Baccarat - Free Gambling Games

New - February 5, 2012 - Try our new free baccarat game called Punto Banco. This is one of the most popular versions of Baccarat in the world.

Baccarat Introduction

This is a very simple game to play. At a casino, this game is usually played by very high roller in the high stakes section of the casino. But at the heart of the game, you have to decide to bet on the Banker, Player or Tie.

The basic goal of this game is to bet whether the Player or Banker will have higher score with the highest score being 9. All tens and face cards are worth 0 points; ace through 9 are worth their value. Once you go past nine, then leading 1 is removed and you are back to a single number.

In the case of a Tie, bets on both the player and banker are pushed and only bets on the Tie will be paid. Tie bets pay out 9 to 1, but are losing bets unless you get a tie.

If you bet on the Banker and win, you must pay the house a 5% commission on your win. Betting on the Player pays even money. This is because the banker has a slightly better chance of winning because he gets to act last.

Baccarat Instructions

First thing is first. Select a chip size (bottom right hand corner) and make a bet on Player, Banker or Tie. When you are ready for the hand to play out, press deal.

The one thing you'll notice right away about baccarat is that it doesn't require any decision from you after you have made your bet. Baccarat, except for the tie, is basically like flipping a coin. Or more accurately, a weighted coin that comes up on heads a little more often.

Once you bet, you will see two cards dealt to the Player and the Banker. Depending on the circumstance, the player may take one card and the dealer may one card as well. This will be explained below.

The hand does not last very long and you find out pretty quickly whether you have won or loss your bet.

Baccarat as its played at a casino is one game that they can't really replicated very well with an online game. The heart of the rules is there, but not the atmosphere or the 14 other players. People actually take turns being the banker and the person who bets the most will be the player in the hand. But, the overall basics are there.

How Baccarat's scoring system works

It might look confusing and unless you had the rules in front of you, you might not know why they take a card or don't. Here's the rules when it comes to taking cards in Baccarat:

Above all else, if either the dealer or player are dealt an 8 or 9 to start, then it is called a Natural 8 or 9 and the game is over.
The player must draw a card if his cards add up to 5 or less. The player must stand if the cards add up to 6 or 7.
If the player stands with 6 or 7, then the banker must take a card if the cards add up to 5 or less.
The dealer will always hit if the first two cards add up to 2 or less and will always stand with a total of 7.

The next group here explains what the dealer will do if the player takes a third card.

If the player has a total of 8, the dealer can only take a card if he has 2 or less.
If the player has a total of 0, 1 or 9, the dealer can only take a card if he has 3 or less.
If the player has a total of 2 or 3, the dealer can only take a card if he has 4 or less.
If the player has a total of 4 or 5, the dealer can only take a card if he has 5 or less.
If the player has a total of 6 or 7, the dealer can only take a card if he has 6 or less.

Playing Baccarat at a Casino

Playing baccarat online is nothing even close to the experience that you get when playing Baccarat at a real casino. The game wasn't meant to be a one on one contest against the dealer. While the high-stakes games are usually out of the price range for most people, you will usually find a smaller tables (called a mini baccarat table) where up to 7 players can play at a table.

Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot that an online casino can do to replicate the real casino experience of playing baccarat. The closest thing that I have seen is some of the live dealer casinos that offer a baccarat dealer that you can watch instead of the random number generator.