Online Baccarat for Real Money

Baccarat is a game of chance, with no skill involved at all. But, by betting on the outcome with the lowest house edge, you can lose the least amount over the long run, meaning that it is also the most likely that you will win money.

The best strategy to use when playing baccarat is to always bet on the Bank. Even though you will have to pay 5% commission on each hand you win when betting on the Bank, that bet gives the house the lowest edge of any of the bets possible.

Best Online Casinos for Real Money Baccarat Games

Baccarat Betting Rules

Betting in the game of Baccarat is just probably the easiest part of this overall easy to understand game. When betting, you have 3 choices: Player, Bank or a Tie. You have to bet before any cards are shown on any of the 3 options provided. You do have the right to bet on the Bank!

The payouts if you win are the following: If you bet on the Player, you will get a 1 to 1 payout. Meaning that if you bet $50 on the Player and the Player wins, you will get $50 as win and your original $50 back. So, you basically doubled your wagered money.

When betting on the Bank, the payouts are also 1 to 1, with the small exception, that you have to pay a 5% commission back to the bank. The reason therefore is that the Bank does have a statistical advantage over the Player.

It is important to know that in Brick & Mortar casinos, this commission will be paid at the end, right before you leave. Therefore, make sure that you always have enought money to pay this commission when leaving. When playing Baccarat online, this commission will automatically be deducted from your winnings and you can gamble with as much money as you have in your casino account, without having to worry about the Baccarat commission for the bank.

Payouts when betting on a Tie are usually 8 to 1. For each dollar wagered, you will get $8, plus your original $1 should the Tie happen. But, even though the Tie has highest payout, it is the worst bet on the table.

Baccarat Hand Values

Hand Values in Baccarat should also be fairly easy to understand. Before being able to explain hand values, it should be noted what the card values are. All face cards (Jack, Queen and King) have no value. Aces count 1 and all cards less than 10 (2 to 9) count at face value. Note that the suit of the cards do not matter in the game of Baccarat.

Because 2 cards are dealt before adding up the value of the cards, it’s easily possible that the cards of the Player or Bank have a value of over 9. In this case, the left digit of the double digit number will simply be dropped.

For example, this means that if the player or the bank show a 5 and an 8 as their cards, the value of these cards is 13, which would count like 3 in the game of baccarat. Should there be 3 cards drawn and a participant would have a total hand value of 24 for example, the hand would be valued at 4 in the game of Baccarat.

So, the easiest way to determine the hand value in the game of baccarat is to add up the face values of the cards a player has and then just looking at the last digit of the total. Whoever is closer to 9 wins!

Note:
When playing Baccarat at a Brick & Mortar Casino, you might see many players keeping track of what has happened in the past hands using a score card. They try to analyze these scorecards in order to find a trend. Well, these scorecards are a waste of time.

Unlike in blackjack, the outcome of previous hands does not have any effect on the outcome of future hands. If the Bank won 9 times in a row, the probability that the Bank will win a 10th time in a row is still 50%.