Baccarat is one of the most popular online casino card games. It is usually played with eight complete decks of cards. The game is played between the player and banker. The player with the higher money is the banker and not necessarily the casino employee.

A beginner should essentially be familiar with the card values in the game of Baccarat:
Ace is valued at 1 point.
2 through 9 are valued at their face values.
10, Jack, Queen, King are all valued at 0.

How to Play Baccarat
The banker is the player with the highest amount of money. The banker holds the shoe that contains all the game cards. The banker deals the cards from the shoe. The player and the banker receive two face down cards each. Players turn over the cards and the dealer, calls the cards.

Types of Bets
There are three types of bets in the game of Baccarat. These are betting on player’s hand, banker’s hand, or a tie. When a player bets ‘banco’, it refers to all the funds in the bank. Normally players bet on the banker’s hand only. The shoe remains with the banker as long as the banker is the winner of the game. If the banker loses the bet, the shoe passes to the next player. This player is now the banker.
Players normally bet on the banker’s hand because of the low house advantage of 1.06%. Player’s hand has a house advantage of 1.24%. If you win your banker’s hand bets, you need to pay 5% commission to the casino.

The main aim of the game is to achieve a total card value nearer to nine with two or three cards in a hand. This is the winning hand. If the total of cards in a hand goes into double digits, then only the second digit appears as the card total. If the first two dealt cards total a nine, you have the perfect hand or a natural hand. The next best combination is to have a hand with the first two dealt cards totaling eight. In case of a tie, all bets become null other than the bet on a tie.

Card counting is not an effective strategy in the game of Baccarat. You cannot count the cards in a shoe. You can have the best chances of winning the game of Baccarat by choosing a game with as many few decks as possible. Betting on the banker is the best. However, go for casinos charging less than 5% commission on banker’s bets. Always play your games according to your bankroll and do not increase your bets on a loss. Baccarat is just a game of chance.