A Comparison of Three Baccarat Variants

Baccarat is a seemingly effortless game to play with fairly good odds for players and a very welcome house edge. The game is so simple that you only have to think about three possible outcomes, which are a tie, player bet wins, or banker bet wins. All you ever have to do is to wager on the winning bet.

You can think of the valuation of the hands in this way: the player hand and the banker hand are given two cards each. A hand that has a total above nine will have the tens value taken off. If your hand totals 12, for example, 12 take away ten will come down to a total of 2. If you placed your bet on the winning hand then you get paid otherwise you lose your wager.

Punto Banco is a variant of baccarat. This is played on an oval table and usually will involve six to eight decks of cards in the game. In this baccarat variant only the croupier or the dealers are allowed to shuffle the cards. Cards are first dealt to the player hand then to the banker hand. Both hands get two cards each.

The total for both hands are called by the croupier and it will be determined at this point in the game if further cards are needed in either or both hands. If in the end both hands get equal totals then the tie bet wins. But if either the player hand or banker hand gets the higher total that will win this round.

Chemin de Fer is another variant of baccarat. This variant will have six decks in use for play. In this game, there's usually a basket at the center of the table where used cards are placed. In this baccarat variant the croupier will shuffle the cards first. As the game goes on each player will have the opportunity to shuffle the cards in their respective turns.

Cards are then given to one player who acts as the banker for that round. Other players will act as punters. If one player says "banco" this means that that player is playing against the current banker. The other rules of the game follow suit in this baccarat variant. If the current banker wins then he gets another chance to play banker if he wants to.

Baccarat banque is another variant of this game. This game usually involves only three decks. The player who takes the role of banker keeps that role until all cards are dealt. The only exception to this rule is for that player to retire or lose everything. If a banker decides to retire he should state the amount to which he is retiring.

These are three baccarat variants you'll usually find in casinos. What we've done is but a basic comparison and it may require practice before you get to completely comprehend how each game works.