UK Baccarat Guide

The magic number for a baccarat hand is 9. In fact no hand can go over nine as the second digit is always removed from the hand total. Cards 2 through 9 have their face value, 10 through K are worth zero and Aces are worth 1. For example a had with two tens and a five equals 15 which in baccarat is 5.

As a player you have three choices as to what to bet on. You cab bet that the banker hand will win, that the player hand will win or that the two hands will tie. Pay off for a player win is 2 to 1. Pay off for banker is 2 to 1 less 5% commission and pay off for a tie bet is 8 to 1.

Once you have decided which outcome to bet on you simply have to watch what cards are dealt. There is no further decision to make. The player and banker hands are both dealt two cards and at this point if either hand totals 8 or 9 both hands stand and the hand with 8 or 9 wins. In other cases the third card rule comes into effect. This works according to pre determined rules.

The player hand always acts first. The third card rules are as follows.

In general our best tip is to always bet on banker as it has the lowest house edge. This is the reason that 5% of the win is taken in commission as the casinos would simply not offer the game is they had a negative house edge. Online this commission is taken directly from your wins while at land-based casinos it is collected when you leave the table.

Another thing that many players like to do is keep track of the hands being dealt as sometimes there will for example be a shoe which ends up with lots of ties or one particular hand. If you like following streaks then this is worth a look although going with the odds you are still better off simply betting banker every hand.