How to Play Baccarat: Rules, Bets & Odds
Baccarat is easy to play and has one of the lowest house edges in the casino. Learn the rules, the drawing sequence and the odds of every bet.
Baccarat has a reputation as a high-roller game, but it is one of the simplest games in the casino. You never touch a card and you never make a decision during the hand. All of the strategy comes before the cards are dealt, when you choose one of only three bets. This guide covers how a hand works, how the drawing rules decide it, and why one bet is clearly better than the others.
Table Edge is a free practice site: everything here uses practice chips with no cash value, and nothing in this guide guarantees a win.
How a hand works
Two hands are dealt: the Player hand and the Banker hand. These are just names. You are not the Player and the casino isn't the Banker, and you can bet on either one. You bet on which hand will finish with the higher total, or on a Tie. Once your bet is down, the outcome is automatic. Fixed rules decide every card that is drawn, and nobody at the table has any choice.
Counting a hand
- Cards 2 through 9 are worth their face value.
- Tens and face cards (10, J, Q, K) are worth zero.
- Aces are worth one.
Add up the cards in a hand and keep only the last digit. That is the hand's point total, from 0 to 9. A 7 and an 8 make 15, which counts as 5. Nine is the best possible total.
How a hand plays out
- The Player and Banker are each dealt two cards.
- If either hand totals 8 or 9 right away, that is a natural. Both hands stand, no more cards are drawn, and the higher total wins.
- Otherwise, fixed drawing rules decide whether the Player gets a third card, and then whether the Banker does.
- The hand with the higher total (0 to 9) wins. Equal totals are a Tie.
The drawing rules
You don't need to memorise these, because the dealer applies them for you. But they are the reason the Banker bet is slightly better than the Player bet, so here they are.
The Player hand:
- Draws a third card on a total of 0 to 5.
- Stands on 6 or 7.
The Banker hand follows its own table. If the Player stood (no third card), the Banker draws on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. If the Player drew a third card, the Banker acts like this:
| Banker's total | Banker draws if the Player's third card was | Banker stands if it was |
|---|
| 0, 1 or 2 | Any card | (never stands) |
| 3 | Anything except 8 | 8 |
| 4 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 | 0, 1, 8 or 9 |
| 5 | 4, 5, 6 or 7 | 0, 1, 2, 3, 8 or 9 |
| 6 | 6 or 7 | 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 or 9 |
| 7 | (never draws) | Always |
The three bets
Over the long run, with a standard 8-deck shoe, the Banker hand wins 45.86% of hands, the Player hand wins 44.62%, and the rest (9.52%, about one hand in eleven) are ties.
| Bet | Pays | House edge |
|---|
| Banker | 1:1, minus a 5% commission | 1.06% |
| Player | 1:1 | 1.24% |
| Tie | 8:1 | 14.36% |
Banker: the best bet
Banker wins slightly more often than Player, because of the drawing rules above. To make up for it, the casino takes a 5% commission on winning Banker bets. So a winning $100 Banker bet pays $95, not $100. Even after the commission, Banker has the lowest house edge on the table at 1.06%.
Player: nearly as good
Player pays a full 1:1 with no commission, and its house edge is 1.24%. It is almost as good as Banker, and simpler, with no commission to keep track of. Betting Banker or Player are both sensible choices. The difference between them is small.
Tie: avoid it
The Tie bet pays 8:1, which looks generous. But the true odds of a tie are worse than that, and the gap between the payout and the real odds is what produces a 14.36% house edge. That is about 14 times the cost of the Banker bet. Even at a 9:1 payout it would still cost 4.84%. On a Tie, Player and Banker bets are returned (a push), so a tie doesn't cost them anything.
"No commission" tables
Some casinos advertise commission-free baccarat. It isn't free. The house makes up the difference in another rule:
- EZ Baccarat pushes a Banker win made with a three-card total of 7. The house edge on Banker becomes 1.02%.
- Super 6 pays only half on a Banker win with a total of 6. The house edge on Banker becomes 1.46%.
The baccarat commission calculator shows the exact edge of each variation. For comparison, a 4% commission would cut the Banker edge to 0.60%, and the bet would be fair at a commission of about 2.69%, which is why casinos never charge that little.
Scoreboards and patterns
Baccarat tables display scoreboards ("roads") that record the last results as a grid of red and blue marks. Many players believe these patterns can predict the next hand. They can't: each hand is dealt from a shuffled shoe and the past results don't change what comes next. The roads guide explains how to read the boards, and why they are decoration rather than information.
The one strategy that matters
Bet Banker (or Player) every time, accept the 5% commission on winning Banker bets, and never bet Tie. That is the entire strategy. With no decisions to make during the hand, baccarat's house edge is set only by which of the three bets you choose, and Banker is consistently the lowest.
Money and mindset
Baccarat hands are quick and the bets are often large, so it is easy to lose track of the total. Decide beforehand how much you can afford to lose and treat it as the cost of the entertainment. The bankroll simulator shows how wide the swings can be even on the best bets.
If gambling is affecting your life, you can reach the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700.
Quick recap
- There are only three bets. Banker (1.06%) and Player (1.24%) are good, and Tie (14.36%) is a trap.
- Banker's 5% commission is the price of its small edge, and it is still the cheapest bet.
- "No commission" tables change other rules, so check them before you play.
- The drawing rules are fixed, the scoreboards don't predict anything, and nothing you do during a hand changes it.
Ready to practise? Try the bet trainer and odds table, then play at the free baccarat table. To compare baccarat with other games, see the best odds in the casino.
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