Play Baccarat

Baccarat Basics
While Europe is the original home of Baccarat, this sophisticated and fun game spread to all corners of the world and is now one of the most popular online table games. It's popularity comes from the fact that it's easy to master and more importantly, to win! The rules are simple and you don't need to be an expert to start winning. In Baccarat, there are two hands: the player's and the banker's. Two cards are dealt out to the two players. The object of the game of Baccarat is to guess which hand will have a higher score. The highest score in Baccarat cannot exceed 9 and the lowest is 0.

When you play online casino games at Cool Cat Casino, you will want to try out Baccarat. This and all the other free casino table games can easily be accessed from the casino lobby. Baccarat is played with six decks. There is a reshuffling of hands after each hand is dealt out. You can bet on either the player, the dealer, a tie or a combination of all these options. A ‘Tie’ is the bet you make when you think neither the player nor the banker can reach the necessary total of nine. The player draws first. If the total on the player’s hand lies between 0-5, and the bank’s total is between 0-7, the player gets to draw a third card. However, if the player’s total exceeds 5 or the banker’s total exceeds 7, the player cannot draw out the third card. Then, it's the banker's turn. The banker does not get to draw another card if the total in the banker’s hand is 7, 8, or 9. The banker gets to draw one card if the total of the first two cards happen to be 0, 1 or 2.

In Baccarat, you can win if the hand you have bet has the higher total. If you have placed your bet on a Tie, you can win if both the player and banker have the same total. To make things clear, if your bet was the value of $5, you will get back your money plus an additional $4.75. 5% commission is deducted from the winning amount. This happens for both cases: if you have bet on the player or the banker. But if you have bet on a tie, you get your $5 back, plus nine times the amount you have bet on, that is $45.

You stand to lose if you have bet on the wrong hand. That is, if you have bet on the player or the banker and it does not have the higher score. You also lose if you bet on a tie and the hands of the player and banker are not equal. There is a third condition too. That is, if you have bet on the player or banker and it's a tie, the wager is a push.

To start to play online casino Baccarat, click on the buttons marked player, banker or tie. Then click on the chips on the lower right hand corner in order to place your bet. To remove chips from the betting area, click on the chips on the betting area. They will return to their original place. Cool Cat Casino offers you this and other free casino table games as well as all the necessary info on how to play them. Play online casino games to get in on all the action and win big - table games are a classic favorite and shouldn't be missed!

Cool Cat Casino offers you to 24/7 access to online Baccarat and other free casino table games - start playing now!

How to play

The number 9 plays a focal role in Baccarat. Anyone who plays the game is an observer between a ‘banker’ and a ‘player’, with each being dealt out a pair of cards. To play the game, you have to guess who would have a card total nearest 9 – is it the player, the banker, or perhaps do both share a common total?

Accordingly, you bet either on the player or the banker, and based on the surmise that both can score even, you can also bet on a ‘tie’.

Before we proceed, an understanding of Baccarat’s point values is called for. Cards from 2 to 9 are taken at face value, face cards and 10s are valued at 0, while the Aces carry 1 point. If the totals add up to more than 10, the ‘tens’ digit is dropped, so 10 would 0, 15 would be 5, 22 would be 2, and so on.

The game is triggered by selecting either on the ‘player’, the ‘banker’ or the ‘tie’ icon, prompted by your guess on who would have the higher number closer to 9.

How much would you like to bet? The game can be played within the table limits of $2 and $250, so place your bet accordingly.

Once bet, the cards are drawn, two each for the player and the banker. Simply put, the one with the number closest to 9 would be the winner. A petite hand that’s 8 or a ‘le Grande’ 9 is a ‘natural’, and if both the banker and the player have a natural in their hand, the one with the higher total wins. In the event of both sharing the same value, it’s a push, wherein your bet is returned. On a tie bet, you win.

