Baccarat is a popular casino game that is played for high stakes. It is one of the few games where players can bet on both the Player and Banker hands, which gives players a chance to win big. The game is based on the Italian card game baccara and uses standard 52-card decks to play.
The objective of baccarat is to guess which of the two hands, the Player hand or the Banker hand, will be closest to nine points. In the game, the Banker and Player hands are dealt from a deck of cards in a shoe and each hand is counted to see who wins.
There are seven to fourteen seats for players, depending on the version of baccarat, with a dealer’s area in between. Each punter holds their own cards, and the punter on the right of the banker holds the first cards that are dealt. After the cards are dealt, a third player is dealt two cards. This is called the Caller and he moves around the table to deal the Player and Banker hand.
If the Banker and the Player have the same points, this is called a tie and the bets on both sides are returned. The winner is the person who made the larger bet.
To begin the game, each player places a wager on the Player or Banker hand. Then the dealer deals the cards and draws for the Player or Banker.
The Player hand is dealt from a shoe and the Banker is dealt from a separate shoe, usually from six or eight decks of cards. The values of the cards are determined by their pip denominations, with Aces and face cards carrying a value of 1, while tens, Jacks, Queens, and Kings carry a value of 0.
Once all the cards have been dealt, the Player and Banker each take turns deciding whether or not to draw another card. When the Player decides to draw, he or she takes the highest card and adds it to their current score. When the Banker decides to draw, he or she take the lowest card and subtract it from their current score.
Each player and the Banker can also place a bet on what their two initial cards will be. The initial cards in the Player and Banker hand are called their “pair.” These pairs of cards can be worth any amount from one to eleven.
A winning baccarat hand is one with the highest points out of a possible nine. If the player has a pair, the player will be paid according to their wager, while if the banker has a pair, the banker will be paid.
The game can be played by a single player or several players can play on the same hand. In a multiple-player game, the player who has the largest bet on the Player hand will be dealt the first two cards. The player on the left of the banker will then have the second two cards, while the next player in rotation will have the next two cards.