Baccarat is one of the most popular casino games in the world, generating more revenue than any other table game. Its high-limit players can bet $100,000 per hand, and a single game in Macau can generate more than the whole of the annual revenues of some other casinos. Despite its lack of skill or strategy, it seems to attract a certain kind of player: a sort of huncher who can’t help laying down money on irrational trends and irrational long shots.
There are several different versions of baccarat, but the basics are simple. Two hands of cards are dealt, the player’s and the banker’s. The winner is whichever hand comes closest to nine. Picture cards and tens have zero points; all other cards are worth their face value, and an ace is worth one point. Point values are added up to a total, and when the points reach double digits, the second digit becomes the hand’s value.
The game has a reputation for being slow, with bets placed on either side of the table and each player taking their turn in rotation. This slowness is not entirely due to the nature of the game but rather the fact that there are two independent, identical games running simultaneously. Each banker and player must deal cards, shuffle them, and take turns putting up bets in both games. This leads to the perception of a slow game but the reality is that the tables are actually very fast, and players’ bets come in and out in the blink of an eye.
As the cards are dealt, a beautiful ritual unfolds. First, the six decks of cards are cracked open and washed in swirls across the table. Then they’re grouped together and loaded into the shoe. The pre-shuffled cards allow the game to start more quickly than would be possible with standard procedure, where eight new decks must be inspected (backs and faces) by both the floor supervisor and the dealer before being inserted into a machine or manually reshuffled.
A banker’s commission is paid if the player wins, and a tie bet pays 8-to-1. But even though this is a very low-edge bet, a good player can still profit from it if they make a series of smart decisions.
The baccarat table is a little bigger than a craps table. It has from seven to 14 seats for players and a croupier’s area. The players are seated in random order, and play begins to the right of the croupier. There are three bets: banker, player, and tie. Players choose their bets based on which of the two opposing hands they think will have the highest total value.
During the game, players’ bets are tracked on scoreboards, which show the results of previous hands. The boards also display “free hands,” which allow the dealer to redraw any cards that have been drawn incorrectly, without losing the bet. The scoreboards are an important tool for baccarat managers, who use them to identify winning patterns. They can then advise customers if those patterns will repeat, or “chop” between Player and Banker.
