How to Play Baccarat
August 9th, 2012Baccarat is one of the games that was meant to be played in a casino. This game more then just about any other is about being social and rooting for the player to win. Most times at the high roller table, it is considered bad etiquette to bet against the player. When you get to the Mini Baccarat tables, this rule doesn’t apply as often.
There are two differences between the High Roller baccarat and Mini baccarat. First, the Mini baccarat table can only seat about half of the people and has only a single dealer compared to the multiple dealers present at the High Stakes baccarat tables.
Second, the gamblers at the tables will take turns being the Player at the High Stakes tables; this gives that player the chance to handle the cards and slowly reveal the cards as others root. In Mini Baccarat, the dealer handles all of the cards and there is less dramatics while playing a hand.
There are only two ways to make this become a successful online casino game:
1) Play at a Live Dealer Baccarat table over the internet.
2) Play with baccarat software that doesn’t deal the cards too fast.
Although I like Real Time Gaming (like Lucky Red Casino), the software deals the cards too fast and you don’t get a good idea of what to root for unless you are an expert. Therefore, it almost turns into a coin flip and isn’t very exciting for casual players.

I do like to play baccarat online with casino software creators like Net Entertainment, Playtech and Microgaming. Those three do a better job of giving you a few seconds between dealing the first two cards to the Banker and Player.
When it comes to playing at a Live Baccarat table, there is no place better than Bet365 Casino.
They offer both European Live Baccarat dealers and Asian Live Baccarat dealers as well.
When you play live baccarat, you are able to watch the dealer shuffle the cards and deal as if you were at the casino. This takes away the dreaded “payout percentage” that the computer software games are programmed with.
There may be a Random Number Generator that virtually shuffles the cards and produces a random hand each and every time.
But it is also true that these games have algorithms that determine when the House has won or lost too much money and adjusts the RNG to achieve that payout percentage.
That is why I prefer to play the Live Dealer baccarat tables. The cards are shuffled up and dealt; they aren’t randomly generated.
How to Play Baccarat
Finding a good place to play is important, which is why I took up so much of the post explaining my view on this subject. But, it is even more important to know why that critical third card is dealt to either the Player, Banker or both.
By this point, you should know that the object of the game is to bet on whether the Player or Banker will get a higher point total on a particular hand. Both the Player and Banker will be dealt 2 cards. Based on these two cards, the game can either continue or end right there.
If either the Player or Banker receives a point total of 8 or 9 in the first two cards, it is referred to as a Natural and the game will end without a third card being dealt.
Otherwise:
If the Player receives a 6 or 7, the Player will stand and not take a third card. If the Banker has 5 or less, the Banker must take a third card.
If the Player receive 5 or less, the Player must take a third card. Based upon the Player point total, the Banker will either draw a third card or stand:
If the Player’s 3 card total is 8, the Banker will take a third card if he has 0, 1 or 2 and stand with 3 or higher.
If the Player’s 3 card total is 0, 1 or 9, the Banker will take a third card with 3 points or less.
If the Player’s 3 card total is 2 or 3, the Banker will stand with 5, 6 or 7 points.
If the Player’s 3 card total is 4 or 5, the Banker will stand with 6 or 7 points.
If the Player’s 3 card total is 6 or 7, the Banker will stand with 7 points.
The Dealer will always hit with 0, 1 or 2 and will always stand with 7 points.
Mini-Baccarat is played with six or eight decks of cards. The cards are shuffled by the dealer and placed in a shoe. All cards in Mini-Baccarat are dealt by the dealer.