When both the player and the banker have a matching score, a third card is drawn to decide the winner. Either also has an option to stand – this action is governed by the following set of rules:

Player’s Hand	Action by Player
0-5	Draws third card
6 and 7	Stand
8 and 9 (Natural)	Stand

Banker’s Hand	Player’s Hand	Action by Banker
0-5	6 and 7	Draws third card
6-9	6 and 7	Stand
--	8 and 9 (Natural)	Stand

When the third card is drawn by the player, the banker’s action is determined by the following set of rules:

Banker’s Hand Total	Value of Player’s 3rd card	Action by Banker
0-2	Any value	Draw
3	8	Stand
	0-9, except 8	Draw
4	0, 1, 8 and 9	Stand
	2 -7	Draw
5	0-3, 8, 9	Stand
	4-7	Draw
6	0-5. 8, 9	Stand
	6, 7	Draws
7	Any	Stand
8, 9 (Natural)	Any	Stand

After the 3rd card is drawn and the winner is declared, here’s what you get as payouts:

Winner	Bet on	Payout
Player’s Hand	Player	Even money
Banker’s Hand	Banker	Even money less 5% commission, rounded off to the lowest chip denomination
Tie	Player/Banker	Push

Let’s play a simple game to illustrate the payouts. You bet on the banker for $100 and deal. The player gets a hand of 2 and 10, and the banker gets J and 6. Point values of the player and the banker are 2 and 6 respectively. Following the rules tabled above, the player can draw a third card, which happens to be K. The player’s total remains at 2, and the banker’s at 6. The latter has a score closer to 9, and is therefore the winner.

What is your payout in this game? Following the rule illustrated above, if you bet on the banker who finally wins, you pay 5% commission (also known as vigorish, or vig, or juice) and get your $95 back.

In another round of the game, you Rebet $100 on the player. The player’s hand has 3 and A, and the banker has a hand of 8 and 8. Point values of the player and the banker are 4 and 6 respectively. The player is permitted to draw a card as per the rules, and in doing so, gets a 4, increasing his total to 8. He now has a score of 8, and you win even money of $100 on the game.

Strategy

Know the Best Bet The best of the Baccarat tips is to raise your odds of winning in the game by finding the best bet. From among the three betting options in the game namely, the banker, the player and the tie, it is always a better deal to wager on the banker’s hand. The reason is plain and simple! In a six-deck game of Baccarat, the winning odds on the banker’s bet are basically 45.87% which is much higher than the other betting options.

Avoid Betting on Tie It is always safe to avoid betting on “Tie” because the winning odds on this bet are much lower with just 9.51% in a six card-deck game of Baccarat. However, the payout odds are no doubt significantly higher on the tie bet. In spite of these higher payouts attached to it gaming experts insist that it is best avoided. Obviously because the house-edge is even higher on the tie with something like, 14% to 15%.

Samples of the 1-3-2-6 Money Management Betting System The 1-3-2-6 betting system of money management usually associated with Blackjack can also be applied to the game of Baccarat. This betting system moves back and forth with your first bet value being 1 unit, the second bet is 3 units, third bet is 2 units and fourth bet is for 6 units.

For example, if each unit is $5, then your first bet would be of $5. And if you win, another $5 is added to give you a total of $10. Now, your second bet would be for three units that is, $15 ($5 bet + $5 bet + $5 win = $15). If you win on your second bet as well, you’ll have $30 on the table. Keep aside $20 from your $30 credits and wager with $10 ($30 -$20 = $10) on your third bet. After winning on this bet, you’ll have $20. Dip into the earlier $20 that you kept aside, and take $10; add this to the $20 credits that you got through the win on the third bet. Your fourth bet is for six units –that is, $30. After winning on your fourth bet, you’ll have $60 plus the $10 that you kept aside thus leaving you with $70.

This system provides an interesting betting strategy that gets you the probability of making huge profits by putting at stake a small amount. Here is how:

• If you lose your first bet, you lose $5.
  
  
• If you lose on your second bet, your loss would be of $10 because you added another $5 to it.
  
  
• If you lose at the third betting level, you will still save $10 as you have bet with just $ 10 and kept side $20.
  
