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BACCARAT

Recommended Baccarat Games

#1 Casino-on-Net A standard game is offered with the usual 5% "commission" charged on all winning Banker bets. The Tie bet pays 8 to 1. For you "system" players out there, this game allows hands to be played without a bet being made, which is a nice - and rare - feature. Private, group and public tables are available. Betting limits are $1-$250, $5-$300 and $10-$500.

#2 Royal Vegas Casino This casino is part of the Fortune Lounge Group of Internet casinos, which includes 7Sultans Casino, Vegas Palms Casino, Fortune Room Casino, Vegas Towers and Vegas Villa Casino. They have been advertisers here for nearly a year and during that time, we have never heard from a player who hasn't been paid by them. These casinos use the highly regarded software made by Microgaming Systems. Because they use just one deck of cards in their Baccarat game, a bet on "Banker" carries a house edge of only 1.01%. Betting limits are $10-$500.

#3 Sands of the Caribbean Casino Powered by Cryptologic software, this casino has (foolishly) never advertised here, but The Sands has a fine reputation for paying winning players quickly. Their Baccarat game offers the standard rules and is dealt from an 8-deck shoe that is shuffled after each hand is finished. Betting limits are $5-$300.

General comments on Baccarat: A lot of potential players are scared off this game because it looks difficult to play, but most authors point out that the player doesn't need to know the rules, since the play of all hands is automatic according to a published set of procedures. That's true as far as it goes, but the on-line gambling industry has seen the entry of a lot of small software providers that have created their version of most popular casino games, yet have very little "real" casino experience so it's always possible that their version of Baccarat could be incorrectly programmed. But, you'll know that only if you've learned the rules of the game. Remember, it's your responsibility to protect your $$$ and knowing the proper rules of play will help you do that. I have checked the games of the casinos on my list and they all were playing properly at the time, but don't take my word for it; learn the rules if you're going to play the game!

Before I present the rules of Baccarat, a short explanation of the game's procedures is necessary for those of you who haven't played it before. Baccarat is a card game where one side (the 'banker') is pitted against the other (the 'player'). Since a casino patron may bet on either hand, the designations are basically meaningless, but are a holdover from a European version of the game. Anyway, the object of the game is to get a hand that totals 9, with face cards and 10s counting as 0 and the Ace as 1 with the other cards counting their point value. Ten is always subtracted from a hand totaling 10 or more, so a hand consisting of a 6 and 5 is 1, not 11 and a hand of 7 and 3 is zero, not 10. Got that?

Baccarat is typically played from a shoe with six or eight decks (some single-deck games are available, but it doesn't make a huge difference in the casino's edge) and play begins with two cards dealt to each side. If either side has a 'natural' 8 or 9, all play on that hand ceases and the one with the highest total wins. If both sides have an equal hand, it's a 'tie' and no money is exchanged. (There is a side bet for ties, but that carries a 14+% house edge, so forget it.) Continuing on with the play of other hands, if the player side has a total of 6 or 7, it must stand. Any other total for the player hand (0,1,2,3,4,5) requires the drawing of a third card. It's the value of this third card that determines, in many cases, how the banker hand is played. For example, if the two-card player hand totals 3, it must draw a third card. Let's say the banker has a total of 3 also. If the dealer 'gives' the player an 8 as the third card, dealer must stand. Of course, you can see that the player hand would now total 1 (3 + 8 = 11 -10 = 1), so the banker hand would win, 3 over 1. If, in this same example, the banker 'gives' any card other than an eight, then banker must take a third card. Just to carry this through, let's say banker gives the player a 4. The player hand now totals 7 and the banker must draw so it has a chance to improve the hand.

It's these variations in the rules that give the banker hand the edge. So, you may thinking, if that's the case, why wouldn't I always bet on the banker hand? Not so fast, pardner. The casinos also know that the banker has an advantage, so they pay off winning bets on banker at a rate of .95 to 1 by charging a 5% 'commission'. This wipes out the edge on the banker hand and allows the casino patron to bet on either side. I do want to stress that the 5% is charged only on winning banker bets, not every banker bet. This gives the casino an edge of 1.23% on player-side bets and 1.06% on banker-side bets, in a 6- or 8-deck game. In a single-deck game (available at casinos using Microgaming software), the figures are 1.29% and 1.01%, respectively.

The Rules of Baccarat

*Player cannot draw

These are the generally-accepted rules of the game, but they can be programmed incorrectly, so you should either memorize them or at least print a copy and have them next to you whenever you play. By the way, if a game is programmed incorrectly, one side or the other will likely have an advantage over the casino, so it's in their best interest to make sure the game is set up correctly in the first place.

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