Baccarat Strategy | Rules and Tips

Learn baccarat strategy and the basics of playing online

Learning baccarat strategy is pretty straight forward and beginners shouldn't let this exciting game intimidate them. We'll try to make your goal a bit easier to reach by providing some basic rules to help you to learn to play baccarat and give you an edge. First off baccarat is normally played with eight decks of cards. These are dealt from what is known as a shoe. If you are learning mini baccarat strategy you might be using only six decks. Each deck is a standard 52 card deck containing thirteen cards, aces through kings, in all four suits, although the suits have no bearing in the game.

There are two sides in the game of baccarat. These are the Player and the Banker, and no matter how many players are playing and betting in a game, only two hands will be dealt; one is for the Banker position and one for the Player position. We should mention that the exception would be in the baccarat 'banque' version, where there are two Player positions instead of one. For now we'll continue with the basic baccarat strategy and the general guidelines on how to play baccarat.

When following basic baccarat rules a player or bettor may choose either side to bet on and does so by placing their wager in the Banker or Player's position, whichever is chosen, corresponding to his or her numbered seat. After the bets are placed, each side will be dealt two cards.

In Nevada style baccarat (also known as punto banco), the players deal the cards. The shoe rotates counterclockwise around the table with each player having his or her turn at dealing. There is no advantage in dealing and a player may refuse the deal. If this happens, the shoe will be offered to the next player in turn.

The player acting as the dealer slides the first card face down to the 'caller', (the dealer who controls the pace and runs the game), and slips the second card, also face down, under the front corner of the shoe. And like its predecesor, the third card will go face down to the caller, and the fourth card, like the second, goes face down under the shoe.

Now each side has two cards. The Player position is represented by the caller's cards and the Banker position is represented by the two cards under the shoe.

The caller passes the two cards dealt to him, to the bettor with the highest wager on the Player's position. After examining the cards, the bettor will flip them back to the caller who then will announce the total.

These are meant to help with a better understanding of how to play baccarat and should suffice as the basic baccarat strategy and rules of play.