Online Casino Baccarat Rules and Betting

Baccarat has a long association with big bets and a high lifestyle. Popularly seen in many a spy file, baccarat is available at many online casinos for players with more modest budgets. Unlike playing the game in the real casino world, online casino players simply bet on the outcome: whether the player's hand will win, or the banker's hand, or whether it will be a tie. For those who would like to pronounce it correctly, it's "BAH-kah-rah".

Baccarat Betting Revealed

A hand's value is calculated by adding up the values of each card. Each card counts as its own face numerical value, expect for tens and face cards, which are counted as zero. The total of a baccarat hand is then determined. To find the value of a hand, the last digit of that total is taken, thus making all baccarat hands worth between 0 to 9.

Between the player(s) and the banker, the highest hand wins. Should the player and the dealer hands be equal in value, the game is a tie. If any hand's first two cards total 8 or 9, the game ends and the hand is declared a 'natural'.

There are a variety of standard 'third card rules' that determine whether more cards are dealt should a natural not occur. Online baccarat players need not worry about these rules as ultimately they are betting on either hand winning or a tie. How the results are determined are immaterial to the betting itself.

Baccarat rules usually payout 1 to 1 odds when betting on the player. Betting on the banker will cost you a 5% commission to the house, thus making the odds 0.95:1 - so most online baccarat enthusiasts bet on the player. Ties are very unlikely in baccarat, but should you hit on one the odds are great... some casinos pay out ties at 8 to 1, though it's not unknown for these odds to go up to 11 to 1 at some places.