Baccarat is also known as the game of Punto Banco. Many people know baccarat as the game of choice for James Bond or wealthy business men but it is a game than can be played by anyone. One noticeable difference with baccarat from other casino games is the style and speed of play. Blackjack, craps and roulette are fast games where as baccarat is a longer game with a slower style of play. The best comparison is to a board game where your thought process is slower but like a board game the game play is longer. Baccarat can be a good break from the other "hectic" style of casino games and like all other casino games the opportunity to win large sums of money is still there.

Compared to other games that you can play in the casino the odds are more stacked in the favour of the player. Many people find baccarat complicated so after reading our guide, our advice is that you play our "free baccarat" game where you can practice and get used to the style of play. At the end of our guide we also provide a list of "best baccarat casinos"

If you have played craps before you will notice that the baccarat table is the same size. For those that have not played craps before all this means is that the table is quite large in comparison to blackjack or roulette. You will notice there are more dealers, to be exact there are 3 dealers and a table limit of players of either 12 or 14 depending on the casino you are in.

The difference with the betting is that you can choose to be either the banker or the player. So if banker you are "banco" and if player "punto". One difference with online baccarat versus offline is that the cards are generally always dealt by the dealer.

All players at the table can either bet on the Banco or Punto, but you will typically find with online baccarat that the dealer always bets on "banco". All the players at the table have a choice if they want to deal but if you would rather not you can pass the "shoe" (dealer option) to the next player. So long as the bank is winning, the "shoe" will remain with the players. While the players (punto) is winning the shoe will pass around clockwise to the next player.

So down to game play, at first two hands are dealt and as a player you decide to bet on which one will win, or you can choose to bet on which hands you belive will be a draw/tie. If you have played roulette before its a very similar logic, a straight forward 1/1 bet when you bet on either black or red.

When you are playing baccarat the main difference between playing banker (banco) and a player (punto) bet is that a bet to win on the banker (banco) will cost you a 5% commission. This is similar to poker games played at the casino where they will take a "rake" of every game played. You will find that is an in built advantage. As we have said before baccarat sounds complicated but its one of the best value for money and game play in he casino so try put our "free baccarat game" which also includes simple to follow instructions.

At first it might sound crazy that you need to pay a % back to the casino but here is the good news, it is now a well established fact that over an 8 deck card play, the banker or banco will over the lifetime of a baccarat game in action win on average three to four hands than the player/punto.

One thing to get used to is the amount of cards, the separate hands will consist of a minimum of two cards and a total maximum of 3 cards. Whoever is dealing, either player or casino dealer will deal them in the following way, 2 cards which are face down and will be placed underneath the shoe and then afterwards the player with the largest bet on the player/punto an additional 2 cards which will be dealt face down.

The player who is in the position of playing "punto" will then take a look at the cards and give them back to the dealer if "online" or the player who is dealing if "offline".Afterwards who ever is dealing will then turn over the remaining cards of both hands and the winner will be announced.

When looking at the hands, at this point the hand which has a total of eight or nine (for baccarat nine is the highest) this is called a natural and at this point no more cards will be dealt by anyone at the table. For any reason if the rankings do not match up to a natural it will now come down to the value that each player now has. In some cases the dealer may decide to deal a 3rd card. Dealing a 3rd card is not regular practice and each casino has there own set rules on when this card can be dealt. If playing in either an online/offline casino it wll take you less than 5 minutes to verify the casinos rules.

After all the dealing has taken place similar to poker, it will come down to the hand with the highest ranking cards. After the winners have been determined the usual process in the casino is to take away all the losing bets then pay the winners. If the dealer is a player and not the house dealer the house dealer will be the one who makes the payouts. As even though you can jump sides between banker and player, you are still a player looking to take cash away from the casino

Dependent on where you play baccarat is normally played either using 6 or 8 deck. This may sound like a lot but if you remember that baccarat can be played with up to 14 players and 3 dealers its a good amount of cards as it puts the player in one of the best positions against the house. Unline poker or blackjack cards you would be used to having a face value such as face cards (K,Q,J) and cards which are 10 do not have any value. Every card which is not a face card are counted at the value of the number of the card. So as an example the maximum value that an ace has is of 1. Baccarat is played as a single digit game so when the count of the cards starts hitting double digits the first one is dropped. So if you hit 28 this is counted as 8 and if you hit 18 this is also counted as 8.

To begin you have 3 choices, either bet, standoff, banco or punto. The starting of the deal is as follows 2 cards will be dealt first to the player and then to the banker. From the a players perspective the focus of your game is to place your bets on the hand that you think will rank the highest in terms of value.

As we have mentioned before you will find that a 3rd card may be dealt to either the player or the banker but this will be depedent on the casino rules. You dont need to learn these rules as they are different from casino to casino thats why we advise to have a quick read of the main rules so you know you are playing the way that you are used to

If you remember in our earlier discriptions if the punto or banco has a total of eight or nine after the 1st cards there will be no further cards dealt. This as you now know is called a "natural" and the game play of this hand is now over.

Should the cards equal a total which is equivalant to or less than 5 the player's hand draws a third card.

If the bank's total is 2 or less then bank draws a card, regardless of what the players third card is.

If the banks total is 3 then the bank draws a third card unless the players third card was an 8.

If the banks total is 4 then the bank draws a third card unless the players third card was a 0, 1, 8, or 9

If the banks total is 5 then the bank draws a third card if the players third card was 4, 5, 6, or 7

If the banks total is 6 then the bank draws a third card if the players third card was a 6 or 7

If the banks total is 7 then the bank stands.

Banker (Banco) 1.17%

Player (Punto) 1.36%

Tie (Standoff) 14.12% at 8:1 payout

Punting can reverse the advantage up to 1% to the player.