Baccarat, originally created in Italy over 500 years ago, may seem unfamiliar to American casino goers at first. Yet over the past 30 years or so it has experienced immense popularity thanks to Asia and high rollers’ interest. Now more than ever before baccarat can be found across casinos nationwide.
Baccarat (or Punto Banco), is a table game in which players bet on either the Player Hand or Banker Hand with the aim of guessing which will have the highest total value. The game consists of eight decks of cards contained within a shoe on the table and boxes to place your chips; after every round the dealer announces “no more bets” and distributes one card per box – once either hand has scored 8 or 9 points their respective bets will be paid out; otherwise ties will go back out for another round – should it tie-up
Once the game has begun, each hand is compared against each other to determine who has won. Card values are added together to form its value; nine being its maximum potential score. On occasion a third card may also be drawn which determines its point value as part of winning hand total.
Contrary to most casino games, baccarat is relatively straightforward to understand and play. Although there may be subtleties associated with its rules, here are its essential guidelines:
Baccarat involves dealing one card from each box (Player and Banker respectively) until each has two. When this process has been repeated enough times, the game ends when either player or banker have totalled 8 or 9. If the first two cards totaling an equal value are tied between them, an extra card will be drawn and declared the winner by the dealer.
History of baccarat can be complicated, but its origin can be traced to Rome in Italy in the late 1500s by Felix Falguiere under the name baccarat. Over time it spread to France where it quickly became popular among upper class and aristocrats; here it became known by its French moniker of “chemmy.” Today this faster form is most often enjoyed in both America and worldwide.