Baccarat Rules
Baccarat is played with eight decks of cards in a shoe. Cards with less than a value of ten are said to be at their printed number whereas ten, J, Q, K are 0, and A are each applied a value of 1. Wagers are placed on the ‘banker,’ the ‘player’ or for a tie (these aren’t actual people; they only portray the 2 hands to be dealt).
2 hands of two cards are then given out to the ‘banker’ … ‘player’. The score for any hand is the sum total of the two cards, but the very first digit is dumped. For e.g., a hand of 7 … five results in a tally of 2 (7plusfive=12; drop the ‘1′).
A third card could be played depending on the following guidelines:
- If the player or banker has a value of 8 or nine, the two players stand.
- If the gambler has five or lower, he/she hits. Players stand otherwise.
- If gambler stands, the banker hits of 5 or lower. If the bettor hits, a chart shall be used in order to determine if the banker stands or hits.
Baccarat Odds
The higher of the two scores wins. Successful stakes on the banker pay out 19 to twenty (even money less a five percent commission. Commission is kept track of and paid out when you leave the table so ensure that you have funds left before you leave). Winning bets on the player pay 1 to 1. Winner bets for tie generally pay out 8 to one but on occasion 9 to one. (This is a bad wager as ties occur less than one every 10 hands. Avoid placing bets on a tie. Nonetheless odds are considerably better – nine to one vs. 8 to 1)
Played effectively, baccarat provides fairly good odds, aside from the tie wager of course.
Baccarat Tactics
As with many games, Baccarat has some well-known false impressions. 1 of which is similar to a misconception of roulette. The past is in no way a predictor of future results. Tracking of previous results on a chart is a total waste of paper … a slap in the face for the tree that gave its life to be used as our stationary.
The most commonly used and probably most successful tactic is the 1-3-two-six concept. This scheme is deployed to magnify profits and minimizing risk.
Begin by gambling one unit. If you win, add 1 more to the 2 on the table for a total of 3 on the 2nd bet. If you win you will have six on the table, remove four so you have 2 on the 3rd wager. If you win the third gamble, add 2 to the 4 on the table for a grand total of six on the fourth wager.
If you lose on the 1st bet, you suck up a loss of one. A win on the first bet followed up by loss on the second brings about a loss of 2. Wins on the 1st 2 with a loss on the 3rd gives you a profit of two. And wins on the first three with a loss on the 4th mean you breakeven. A win on all four bets leaves you with twelve, a profit of ten. In other words you can fail to win the 2nd bet 5 times for every successful streak of 4 bets and still break even.