  
• However, if you lose at the fourth level of betting you just manage to break even. because you have kept aside the net profit of $10 but at the same time you have also lost $10 while betting for the fourth time.
  
  
• If you complete your first betting session of 1-3-2-6 units without losing, you can go back to the first unit and start all over again. You must also start betting from scratch with one unit of $5 every time you lose on any of the four betting levels.
  
  
• In spite of the popularity of 1-3-2-6 betting system, Cool Cat Casino doesn’t guarantee you any win and recommends that you test it for yourself on the free casino games of Baccarat.

Tips

Online Baccarat is definitely a game of chance, but you can use the history tool to make the right guesses. As in other online casino games, it’s a good idea to practice on the ‘play for fun’ mode of Baccarat. Select the ‘History’ panel on the left of the game table which keeps a track of the wins by the player, banker and tie. Several sessions of Baccarat on Cool Cat Casino will help you assess the pattern of the game, and you can make a fairly educated guess in your ‘play for money’ sessions.

Simple Baccarat rules, high payouts and an engaging game, is what makes it so much fun to play. When you’ve decided to gamble through an online casino, and have a medium sized bankroll, Baccarat is one of the games you can include on your menu.

Starting off with bets that are on the lower end of the table limit, you can play a game or two to test the waters. You can be a little more adventurous once you’ve made some money, and have understood the pattern the game is following.

History

The origins of Baccarat(pronounced bacc-a-rah) are unclear, though the meaning of the word ‘Baccarat’, zero, in Italian suggests that the game started in Italy. Most of the cards have a point total of 0 which is perhaps how the game got its name. The English and French also lay claim to the game, and Baccarat was popular with the French nobles in the 15th century where it was, and still is called Chemim de Fer, meaning railroad.

The Italians are believed to have used a deck of tarot cards to play the game way back in 1480, when it was introduced by Felix Falguierein, a gambler. Etruscan mythology centered in Italy and Corsica has an interesting tale that is said to have inspired Baccarat. Nine gods stood on tiptoes and prayed to a blonde virgin. They waited for her to throw a nine-sided dice. It was agreed that an 8 or a 9 would make her a priestess, a 6 or 7 would prevent her from engaging in any religious activity, and any number below that would have her walking into the sea.

The mid 20th century saw Argentina warming up to the game, especially at the Mar del Plata casinos. From here it moved to Cuba as the ‘punto banco’ game.

In the 1950s, the casinos at Las Vegas were introduced to Baccarat by Tommy Renzoni after the closure of casinos in Havana. Since then the game has acquired a select clientele amongst gamblers, the most famous of these being the enigmatic James Bond.

Structurally, Baccarat can be likened to Blackjack, and there are reports to suggest that the game was played as a version of Blackjack during the reign of King Louis Philippe between 1793 and 1850.

With online Baccarat, the game took a giant leap forward. From its exclusivity at select casinos, the game has moved to the desktop where it has become as accessible as the other casino games.

Glossary

Banker: Playing the role of a dealer in the game. Also called ‘banco’.

Player: playing against the dealer. Not necessarily meaning ‘you’ the person playing the game, but as a participant. Also called ‘punto’.

Tie: Not a third entity in the game, but as an option that both player and banker would have the same score.

Deal: Cards drawn out to player and banker to play the game.

Rebet: After the first round of a game, the bet of the same value is placed again to start another game.

Face cards: Jack, King and Queen, of any suit.

Stand: As per the rules of Baccarat, the player or the banker are not permitted to draw a third card to raise their total closer to 9 when their point values fall within a certain slab.

Natural: Two cards in a hand adding up to 8 or 9.

Le Grande: The perfect hand, 9

Petite hand: Hand adding up to 8

Baccarat: Apart from the name of the game, also means the worst hand to have (total of 0).

Vigorish: A 5% commission paid by you when you bet on the banker and the banker wins. Also referred to as ‘vig’ or ‘juice’.

Chemim de Fer: French term for the game of baccarat. Termed ‘chemmy’ in slang in England, and ‘shimmy’ in the US.

Bankroll: The money you are prepared to spend on a gambling session.

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