Live Baccarat Rules

Baccarat is a simple enough game to understand, however it's the betting part that a lot of people will have trouble with. It's highly advised that you play for free to get the hang of the game before you start playing for money. As far as adding is concerned, baccarat is a very simple game, all the court cards and the 10 cards will count as nothing and you only need to take notice of the right hand digit in two digit numbers.

Dealing in Baccarat

Two hands are dealt out, one for the 'player' and one for the dealer (or the bank). Many countries get the name for baccarat from this concept, naming it punto-banco (the player and the bank). The cards will be dealt face up since there is no advantage of hiding your cards as all bets are in before the cards are even dealt. Since the cards are dealt at random from a 6 or 8 deck shoe, there is no realistic way in which you can count cards, so it's not worth even trying.

Scoring in Baccarat

Once your live dealer has dealt your cards the scores of the cards will be totalled, a hand that adds up to either 8 or 9 is called a 'natural' and cannot be bettered, adding a card to this hand will only make it worse. Remember that you don't include the first digit, so if you've been dealt two 9's (making 18) it will still count as a natural as the last digit is an 8. The rules on whether you can draw another card are very strict; it will differ depending on whether it is the player or the dealer who has the hand.

For example if you're dealt a 9 and a 7 you will have a 6 (as you disregard the first digit), in this situation both the player and the dealer will 'stand pat'. However a hand with a nine and a 2 will make 1, allowing the player/dealer to draw another card. Whatever the player does will have an influence on what the dealer can do, these rules are very strict, but your live dealer will be familiar with all these rules and will help you out with them. As a player, you only have to really worry about your betting.

Betting in Baccarat

Betting is a simple system, you either bet on the player winning or the banker winning. You can also bet on a tie however this doesn't happen very often and is not advised to any newcomers to the game. A player bet pays 1:1 and a tie pays 8:1, however there is a levy on banker bets as they are more likely to win. Your dealer will pay out all of the winnings and keep any commission on any banker bets, so all you need to focus on is who to bet on.