The Setup
The house edge in baccarat shifts between a 1.06% edge for a banker bet with a 5% commission taken from winning bets to a 1.24% edge for a player bet with no commission taken from winning bets. In addition to that, there is a 14.36% house edge on betting on a tie and discounting the house edge what you will find is that baccarat is one of the lowest-edge games currently out there.
The Game
Another thing that makes baccarat an exceedingly simple game to play is the fact that baccarat only has three choices for the player to make at any point during the game. The player can either bet on himself, can bet on the banker or can bet on a tie. All of the decisions for when to draw a card or when to stay are already defined by the rules of baccarat and therefore the decision-making processes within the game are exceptionally simple for someone to learn.
Two hands are dealt once each player has made their bet, one for the player and one for the banker each of which are two cards. The goal of each hand is to get as close to nine as possible, with the numbers 2-9 being equal to face value, an ace counting as one and face cards counting as zero. Only the ones value is considered in the hand value, meaning that a hand value of 11 is actually 1 and a hand value of 27 is actually 7.
Both hands are turned over and if the player has 8 or 9 then their hand is considered a natural and unless the dealer’s hand ties or is better then the player automatically wins. If the player’s hand is not nine, then they have to stand on a six or seven and draw on a zero, one, two, three, four or five. The dealer’s rules are more complicated, but you don’t have to know them to play the game.
There is no strategy involved in baccarat; the game is completely luck-based and while this is something that people tend to shy away from, remember that a house edge of 1.24% on a player’s hand bet is a lot smaller than most of the other edges in the game, even with perfect strategy taken into account.
