Bert Baccarat?
Author: Simon Dexter
Baccarat conjures up two images for me - Omar Sharif in a white evening suit with a black bow tie and the singer songwriter, much plugged by Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, Burt Bacharach.
Both images are wrong with Omar Sharif having given up gambling many years ago while Burt Bacharach is only connected to the game through my strange brain processes -he did, however, write the soundtrack to the 1967 spoof Bond movie Casino Royale.
A bit of investigation showed me that Baccarat is a very simple game to play and considered by many as one of the best games to play at the casino, as the house edge can be very small.
A quick Baccarat guide
In essence it is a game where people bet on the outcome of two sets of cards that have been dealt. Gamblers can either bet that the dealer has the best hand, that the player has the best hand or that the dealer and the player will tie.
Generally, though it is best to check out all the rules on whichever site you are playing, you are payed off at even money when picking the dealer or player and at around 8/1 if you decided the head-head confrontation will be a draw.
The cards
All suited cards (10 and above) are worth zero points, all aces are worth one point. The aim of the game is to get closest to 9. However a little complication comes when any player receives two cards, e.g. a 7 and an 8 that add up to more than nine. The two cards are added together and then the leading 1 is dropped. So simply 7 + 8 = 15 (take away the leading digit) therefore 7 +8 = 5.
If the first two cards of a hand of baccarat total 8 or 9, the hand is declared a ‘natural’ and wins (unless there is a tie between two naturals). If either hand is a natural, both hands stand, the natural hand wins. If the total is not a natural win on either hand, the rules state that another card is drawn for each hand to determine the winner.
It is the simplicity of the baccarat casino game that has made it a popular game around the world as well, as the low house edge as mentioned previously.
At casinos, the baccarat room is normally kept separate from the main games, optionally in a roped off area normally reserved for high rollers.
This is perhaps why the baccarat casino game is not as well known to the general public as other games. That is a shame as it can be one of the most interesting of the casino games which relies totally on luck, and that all important lack of house edge means there is every chance a player can be successful.
Tags: baccarat, Casino Royale, omar sharif
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 9:05 am and is filed under Casino Blog, Online Casino. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
