Basic Baccarat Strategy

Baccarat is a very popular game, due in large part to the fact that is relatively easy to play. If you want a change from blackjack or roulette or any of the other well known casino games, baccarat is a great choice. Most brick and mortar casinos offer it and the same is true about the online casinos. Before you play you should ensure that you know as much about the game, and winning strategies, as possible.

The object of baccarat is to draw a two or three card hand that is valued closer to nine than the banker. To do this all cards in the deck have their own values awarded to them. For instance the 10, the Jack, the King, and the Queen all count as zero. The Ace is valued at one and all other cards are worth their face value. If your total is more than ten, you simply drop the zero to get the value of your hand. For instance, if your hand value is 17 you would have a total of 7. The interesting thing about baccarat is that you cannot bust!

Once you know the object of baccarat you might be interested in strategies that will work to help you gain the edge on the casino. There are many books, articles, and discussions for you to enjoy on this topic, but you should take them all with a grain of salt. Why? Because baccarat is a game that is truly one of chance and many of the so call strategies will only lead you astray.

Many people assume that you can look at the cards and see the patterns emerge and know how to bet. This is based on the assumption that if you watch the cards for long enough that a pattern will emerge and you will be able to anticipate what is going to happen next. This is a waste of your time and energy because the game of baccarat is usually played with eight decks and there truly will be no pattern for you to pick up on.

Many believe that card counting is a viable baccarat strategy. The issue here again is that the game is played with many different decks of cards and they are dealt out of a shoe. Card counting is feasible, but is probably more effort than it is worth for more players.

The best baccarat strategy is to keep things simple and pay attention to the specifics of the game that you are playing. Choose the game with the least amount of decks used. Next, you should be looking for a casino that will charge a commission on banker bets that are lower than 5% if you are able to locate one. A great strategy that many people overlook is betting on the banker. The banker wins more times than not, so this makes betting on the banker the best strategy in the game, although it is not necessarily the most popular bet.

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