What is Baccarat?
Baccarat is a a gambling card game in which players hold two- or three-card hands, the winning hand being that giving the highest remainder when its face value is divided by ten.
How is Baccarat played?
Classic baccarat and mini-baccarat have exactly the same rules. The physical setup, betting limits and procedures differ for each of them. The first method that will be explained, will be the full-scale version or classic baccarat.
Classic baccarat scene:
The full-sized baccarat table is about three times larger than a blackjack table. It seats 14 player but sometimes it may seat 12. At each end of the 14-seater table, there will be seven numbered positions, each which correspond to a player. The numbers are from 1 to 15 but 13 is missing because some players are superstitious about the number. At each position, there are sections to place three possible bets such as Banker, Player or Tie.
Three dealers service each player. The dealer that stands in the middle of the table, between the positions 1 and 15, is better known as the “caller”. He manages the game and he also make sure that all the correct procedures are followed.
The other two dealers are each servicing a particular end of the table by paying off the winning bets and collecting the ones who lost.
Before every new game, the dealers will shuffle eight decks of cards. After one of the players cuts the cards, the decks are placed in the “shoe”. The dealer will reveal the top card from the shoe and proceed to burn (discard) the number of cards equivalent to the card’s value. All the discarded cards are literally discarded by being sent through a slot in the table and never to be used again.
Playing the game
Baccarat is the only game in the casino where the players actually get an opportunity to deal the cards. The pleater seated at the number one seat will be given the first chance to be the banker. Players are not obligated to accept the shoe and they are free to pass the offer to another player.
If a player decides to accept the shoe, there will be no advantage or disadvantage to the game.
