TheSunCasino – Baccarat is played at a rather large table with spaces for up to twelve players. In front of each players designated spot there are three sections named Tie, Banker and Player.
Depending on country and casino the dealer then shuffles 6 or 8 decks of cards and places them in a shoe. All of the cards up 9 hold their face value, tens and picture cards count as zero and the ace counts as 1. The shoe is then passed around the table in a clockwise position, the person that holds the shoe is known as the bank, and the shoe will remain with them whilst ‘bank’ wins. Firstly all the players place their chips on one of the three sections (Tie, Banker or Player), then the ‘bank’ deals out four cards, the first to the player, second to the bank, third to the player and fourth to the bank. The object of the game is to pick which out of the Banker or Player will get the closest to 9 without going over. There are no choices to be made by the players and no decisions to be made other than which of the three spots to bet on and how much!
If with the first two cards drawn either the player or the banks total is an 8 or a 9 this is classed as a ‘natural’. If a natural is drawn then no further cards will be pulled against this hand, if the two cards drawn to either the player or the banker do not total to 8 or 9 then there are some complicated rules as to what cards are pulled, but this is of no real concern to the averageplayer. Basically now if the Player hand has the closest to 9 then players who chose ‘Player’ will receive a payout of evens, or if the Banker hand has the closest to 9 then the players that chose ‘Banker’ will also receive a payout of evens. If the outcome is that both Player AND Banker received a natural of 8 or 9 and the players bet was on ‘Tie’ then they will receive a payout at odds of 9/1.
