Baccarat

Baccarat is a gambling card game. It is believed to have been introduced into France from Italy during the reign of Charles VIII of France (ruled 1483-1498), and it is similar to Faro and to Basset. There are three accepted variants of the game: baccarat chemin de fer (railway), baccarat banque (or a deux tableaux), and punto banco (or North American baccarat). Punto banco is strictly a game of chance, with no skill or strategy involved; each player's moves are forced by the cards the player is dealt. In baccarat chemin de fer and baccarat banque, by contrast, both players can make choices, which allows skill to play a large part.

Baccarat (pronounced bakəraː) is a simple game with only three possible results - 'Player', 'Banker' and 'Tie'. The term 'Player' does not refer to the customer and the term 'Banker' does not refer to the house. They are just options on which the customer can bet.

Procedure of Play
In mini-baccarat, the dealer places two cards, face up, to the left (the player hand) and then two cards, face up, to the right (the bank hand) at which point the two hands are compared, and, depending on the totals, a third card may or may not be dealt to either or both hands. You can place bets on the player hand, the banker hand or a tie hand.

The Rules
The cards numbered two through nine are worth their face value, the aces are valued at 1, and the tens and face cards have a value of 0. The suit is irrelevant. The game starts when you wager on 'player', 'banker', or tie, and “Deal.” Player and Banker are not the actual hands held by the player or the banker. They are just what the two hands are called. You may bet on Player and Tie at the same time, or Banker and Tie at the same time as well.

The dealer will give two cards to the player hand and two cards to the banker hand. The hand is scored using the right digit of the total of the cards. For example if the two cards were a 5 and a 9, then the total would be 14, and the score would be 4. The scores will always be between 0 and 9 and it is impossible to break.

A third card may or may not be dealt to the player and/or the dealer depending on the following rules:

Both the dealer hand and the banker hand stand stand if either has a total of 8 or 9. This rule takes precedence over all other rules.

The player hand is dealt a third card if it's total is 5 or under. Otherwise the player hand stands, in which case the banker hand would receive another card if it has a total of 5 or under.

The hand with the highest total is the winner. There is a 5% house commission charge for winning wagers on the bank hand. Winning wagers on the player hand are paid even money, and the payout for winning wagers on a tie is 8 to 1.