Baccarat – A Guide for 2018

Posted by Harry Kane on Tuesday, September 11, 2018

In previous articles, we’ve provided comprehensive guides relating to some of the most popular online casino games.

These have focused on popular gambling experiences such as blackjack, roulette and virtual slots, which require players to showcase variable levels of skill and opportunism in the pursuit of regular wins.

In this piece, we’ll look at the often overlooked and underrated game of baccarat, which is arguably more popular than blackjack in jurisdictions such as Macau and retains almost cult status among British players.

A Brief Overview of Baccarat

Unlike games such as roulette and blackjack, the precise origins of baccarat are shrouded in mystery and continue to be disputed by historians across the globe.

Some claim that this card game dates back to the 19th century, for example, while others believe that it was introduced into France at the beginning of the 1400s by soldiers returning from the Franco-Italian war.

This supports the popular assertion that the game originated in Italy during the 15th century, albeit in a much more primitive form than the one that exists today.

According to legend, this original iteration was the brainchild of a man name Felix Falguiere, who called the game ‘baccara’ (the Italian for zero) due to all the tens and face cards that were worth precisely nothing.

From here, it appears that the game of Baccarat enjoyed a familiar route to achieving global and popularity, particularly after being brought to France and earning repute under the name ‘Chemin de Fer’. Here, the game was popularised by the incumbent King Charles VIII and his surrounding nobleman, and this afforded it significant appeal in the upper echelons of society.

As a result of its profile and credibility among the aristocracy in central Europe, it’s little wonder that baccarat soon moved across the channel and became a hit in England. This also helped the game to achieve more mainstream appeal, with author Ian Fleming famously learning its basics and creating the world’s most iconic fictional player in the form of the legendary James Bond.

From here, baccarat moved across the Atlantic Ocean into Southern America and the Caribbean, before docking on the shores of the U.S. During this transition, the notion of playing against a banker rather than competitors became wildly popular, with the casino acting as the bank and a familiar house edge being established (we’ll have more on this below).

The version of baccarat is the one that players enjoy to this day, as it continues far more widespread appeal than it did in its infancy. The game retains an aloof and exclusive air, however, and one that perhaps explains its status as the true enigma of the online casino market.

Basic Baccarat Gameplay and Strategy – The Things You Need to Know

While its precise origins may be a little unclear, however, there’s little doubting the simplistic nature of baccarat in the modern age. In fact, this is a simple comparing card game that is played between two hands, belonging to you and the banker. Each baccarat coup (or a round of play) has just three potential outcomes; namely a win for the player, a win for the banker and a tie.

Outcomes are determined using a simple points system, as each individual card has a fixed value. More specifically, cards two through nine are worth their face value in points, while tens, jacks, queens and kings are worth zero. Conversely, aces are worth a single point, while the jokers are not used.

When calculating the total value of a hand, however, it’s important to note that this is determined by the rightmost digit of the sum of their constituent cards. So, while a hand consisting of a two and a three is worth five, one that includes a six and a seven is only worth three (despite boasting a combined points total of 13).

This means that the highest possible points value is nine, and while this may seem like a complex rule it’s relatively simple to grasp once you begin to play regularly. The objective for players is to pre-empt and back the winning hand, whether they bet against the bank, show faith in their own cards or put their money on a tie.

Aside from this basic gameplay, one of the key things that you need to know about baccarat is that is a game of chance rather than skill. Unlike online blackjack, there’s no opportunity to make decisions that impact on the outcome of a specific hand, as players simply choose a side and watch as the action unfolds.

So, once you’ve placed your wager and the hands have been drawn, the game is out of your control and no amount of strategizing can alter this fact.

This is why it’s so crucial that you develop an understanding of the numbers behind this inherently opportunistic game, and use this as the sole foundation from which to execute your in-play decisions.

To begin with, it’s interesting to note that baccarat typically boasts the lowest house edge of any casino game (aside from craps). This is fixed at around 1.4% in favour of the banker, which is particularly favourable given the corresponding house edge for slots (between 3% and 4% on certified games) and European roulette (2.7%).

This is largely thanks to the limited range of outcomes available from each hand, while we should remember that the house is also largely vulnerable to the random and simplistic nature of baccarat’s gameplay.

This translates into a healthy probability of winning, with this being only slightly lower than the odds of the banker’s hand losing. Ultimately, your hand as a player will win 44.62% of the time, with the banker losing 45.85% of the time.

Conversely, this means that just 9.53% of all hands end in a tie, so this is a betting option that should be used sparingly and only in specific circumstances. Ultimately, the payoff for a tie is fixed at 8/1 (or in some instances 9/1), so the house carried a huge statistical advantage whenever you lay this bet.

