Learn How To Play Baccarat - The Lowest House Edge Casino Game

When it comes to classic casino games, Baccarat is right up there with the best of them. This card game looks a lot like blackjack, but it's actually extremely different in every sense possible. Baccarat has a low house advantage, and you can help to make that advantage lower in some instances, but overall it's not really a skill-based game at all. Instead, it's based primarily around trying to find patterns in the results of the previous hands while you have a good time and place your bets.

To learn to play Baccarat well, you need to know the gameplay basics, the fundamentals of strategy, and how to get the best deals possible when it comes to getting value for your play.

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The Gameplay of Baccarat

The actual way that Baccarat is played is pretty straight-forward, and you can easily learn how to play it inside of a few minutes even if you don't understand the deeper concepts like the house advantage on each of the possible bets. To start off a hand of Baccarat, you place a bet. No matter how many players are at the table, there are always just two hands dealt. These hands belong to the “player” and to the “banker.”

In Baccarat, an ace is always worth one. The ten, jack, queen and king are always worth ten. The rest of the cards, two through nine, are worth their face values. The “ones” digit is the value that matters with these totals, and you want to try to get that as close as possible to nine without going over. So if the player has 25 and the banker has 16, the banker will win because his “ones” digit is the highest. This is significantly different than blackjack and is one of the things that will trip people up when they are first learning how to play.

Third Card Rule

Another important rule to be aware of is that of the "Third Card". On occasions, a third card is dealt by the dealer depending on the player's value, or the banker's value, or both.

Whether a third card is dealt or not is according to a complex table, and will be automatically dealt by the dealer so full knowledge of this table isn't required. However, just as that third card might work in your favour, it might also give the dealer a winning hand and so adds another exciting dimension to the game.

The Available Bets

Once you see how the basic gameplay works, you'll need to learn about the different bets that are available in Baccarat. Generally speaking, there are three major bets. You can bet on the banker hand, the player hand or a tie. A winning bet on the banker hand pays out at a rate of 95% (the house takes 5% commission as standard), so if you made a $10 bet and won, you'd get a profit of $9.50. The player bet pays out at 1:1, and the tie bet pays out at 8:1.

Never Bet on "Tie"

The tie bet in Baccarat is a total sucker bet that you should never make for any reason whatsoever. It has a massive house advantage of more than 14% making it one of the worst bets that you can place in any classic casino table game. 

Aside from that, the house advantage on both the banker bet and the player bet are about the same. For the banker bet, it's about 1.06%, and on the player bet, it's about 1.24%. These percentages can be different by a few hundredths of a percentage point depending on whether eight or six decks are used for the shoe, but it doesn't really make much of a difference.

Getting the Most From Promotions and Other Deals

Something that's really awesome about learning Baccarat is that it has a very low house advantage that's on the same scale as skill-based games that require tons of study and practice.

If you want to maximize your chances of winning in Baccarat, then instead of learning complex strategies, you should look to boost things on the promotional end with great deals. We have a couple of recommendations on the sites that you should play with to keep the value coming when you're playing Baccarat...

Baccarat at Betfair Casino

If you're a hardcore Baccarat fan, or if you're just getting started in the game, then Betfair is a good bet to be one of the best online casino establishments that you could go with. 

Live Dealer Baccarat

Something that makes Betfair really stand out is that they have live dealer Baccarat games that have the normal payouts and that feature a great atmosphere where you can chat with your dealer and the other players. The social aspect of Baccarat is often lost when you play online, but this isn't the case when you play with Betfair.

Zero Baccarat

Another great version of Baccarat that Betfair have to offer (and our game of choice) is "Zero Baccarat". In this variation, the casino's commission on "banker" bets is 2.76% rather than the usual 5%, which due to the odds of winning reduces the house edge to 0% - hence the name "Zero Baccarat".

Players who go with Betfair for their Baccarat play would be advised to cash in on our 15% cashback deal. The house advantage on Baccarat is low enough as it is, but when you add in 15 percent cashback rewards on your losses, then you will really maximize your winning chances.

Ruby Fortune Casino Baccarat

Ruby Fortune Casino is a great place to play Baccarat because they have the standard rules with standard payouts, and they have a long history of dealing with their players in respectable ways. Something that you should watch out for at Ruby Fortune is that they have a special pairs bet that you can make in some of their Baccarat games. This pays out if the player hand or banker hand are initially dealt two cards of the same rank. The payout rate on this bet is 11:1, but it's a trap bet much like the tie. The house advantage on this bet is a little over 10 percent making it a pretty bad way to go.

Aside from that, we have a special deal with Ruby Fortune that will allow you to get 10% cashback on your losses when you play Baccarat. If you're serious about boosting your chances of winning in your Baccarat sessions, then a deal like this is what you're going to need to make it happen. 

Our Verdict

The classic atmosphere created by Baccarat along with its long history means that it's probably not going away any time soon. If you learn to play this game without falling into the high-advantage bets, and if you combine that with a great cashback deal through a site like Betfair or Ruby Fortune, then you will be starting off on the right foot when it comes to having a successful Baccarat career.