Baccarat is a game with many rules but a simple one at its core. You bet on the hand that is closest to 9. A winning hand must have a total number – the sum of all the pips in the cards, including the face and the two corners – that is as close as possible to 9 without going over. Baccarat has a long history beginning in Europe and then spreading across Asia, most recently coming to the United States. In its early days, drawing a hand lower than a six could mean death in some cultures.
The modern incarnation of the game is much simpler. Players sit around a table and the dealer or caller handles the deck of cards. Online baccarat games are more simplified as well. Players click on a space and select the value they wish to stake. They can also choose to bet on the Player, Banker, or Tie bets and check the game rules tab for limits at any point in the game.
Although the game is more than a century old, it became popular in the west in the twentieth century due to its appearance in James Bond films. Sean Connery’s starring role as 007 in the 1954 television adaptation of Casino Royal led to the game becoming a sensation and inspiring a fervent following. Baccarat was later featured in the 1967 film Thunderball, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, For Your Eyes Only, and GoldenEye.
In the real world, the game’s popularity exploded thanks to the burgeoning interest in Asian culture. High rollers, tuxedo-clad and with a stiff drink in hand, have made the game their choice in casinos all over the globe. Bill Zender, a former Nevada Gaming Control agent and the author of “The Book on Running a Casino,” tells Forbes Passport that high rollers are attracted to baccarat for cultural reasons and its competitive house edge.
A 1% house edge on Player and Banker bets is only bettered by blackjack, full pay video poker, and craps odds. The game is also relatively easy to manage and doesn’t require a lot of table space. The game is a lot of fun when played with friends too. If you have a good strategy and are willing to wait for the right moment, it is also quite possible to get lucky at baccarat.
Advanced baccarat players look for patterns in the road that the shoes create and make their betting decisions accordingly. The simplest method of this is the 1-3-2-6 strategy whereby players never bet more than two units from their total bankroll in any one round. This allows them to extend their bankroll and prevents them from making big bets on losing streaks. A variation of this strategy is the 1-3-2-4 system, which reduces the maximum amount that players can lose by limiting their final bet to two units instead of three.