Online baccarat is a fun online casino game normally reserved for high-rollers in a traditional casino. Learn how to play baccarat online and jump in on this fun and exciting card game!
Baccarat is traditionally the fanciest one of all the online casino games. When you walk into a traditional casino you can usually identify the baccarat area by the fancy red rope sectioning off the baccarat table. You will also observe all the glamorous looking people around it in expensive tuxedos and designer gowns sipping their glass of champagne. The great thing is when you play at an online casino you can bypass having to try to mingle with the ultra rich – anyone can play online! You don’t have to spend a dime on ridiculously expensive clothing to fit in with the crowd, and you can also spend less on bets than what is typically being placed in the land-based casinos. Having said that, even when you play online you are still able to make very high bets if you are a high-roller. Baccarat caters for players who like to place high bets.
Baccarat is played with a traditional 52-card pack. When you play in a regular casino the cards are dealt by the dealer, when you play online they are dealt automatically or by an actual dealer if you choose to play the live dealer games.
A baccarat table typically has twelve seats – six on each side of the dealer. Sometimes you may find smaller tables online with only places for six players known as ‘mini baccarat’. There are numbers on each one of the spots and where you normally place your bets for each the banker or dealer is marked on the table.
There are only three possible outcomes in a game of baccarat – dealer wins, banker wins, or a tie between both. What you are aiming for is for the cards dealt to be the closest as possible to a nine. You don’t play against anyone, you just bet for a particular outcome of the cars.
The most popular kind of bet you can make is to bet on the player getting as close as possible to a nine. The payout is 1:1 with a house edge of only 1.36% - very low in the world of online casinos which is why this bet has become such a popular one amongst players.
The second bet is to bet on the banker, and this bet has an even lower house edge of 1.17%, however don’t be fooled by this low house edge. As the banker bets win more on average than the player bet, the house will pay you 19:20 on whatever you win from the game. You will be charged an in-built fee if you win this bet so take this into account if you want to bet on the banker.
You also have the option to bet on a tie between the banker and player, but this outcome really does not happen often at all, so if you play this bet be aware that it’s a risky bet. This bet pays 8:1 and this can lure quite a few people into placing money on a tie without realising that the house edge is actually 14.3% - a very high house edge and not really recommended to play.
When you play baccarat you receive two cards, and you want the value of the cards combined to be as closest to nine as possible. However you need to know how to count the value of each cards so you know what’s going on. When you play at online casinos the count is done automatically, but it’s always a good thing to know the card values so you have an understanding of what is happening throughout the game, and why you may win or lose a game. The cards are valued as follows:
• An Ace is worth 1
• The King, Queen, Jack and 10 are worth zero.
• 2-9 are worth their face value.
As you can see, it’s quite easy to go over 9 if you are dealt particular cards. Particular combinations of some of the other cards could push you over such as getting a 5 and 7 together, or an 8 and a 9 card combination.
When you log in to your online casino account to start playing baccarat, you need to follow these steps to play:
1) Move your chips to bet on either the player, banker, or a tie on the spots reserved for those bets on the table you see on the screen.
2) You will receive two cards which are face up, and then the banker gets two cards as well which are also face up. These cards are dealt automatically when you play online unless you are playing a live dealer game, in which case you will watch the live dealer over a camera deal the cards from the shoe.
3) When the banker or the player has an 9 or an 8 this is called a ‘natural hand’. What happens here is that the closest to the 9 wins the hand and the money from the bet.
4) If the player and banker have the same points after adding the value of their cards together, then the tie bets win in this case.
5) If neither the player nor dealer have a tie or a natural then the outcome of the players hand determines what will happen. When the player has either 7 or 6 points as his/her total card value then the player stands. But if the points are only 0-5 then the player has the option of adding another card and the total of all three cards is the total value of that hand.
What happens to the dealer is pre-determined by the dealers third card drawing rule. Whether or not the dealer draws that third card depends upon the value of his first two cards as is outlined below:
1) When the dealer has 7,8, or 9 points he stands.
2) When the dealer has 6 points – and the player’s third card was 6-7 the dealer takes another card.
3) When the dealer has 5 points and the player’s third card was 4-7 the dealer takes another card.
4) When the dealer has 4 points and the player’s third card was 2-7 the dealer takes another card.
5) When the dealer has 3 points and the player’s third card was any card value other than an 8 the dealer takes another card.
6) When the dealer has only 0-2 points he takes a third card.
Now you know how to play online baccarat, you can move on to learning baccarat strategy if you really want to know the best way to place your bets, and the odds involved! However, if you are feeling super confident or just ready to get right in there, then take your pick from the online casinos featured on this toplist.