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Baccarat is a card game played with a shoe containing 6 or 8 decks of cards. The dealer handles two hands, the "banker" hand and the "player" hand. Before the cards are dealt, bets can be placed on the banker, player, or tie. Winning bets on the banker or player are paid 1:1, but bets on the banker incur a 5% commission, making the net odds 0.95 to 1. Some casinos may charge a lower commission (for example, at the time of writing, Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas charges 4%).
Some sources report that the payout rate for a tie bet is 8:1, while others claim it's 9:1, so this may vary from one casino to another. If a tie occurs, bets placed on the banker or player are returned. Once bets are placed, there are no further decisions to be made—the banker's hand and the player's hand are dealt according to fixed rules, with each hand receiving two or three cards. The value of a hand is determined by adding the values of its individual cards. Tens and face cards count as zero, and all other cards are counted according to their face value. Only the last digit of the total is used, so all baccarat hand values are in the range of 0 to 9, inclusive. The hand with the higher value wins; if both hands have the same value, it's a tie.
Player Hand Rules:
- If the player's initial two-card total is 6 or more, the player must stand and not draw a card.
- If the player's initial two-card total is 5 or less, the player must draw one additional card.
Banker Hand Rules:
- If the banker's initial two-card total is 7 or higher, the banker must stand and not draw a card.
- If the banker's initial two-card total is 0, 1, or 2, the banker must draw one additional card.
- If the banker's initial two-card total is 3, 4, 5, or 6, whether the banker draws a card depends on whether the player drew a card and the point value of the player's third card, as indicated in the table.
Bank Drawing vs. Player's Draw
Bank N 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 <--- Player's
-------------------------- -------------- Draw
9 - - - - - - - - - -
8 - - - - - - - - - -
7 - - - - - - - - - - -
6 - - - - - - - DD - -
5 D - - - - DDDD - -
4 D - - DDDDDD - -
3 DDDDDDDDD - D
2 DDDDDDDDDDD
1 DDDDDDDDDDD
0 DDDDDDDDDDD
--------- ------------------------------
D = Draw, N = No Draw
Probability Distribution of Drawing One Hand from a Full Shoe
As follows:
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6 Decks 0.458652719 0.446278570 0.095068711
8 Decks 0.458597423 0.446246609 0.095155968
This means the following house advantages:
Bet bank Bet bank Bet player Bet tie Bet tie
decks 5% vig. 4% vig. 9:1 8:1
------------------------------------------ --------------
6 1.05585% 0.59720% 1.23741% 4.93129% 14.43816%
8 1.05791% 0.59931% 1.23508% 4.84403% 14.35963% |
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