Baccarat (Punto Banco)

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card values
3. Setup
4. Betting
5. The deal
6. Settling bets
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

In Baccarat two hands are dealt: one called Player and one called Banker. Nobody at the table has to make a decision about the cards – everyone simply bets chips on which of the two hands will come closer to 9, or on a tie. Drawing a third card follows fixed rules. The version described here is Punto Banco, the form played in casinos today; the older Chemin de fer, in which the players deal and decide themselves, is under Variants.

• Players: 2–8 – one banker (the "house", who deals and pays out) and everyone else betting. At home the bank rotates.
• You need: two standard 52-card decks without jokers, shuffled together (one deck also works; casinos use six or eight), and chips (or counters, matches) – about 100 per person. Play for chips only.

Card values

A hand is worth only the last digit of its total: 10 counts as 0, 15 as 5, 23 as 3. So the best possible hand is 9, and a hand can never go "bust".

Example: 7 + 8 = 15, so the hand is worth 5. K + 9 = 9 – a perfect hand.

Setup

1. Choose the first banker (for example, whoever cuts the highest card). Agree on the smallest and largest bet, for example 5 to 40 chips.
2. The banker shuffles both decks together, a player cuts (lifts off part of the pile and puts it underneath), and the banker puts the pile face down in front of them. This pile is the shoe – casinos use a box of that name to deal from.

Betting

Before each deal (called a coup), every player except the banker puts their bet on one of three places:

• Player – the Player hand will win.
• Banker – the Banker hand will win.
• Tie – both hands will have the same value.

"Player" and "Banker" are just the names of the two hands – you may bet on either, whoever deals.

The deal

The banker deals four cards face up: one to the Player hand, one to the Banker hand, a second to Player, a second to Banker. Then:

1. Natural: if either hand has 8 or 9, nobody draws. The hands are compared at once.
2. Otherwise Player draws a third card with a total of 0–5 and stands on 6 or 7.
3. Then Banker acts. If Player stood, Banker draws on 0–5 and stands on 6 or 7. If Player drew, Banker follows this table – it depends on Player's third card:

Each hand gets at most three cards. The value of the third card counts as in the table of card values (a face card is 0).

Example: Player has 4♣ + J♥ = 4 and draws a 6♠: 10, so 0. Banker has 3♦ + 2♠ = 5. Player's third card was a 6, so Banker (with 5) draws: 3♥ – Banker has 8 and wins.

Settling bets

The hand closer to 9 wins. The banker settles every bet from their own chips: they collect all losing bets and pay all winning ones – which is why the bank passes round the table.

• Player bets are paid even money (1 to 1: bet 10, win 10).
• Banker bets are paid even money minus 5% commission – 19 to 20. Easiest if Banker bets are made in multiples of 20.
• Tie bets are paid 8 to 1. On a tie, Player and Banker bets are neither won nor lost – they stay where they are or are taken back.

Example (continued): Anna bet 20 on Banker: she wins 19. Ben bet 10 on Player: he loses his 10. Carla bet 5 on Tie: she loses her 5.

Put used cards on a discard pile. When only about ten cards are left in the shoe, finish the coup, then shuffle everything for a new shoe.

Winning the game

The bank passes to the left after each shoe (or after an agreed number of coups), so that everyone is banker equally often. Play for an agreed time; whoever has the most chips at the end wins.

Tips for beginners

• It's pure chance – no betting pattern and no "streak" changes the odds.
• Banker wins slightly more often than Player; that's why Banker bets pay commission. Both are close to fair (the bank's edge is only about 1%), and since the bank rotates, it evens out.
• The Tie bet looks tempting at 8 to 1, but a tie comes up only about once in ten coups – the bank does well out of it.
• You don't need to learn the drawing table – the banker deals by it, and the cheatsheet has it.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• Chemin de fer: the classic French form, in which a player holds the bank and the players decide for themselves. The banker puts a stake (the bank) in the middle; the other players, in turn from the banker's right, bet against it until it is covered. Calling "banco" means betting the whole bank alone and takes priority. The banker deals two cards to themselves (Banker) and two to the player with the biggest bet (Player), who plays for everyone. With a natural 8 or 9, the hand is shown at once. Otherwise Player must draw on 0–4, must stand on 6–7 and may choose on 5. The banker sees only whether Player drew and the face-up third card, and then draws by the table above (casinos leave a few borderline cases to the banker's choice). If the banker wins, the winnings stay in the bank and the banker may deal again or pass; if the banker loses, the bank passes to the right. On a tie, stakes are returned and the banker keeps the bank.
• No commission: Banker bets are paid even money, but a Banker win with a total of 6 pays only half.
• Tie pays 9 to 1: some casinos pay a winning Tie bet 9 to 1 instead of 8 to 1.