How to Play Baccarat – The Ultimate Baccarat Guide

The Player bet means backing the Player hand to finish closer to 9 than the Banker hand. It’s considered the simplest bet in baccarat, but I don’t see it any simpler than the Banker bet. If you win, the payout is 1:1. There’s no commission on this bet, which means that the payout is 100% yours. If you were to place a A$100 bet on Player, and the hand wins, you win A$200. That’s why many consider it ‘cleaner’ compared to the Banker bet, where the casino takes a 5% cut.

In practice, here’s what happens: the Player hand is dealt two cards. If those two cards total 6 or 7, the Player stands and no more cards are drawn. If they total 0-5, the Player automatically gets a third card. And if the Player’s first two cards make an 8 or 9, that’s called a natural. In the case of a natural on any side (Player or Banker), the round stops immediately, no one draws, and the higher total wins. If both hands have the same score, it’s a Tie.

Statistically, the Player bet is a bit weaker than the Banker bet. The house edge is 1.24%, which is much smaller than many other games in the casino (like roulette, for example), but slightly worse than the Banker’s 1.06%. Still, many players stick to the Player bet because they see it as a simpler one; the third card rule is straightforward, and it doesn’t involve paying commission.

The big misconception is that if you bet on Player, you’re somehow the Player yourself. Remember, the hand in baccarat is just a label, as both hands are dealt automatically by the dealer, and you’re only betting on the outcome.

The Banker bet is statistically the strongest bet in baccarat, and I always recommend it if you’re playing the standard version. With this bet, you back the Banker hand to come closer to 9 than the Player hand. If it wins, the payout is 1:1, but unlike the Player bet, there’s a 5% commission taken from your winnings, so if you were to bet A$100 on the Banker and win, you’ll win A$195. The commission is paid because the Banker is the mathematically stronger side, but even with it, the Banker is still the stronger side.

So, why does the Banker bet have the edge? It’s all about the third-card drawing rule, which favours the Banker hand. At the start of every round, both the Player and Banker hands get two cards, and if either side has a natural 8 or 9, it wins immediately. But if there’s no natural, things get more complicated.

If the Player has a score of 0 to 5, they always draw a third card first, and the card they draw affects what the Banker does (which is where the advantage comes in). This is the third card rule for the Banker:

• If the Banker has a 0-2, they always draw a third card regardless of what the Player draws.
• If the Banker has 3, they draw a card unless the Player’s third card was an 8.
• If the Banker has 4, they draw a card if the Player’s card was 2-7.
• If the Banker has 5, they draw if the Player’s third card was 4-7.
• If the Banker has 6, they only draw if the Player’s third card was 6 or 7.
• If the banker has 7, they always stand.

I know that this sounds very complicated, but what these rules mean is that the Banker doesn’t follow a fixed formula like ‘draw on 0-5, stand on 6 and 7’, but it reacts to what the Player’s third card was.

Let’s say that the Banker has a total of 4. Hypothetically, if the Player stood, the Banker wouldn’t draw because the chance of improving is low.

However, if the Player draws a third card 5, the Banker’s conditional rule says that they must ‘draw’ on 4 when the Player’s third card is 2-7. It’s important to point out that the Banker doesn’t choose whether to draw. The drawing rules are fixed for the Banker bet, too.

Essentially, the Banker has an extra piece of information (that the Player’s third card was a 5), which changes the expected value of drawing enough to justify taking a card. If the Player’s third card was an 8, the Banker would stand on a total because the Player’s third card makes a Banker draw less desirable. It’s not much, but these small adjustments in many different scenarios tilt the advantage slightly toward the banker.

Tip from Australian Gamblers: Despite the 5% commission, I suggest you always take the Banker bet. Statistically, the Banker hand wins ~45.86% of rounds, the Player hand wins ~44.62% of rounds, and ~9.52% of rounds end in a Tie, so despite the 5% commission, the Banker bet has the better odds of winning and a house edge of just 1.06%.

The Tie bet in baccarat happens when the Player and Banker hands finish with the same total, whether after two or three cards. In other words, it doesn’t matter if the Tie happens after a natural 8 or 9, or after a third card has been drawn according to the drawing rules.

Expectedly, the Tie is the least common outcome in baccarat, so the payout for this bet is 8:1. However, although the payout looks good, this is the worst main bet you can take.

The house edge is extremely high at around 14.36%, which is far, far worse than the Player or Banker bets. This is because the payout doesn’t reflect the true odds, and Ties are not very common in practice.

Statistically, if you were to bet on Tie ten times in a row, you would win only about 1 in 10, which means that your wins won’t cover for your losses. Most players generally avoid the Tie bet entirely because mathematically, it’s a trap.

Side bets are fairly common in baccarat, especially in online casino baccarat tables. They’re a modern casino invention to make the game ‘more exciting,’ but in reality, they’re a way for the casino to make more money. While they can be fun for a bet or two, they come with a much higher house edge, which means they’re a terrible choice in the long run.

Some popular baccarat side bets are:

• Pairs – It’s a side bet that the first two cards dealt to either the Player or Banker will be a pair, like two 7s or two Kings. The payout is usually 11:1, but it still has a house edge of over 10%.
• Player/Banker Bonus – With this side bet, you’re betting that the Player or Banker will win with a margin of 4 points or more (like 9 vs 5, for example). It usually pays 7:1 or 8:1, but the house edge is from 4% to 6%, so it’s not really a good bet.
• Perfect Pairs – This is a popular side bet which requires that both cards be identical in rank and suited (like, two As of Spades, for example). The payout is 25:1, but the odds are extremely low, so they’re more of a gamble than a bet you want to be making long term.

Chemmy is the actual variant that James Bond plays in Casino Royale. It’s one of the oldest baccarat versions, and it’s hard to find at online casinos. Here, the Players actually play in the game against the Banker, and the third card is drawn face down. If you’re the Banker in Chemin de Fer baccarat, you do need to pay out the other players.

Dragon Tiger is a very popular live casino variant. It’s not really baccarat, but it’s a card comparison game, so people often consider it to be a variant of baccarat. The Dragon and the Tiger get one card each, and the side with the higher card wins.

EZ Baccarat is also known as ‘no commission baccarat’ because it doesn’t charge the usual 5% commission on Banker wins. Instead, there’s a special rule where the Banker wins with a three-card 7, which results in a push rather than a standard payout. What’s important for you is that the RTP is a bit higher at almost 99%.

Super 6 is probably the second most common variant (after Punto Banco) you’ll find at Australian online casinos. It follows the standard Punto Banco rules, but there’s no 5% commission on Banker wins.

Instead, the Banker bet pays half if the Banker has a total score of 6. However, the RTP is largely the same, so it doesn’t really matter if you choose Punto Banco or Super 6. The only real difference is that Super 6 adds a ‘Super 6’ optional side bet that pays out 12:1 (if one side has a 6).

This variant is only available in some land-based casinos in Asia or as a live casino game. The idea is that the ‘squeeze’ adds suspense to the game.

The rules are exactly the same as standard baccarat, but the cards are first dealt face down, and the dealer takes around 5-6 seconds to turn them up. My tip would be to avoid this variant because if you’re anything like me, you’ll be cringing out on the ‘squeeze’, and it’s super-frustrating to wait so long to get the result.