Baccarat
About Baccarat
Baccarat is a simple and well-known casino card game. The goal in baccarat is to try to achieve point score of 9 with 2-3 cards. Baccarat is a casino game that resembles coin flip the most (fifty-fifty chance).
Baccarat Rules
At the start of the game, the player chooses whether he bets on “Player” or “Banker” to win. Both “Player” and “Banker” draw two cards and depending the value of the cards a third card may be drawn to “Player”, “Banker” or both. The winner is the one who has highest point value after drawing the cards. The point value is calculated as a sum of drawn card values where 10-K have value 0, ace has value 1 and other cards have their face values. Then whole tens are substracted from this sum so the final point value is a number between 0 – 9. The one, (“Player” or “Banker”) who has the highest point value in the end, wins the hand.
For example, “Player” draws K-J-5 and “Banker” draws 5-5-A. “Player” has a point value 5 and “Banker” has a point value 1 so “Player” would win this hand.
If either “Banker” or “Player” draws point value 8 or 9 as their first two cards, then no third card will be drawn and such a hand is called Natural 8 or 9. If “Player” draws 0 – 5 point two card hand, then he will draw a third card, and “Banker” draws third card depending on his own hand and player’s third card. The actual rules of drawing a third card aren’t important as the player cannot have any control on how many cards are drawn. To play the game you just make a bet on “Player” or “Banker” and see whether you won or lost.
In case of a tie (both “Banker” and “Player” have the same point value), all bets on “Player” or “Banker” are returned (as a push).
House Edge and Optimal Strategy
Both “Player” and “Banker” have almost equal chances of winning the hand. However, “Banker” acts last after “Player” draws the third card, so “Banker” has a slightly bigger chance of winning the hand. To offset this advantage, 5% commission is usually deducted from winning bets on Banker. The probabilities for different outcomes are following:
| Banker Wins | 45.8597 % |
| Player Wins | 44.6247 % |
| Tie | 9.5156 % |
Excluding ties the probabilities are
| Banker Wins | 50.6824 % |
| Player Wins | 49.3176 % |
The House Edge for different bet options “Banker”, “Player” and “Tie” are
| Outcome | Payout | House Edge |
|---|---|---|
| Banker Wins | 1.95 | 1.06 % |
| Player Wins | 2 | 1.24 % |
| Tie | 9 | 14.36 % |
From the table above we see that a bet on “Banker” has the lowest house edge with 5 % commission so the optimal strategy is to always bet on banker. Many Baccarat players switch their bets between “Banker” and “Player” but this is not an optimal strategy because it leads to a higher house edge. Betfair offers zero house edge baccarat on bets on banker in their Zero Lounge Casino.
Baccarat Introduction Video
Variance and Results Over Bonus Wagering Requirement
Baccarat has a relatively low house edge but it is seldom the best option to wager with bonuses. Baccarat is usually excluded from counting towards bonus wagering requirements or there are better game choices to wager with the bonus, like blackjack. However Baccarat can be useful with the aggressive method, where player attempts to multiply up his balance before completing the wagering requirement for the bonus.The standard deviation per hand in Baccarat is 0.93, which is less than in blackjack and slightly less than in roulette. This results from maximum payout of 1:1 and ~50% chance of winning a hand.
The following table shows risk levels of ending up with specified gain/loss when wagering through a cashable bonus on Baccarat with different bet sizes. The bonus is assumed to be a typical 100% match, 100€ cashable bonus with a 30xBonus wagering requirement.
Bet Size = 1, WR 30xB
| 1 % risk | -50.30 |
| 5 % risk | -15.59 |
| 25 % risk | 33.84 |
| 50 % risk | 68.20 |
Bet Size = 5, WR 30xB
| 1 % risk | BUST |
| 5 % risk | BUST |
| 25 % risk | -8.63 |
| 50 % risk | 68.20 |
Bet Size = 10, WR 30xB
| 1 % risk | BUST |
| 5 % risk | BUST |
| 25 % risk | -40.43 |
| 50 % risk | 68.20 |
How to read the tables? Choose a bet size and a risk level. We see that with bet size 1, there is a 25% risk that the gain over bonus wagering is less than 33.84 $. With bet size 10, there is a 25% risk that the loss over bonus wagering is more than 40.43 $ and there is at least 5 % risk that the player busts when completing wagering requirement with this bet size. Using this table you can choose a bet size according to how big risk you are willing to tolerate. See the return and variance calculator for other bet sizes and wagering requirements.