often played separately from other games. It is played on a table shaped as follows, though I have colour-coded it to make it easier to explain, the tables will be green (usually) in a casino.

 

1,2 and 3: These are where the dealers will stand. 1 is the 'caller's place' - the dealer there is a kind of referee, ensuring fair play and announcing hands. 2 and 3 will take bets, take commissions and give out winnings. There will be numbered boxes for commission and boxes for placing winnings and tips.
The yellow section is where the dealers will ply their trade, taking your money and dishing out winnings. Note that they won't actually DEAL any cards.

The black section is made up of fourteen numbered sections (1-15, not including 13 as it is unlucky), and each has three parts for betting. The black section is simply your table, not for betting on anything.

The cyan section is the ‘banker’ section, which I will return to when discussing the rules. It's where you place bets for the banker.

The green section is the ‘players’ section, where you place bets for the player.
The red section is the ‘tie’ section, which will again be numbered, where you place bets for a tie.

PLAYING THE GAME
Baccarat is the only game in the casino where the player gets to deal the cards, though you don't have to if you don't want to. I'm terrible at dealing and I always seem to end up playing really badly when I do, so I tend to pass it on. Since the positions are numbered, the player at number 1 will start, and then it passes along the participants. Although nobody actually gets any advantage from dealing during the game, it feels a lot more friendly when everyone gets a turn.

The cards
Baccarat is played with eight shuffled decks of standard playing cards, and the rules state that whoever gets a total point value of 9 first, out of the dealer or the player, or whoever is closest to it at the end, wins.

Playing
The dealer will deal cards alternately, two to the player and two to him or herself.

Bets are taken beforehand on who will win, be it player, dealer or a draw between the two, and are placed in the corresponding area on the table. Basically it is a game of chance, as the cards are dealt completely at random.
Those cards with a value of ten and picture cards are ignored completely, and aces are valued at one, meaning that a King and a Seven has a value of seven, while a Six and an Ace is also seven.

The players can stick with their original two or ask for another card, up to a maximum of three in their hand.

If either person is dealt a total 8 or 9 in their first two, no further cards are dealt. The total of 9 is a "natural" and cannot lose. Should both player and dealer get a "natural" 9, the game is a tie.

If the player has a value of 5 or less, or ten, they are forced to take another card unless the dealer has an 8 or 9. If it is six or seven, they cannot draw any cards.

The dealer, on the other hand, has set rules by which they have to play:

• If the dealer has a hand of 3, he draws when the player's third card is a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 or 10 and stands when the player's third card is an 8.
• If the dealer has a hand of 4, he draws when the player's third card is a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 and stands when the player's third card is a 1, 8, 9 or 10.
• If the dealer has a hand of 5, he draws when the player's third card is a 4, 5, 6 or 7 and stands when the player's third card is a 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 or 10.
• If the dealer has a hand of 6, he draws when the player's third card is a 6 or 7 and stands when the player's third card is a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 or 10.
• If the dealer has a hand of 7, he stands.
• If the dealer has a hand of 8 or 9, he stands, and this is a "natural".

IF you bet on the dealer, and he wins, you will owe the house a 5% commission to be paid after the shoe is finished, with a record being kept in a numbered box by one of the dealers (See above).

Payout is 2:1 on a dealer or player bet, and it becomes 8:1 on a tie, because the odds are so much longer. Although you have to pay the 5% commission when betting on the house, this is not necessarily a disadvantage in the long term, since there is a marginally higher chance of winning.

The 1-3-2-6 system.
This is a system for maximizing winnings on the Baccarat table. It follows set guidelines to win, over four games.

- Bet one unit, usually the minimum bet, on the first hand.
- If you win, let it ride and add another, totalling three units on the second.
- If you win again, remove four units, leaving two on the table.
- If you win a third time, add two more units for a total of six.
- If you win a fourth, you win twelve units having only actually bet two of your own.

The best thing about this system is that even if it goes very badly, the worst you can lose is two units, whereas you can win up to six-times the original bet. It's a sensible way to win plenty of money on the table, since the odds will always be the same no matter what.

Strategy
Never forget that Baccarat is a game of luck, rather than judgement. Don't be fooled into 'pattern spotting' or 'card-counting', because those are more superstitions than actual tactics. Simply play the game and enjoy it, and you may well come out with more than you came in with!