These basic numbers should help you to conceive a basic betting strategy, and one that strives to optimise the frequency of wins rather than their individual value. This means either betting for or against the banker in most instances, bearing in mind that the casino will win with greater regularity over a sustained period of time.

As we’ve already said, betting on the tie should also be done infrequently, as this increases the house edge to around 15% and is drawn less than 10% of the time. Still, you should always keep this in mind as an option, while not allowing it to cloud your judgement or impair your bankroll.

Aside from understanding these numbers and implementing the most simplistic betting strategy, however, is there anything else you can do to optimise your chances of winning? One thing we’d recommend is to avoid the classic gambler’s fallacy of attempting to track outcomes and derive trends or sequences from an entirely random set of outcomes.

While this is a tempting ‘strategy’ that players also try to apply to games such as roulette, it is entirely flawed as baccarat’s short-term results have little bearing on the long-term odds or your probability of winning.

In fact, the odds of each hand are entirely the same regardless of what has gone before, so attempting to count cards or identify trends is unlikely to increase your chances of winning while it could even cost you money in some instances.

Despite this, it is possible to create some form of betting strategy that is based on the fundamental aspects of the game that are within your control. In this case, this means varying or progressing your betting units with each hand, in a bid to either optimise the value of each win or make the most of your bankroll.

Just like roulette and blackjack, for example, simple negative or positive progression strategies can be used during your baccarat gaming sessions.

In the case of the former, this requires you increase your betting unit at a fixed rate with every consecutive loss, as this optimises the value of each win before the system is restarted. When using positive progression strategies, this sees your stake increase with every successive winning hand, helping to capitalise on the type of streaks that are typically prevalent in baccarat due to the relatively high probability of winning.

The latter is particularly beneficial for a novice or risk-averse players, who can utilise this strategy to make the most of their bankroll and benefit in instances where they’re able to achieve frequent wins.

If we develop this idea, we see that varying the size of your bets in a more creative manner can also be a good idea when playing baccarat. The so-called ‘1-3-2-4’ betting system offering a relevant case in point, as this can be a good way to recoup losses from previous rounds.

This requires you to lay down one betting unit initially, then three before the subsequent hand is drawn. The wager two and four betting units respectively, and continue this over time and during winning sequences (restarting only after a losing hand). In this respect, this is an advanced type of positive progression system and one that is primarily designed to minimise losses rather than optimise returns.

Still, it may be a little complex in relation to the gameplay on offer through baccarat, and you may be better served by adhering to a more straightforward betting system that relies on the principles of positive progression.

Choosing Your Baccarat Variation and Online Platform

While baccarat may not be the best-represented casino game online, there are a host of available variations that have been built on classic gambling patterns.

There are three that stand out, however, with the most prominent being the U.S. version Punto Banco. This is the iteration that drives online and offline casino gameplay, while it also accounted for an incredible 91% of total income generated by Macau casinos in 2014.

In this version, the initial bets are placed before the hands are drawn, while players have far less choice in terms of the moves that they make. In contrast, less accessible versions including the classic ‘Chemin de fer’ and ‘Baccarat Banque’ afford a little more choice to players, which in turn translates into a lower house edge (around 1.09%) and marginally improved chances of winning.

Although the popularity of the Punto Banco iteration may restrict your choices to some degree, you will have the option of choosing between live casino action and regular gameplay. Regular online games tend to feature lower minimum bets, for example, making them ideal for less experienced players who are new to the experience.

Conversely, live baccarat tournaments hosted online tend to carry high minimum and maximum betting thresholds, in order to appeal to seasoned high rollers who are in search of big returns.

So, if you’re unfamiliar with the channel or new to baccarat, participating in a live casino is not necessarily a good idea and it can quickly consume your available bankroll.

While following these steps should help you to choose the ideal variation of baccarat and the precise type of gameplay that you want to experience, the final step should be to identify the right casino platform through which to access this.

This requires you to compare the market in real-time, using objective review sites to appraise each casinos’ available library of games and their live promotional offers. This enables you to determine which virtual casinos offer the best possible value for money, and this is important in the case of a game like baccarat where there are typically fewer variations available to players.

By also reviewing the independent reviews of your shortlisted casino platforms, you can make a clear distinction between those that are reputable and others that fail to meet even the basic needs of their customers.

So there you have it; our detailed guide to accessing and playing baccarat online. We hope that you found this helpful, and can use it to create the ideal gambling experience in the virtual world!