Baccarat is a wonderful game to play in any online casino, and you will quickly grow to love this game if you have never played it before. If you already have experience at playing Baccarat, then you know exactly how exciting and entertaining it can be, along with being a lucrative game for some people like Phil Ivey who just a few years ago won upwards of 20 million USD playing Baccarat in two live casinos.
Although online baccarat is immensely fun for beginners, experts, high rollers, and low rollers all the same. While there is plenty of high roller action going on in some online casinos, there is still plenty of room for the low dollar betting amounts just as well. It is a great game for players of all experience levels as it is a simple game to play and easy to catch on to how the gameplay unfolds.
We made baccarat popular in the 1970s because it appeared in James Bond films and was cast as a high roller paradise inside of casinos. This earned it a reputation of being a go-to game in any casino, and the popularity exploded. Over the years it has become nearly as popular as Blackjack and many players prefer it over the game of 21. They are both games of chance with just a bit of strategy in betting, making all the difference in how much a player ends up cashing out of the game after many enticing hours of gaming.
How to Play Online Baccarat
Playing Baccarat is fairly simple. Let us rephrase that. Betting in Baccarat is simple while following along with the gameplay section of each hand takes just a tiny bit of knowledge to follow along with and to know right away if you won or lost after all they have dealt the cards.
To start the game the players, up to 14 at a regular table and only 7 in Mini-Baccarat tables, place their bets on one of three different wagering options. Those choices are to bet on the Player, the Banker, or a tie between the Player’s and Banker’s hands. Just remember when betting that the Banker has a bit of a house edge, even though they are not technically the house in the game or the dealer’s hand because the dealer deals all cards the same, they have a 5% fee on any winning Banker bet. So, a S20NZ wager on the Banker that wins will only payout $19NZ to the winner.
Now, once you choose which of the three spots on the table in your playing number area, the game can begin. This happens with the dealer dealing two cards to each of the Banker and Player card areas, and they calculate the sum of the points. For cards 2 through 9 they are worth face value, 10 plus all the face cards are worth 0 points, and aces are worth 1 point. The goal is to get as close to the number 9 as possible. If the Player’s or Banker’s hands go over 10, then you subtract that 10 and what is leftover is their hands’ score.
Next, come the third card rules. It starts with the Player’s hand. Which is counted up and if it is an 8 or a 9, then it is a natural win and as long as it doesn’t tie the Banker’s hand, then it automatically wins. If it is a 5, 6, or 7, then it is a stay, and finally, any 0 through 4 Player’s hand scores get dealt a third card.
Once the Player’s hand is settled and they reach a score it becomes time for the Banker’s hand to either stay or get a third card.
The rules surrounding the Banker’s hand get more complex because they base it on the score of the Player’s hand. Although, if it is an 8 or 9 it is a natural and wins automatically as long as it does not tie with the Player’s hand because in the case of a tie the Tie bet space wins, and the odds of it are so small that it pays out 8 to 1 odds, but it is a sucker bet because the house edge on this wager is nearly 15%.
Once all the cards have been dealt and the points calculated, the winning bets are paid out and the losing bets are cleared from the table. Then the betting for the next hand begins, and the process starts all over again.
As you can see, this game is fairly simple and very straightforward, and except for some learning curve on how the Dealer’s third card is dealt or not, everything is extremely easy to follow along during the card part of the gameplay. So, for beginners and experts alike, Baccarat is a phenomenal game to play and the strategy of betting is the only part where you really focus your energy.