The first time Lou plays baccarat, he’s in a Las Vegas casino’s high-roller enclave, grooving to the booming beats that sonically define this game of ritual and Bond-dipped mystique. But the game’s Zen-like minimalism is quickly revealed: Players bet on either the player or banker hand and the side that gets closest to nine wins. Picture cards and tens count as zero; aces count as one.
Depending on the game version, a maximum of seven to 14 seats are arranged around an oval table. Unlike blackjack, in which each player is dealt two cards, baccarat hands are drawn only from six decks of shuffled cards; the remaining cards are dealt to a “free” hand, which doesn’t have bets placed on it and is dealt face down to maintain the order of the shoe. Each player is given a betting area, and bets on the Player or Banker win if the total comes close to nine (a tie is a no-win). A commission is paid to the casino when the banker wins.
In addition to the basic bets, a player can place a Super Six bet, which pays 12x the bet amount. A player can also place a Pair bet, which pays 11x the bet amount if the first two cards come in pairs. These bets can increase the winnings of a player’s hand, but they can also add up to the total banker bet amount, which could reduce their overall winnings.
Baccarat can be a highly profitable game for players who employ card counting strategies and use edge sorting techniques to locate the best betting spots on the table. Using these methods, players can lower the house edge to less than 0.05%.
It’s easy to find baccarat games in casinos throughout the world, and the game’s popularity has grown tremendously since Macau dethroned Las Vegas as the world’s top gambling destination. Last year, casinos in the Chinese territory made more money playing baccarat than those in any other city. Across Asia, the game has become a favorite among high rollers.
Many baccarat fans swear by the martingale strategy, in which a bet is doubled after each loss, with the goal of eventually recouping all previous losses and generating a profit equal to the original bet. However, this strategy requires a large bankroll and the discipline to stick with it during long losing streaks.