Baccarat

What you need & setup

1. Choose someone to act as dealer; the dealer runs both hands and never makes decisions.
2. Give each participant an equal stack of scoring chips (points only).
3. Shuffle a standard 52-card deck well.
4. Before dealing, each participant stakes chips on one of three outcomes: Player, Banker, or Tie.
5. Deal two cards face up to the Player hand and two to the Banker hand.
6. Resolve the hands using the fixed drawing rules, then settle the chips.

Turn sequence

1. Everyone places their chip stake on Player, Banker, or Tie.
2. The dealer deals two cards to each hand: Player first, then Banker.
3. If either hand totals 8 or 9 (a natural), both hands stand and the round ends immediately.
4. Otherwise, the fixed rules decide whether the Player hand draws a third card.
5. The fixed rules then decide whether the Banker hand draws, based on the Banker's total and (if the Player drew) the Player's third card.
6. Totals are compared; the hand closer to 9 wins.
7. Chips are settled: correct predictions win, incorrect ones lose their stake.
8. Cards are cleared and a new round begins.

The Goal

Baccarat rounds are a contest between two hands dealt on the table: the Player hand and the Banker hand. Confusingly, you are not 'the Player' — both hands belong to the table, and you simply predict which will win.

The hand closer to a total of 9 wins the round. Your only decision in the whole game is which outcome to back before the deal.

Card Values and Totals

Aces count 1. Cards 2 through 9 count face value. Tens and face cards (10, J, Q, K) count 0.

Only the last digit of a total matters. 7♥ + 8♣ = 15, which counts as 5. K♦ + 9♠ = 9 — the best possible start. This means no hand can ever bust.

Examples: 4♣ + 3♦ = 7. Q♠ + Q♥ = 0. 6♦ + 7♣ + 9♥ = 22, which counts as 2.

Naturals

If either hand's first two cards total 8 or 9, that is a natural. Both hands stand immediately and the round is decided on those totals.

A natural 9 beats a natural 8. If both hands hold equal naturals, the round is a tie.

The Third-Card Rules

When there is no natural, fixed rules — sometimes called the tableau — decide all drawing. Nobody chooses; the dealer just follows the table.

In summary: the Player hand draws a third card on totals of 0–5 and stands on 6–7. The Banker hand always draws on 0–2, always stands on 7, and on totals of 3–6 draws or stands depending on the value of the Player's third card.

You never need to memorize the full Banker table to play — the dealer (or a printed chart) applies it automatically. Just know that every draw is forced, never chosen.

Ending the Round

Once drawing is complete — each hand ends with two or three cards — the totals are compared and the hand nearer 9 wins.

Backers of the winning hand collect chips; backers of the losing hand forfeit their stake. If the totals are equal, the round is a tie: Tie stakes win a large bonus, while Player and Banker stakes are traditionally returned as a push.

Scoring & how the game ends

• Chips are points only. A correct Player prediction wins even: stake 2, win 2.
• A correct Banker prediction traditionally wins even minus a small commission (score it as winning 19 chips per 20 staked, or simply play even at home) — the discount exists because the drawing rules make Banker win slightly more often.
• A correct Tie prediction traditionally scores 8-to-1, reflecting how rarely ties occur.
• Play a fixed number of rounds and compare final chip stacks to crown a session winner.

Winning: Win a round by correctly predicting which hand — Player or Banker — finishes closer to a total of 9, or that the round ties.

Common variations

These are genuine regional and house-rule differences — none of them is “the one true way” to play. Agree with your table before starting.

• Multi-deck shoe

  Six or eight decks are shuffled together and dealt from a shoe, reducing shuffle breaks. The rules are unchanged.

  Common: The norm in formal card rooms; single deck is fine at home

• No-commission scoring

  Winning Banker predictions pay fully even, except a Banker win with a total of exactly 6 pays half. A modern simplification of the commission.

  Common: Popular in many Asian card rooms

• Chemin de Fer

  An older variant where participants take turns holding the Banker role and the Player side genuinely chooses whether to draw on a total of 5.

  Common: Historically France; now mostly a curiosity

• Mini-baccarat pace

  A streamlined table where only the dealer touches the cards, making rounds much faster. Rules are identical to standard Punto Banco.

  Common: Common in North American rooms

A little history

Baccarat is generally traced to Europe, with Italy and France both credited in different accounts, and it became fashionable in French society by most tellings.

The version taught here, Punto Banco, is the fully automatic variant that spread widely in the 20th century; older variants like Chemin de Fer gave players real decisions.