Whether at a sticky-floor California card room or in the tuxedo-laden casinos of Monaco, Baccarat is played with elegance and grace. It’s also a game that can be highly profitable if you know how to play it correctly. The rules of the game are simple, and a savvy player can reduce the house edge significantly.
In baccarat, six decks of cards are used and the players sit in a circle or oval table. The first player, who is also the banker, sets the initial betting amount and then other players go in counterclockwise order to announce their desire to play either as banker or player. Each player can add more bets as long as they don’t exceed the initial banker bet.
Once all the bets are placed, the dealer will deal two cards to the player and one card to the banker. The players can then place bets on the player or banker hand, or on a tie. The goal is to win by placing your chips on the hand with a total closer to nine than the other hand. The tens and face cards count as zero, while aces count as one.
A seasoned baccarat player has a clear strategy that works and he knows how to beat the game, but he won’t share it publicly. A clueless copycat might be able to pick up some tips and play the game more effectively, but he can’t be sure that his strategies will work until he sees the results in a real casino.
Baccarat has a reputation of being an elite game that’s only for wealthy casino patrons. In truth, baccarat is the perfect casino game for the new or casual player, as it’s easy to learn, and has a low house edge of only 1.6% when avoiding the tie bet.
A skilled baccarat player can also reduce the house edge even more by counting the cards, a practice that’s not illegal and has been employed by infamous high roller Phil Ivey. This strategy involves identifying tiny imperfections in the patterns on the backs of the cards, and is known as edge sorting. Using this method, Ivey has won more than $10 million in baccarat at Crockfords and the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. But even with a system, it’s important to remember that baccarat is still a game of chance and that you should always follow safe gambling practices.