Online Casino Baccarat
HISTORY
Baccarat dates back to the Middle Ages. It has been said
the game was first played with a Tarot deck. Originating in
Italy, it soon made its way to France where it found a home
among the upper class aristocracy. Further evolution of the
game shows it split to European baccarat, and a French game
that goes by the name 'chemin de fer'.
Chemin de fer is very similar to baccarat as it's played
in American casinos today. The difference is one of the players
banks the game instead of the casino. The title of banker
rotates around the table in a manner similar to the dice at
a craps table. The interesting bit to observe of course is
that the casino is taking no risk here; they simply charge
a fee from each banker.
The Baccarat we know today originated in Great Britain and
was then passed along to South America and finally to Nevada.
The infamous Dunes casino introduced baccarat in the late
50's, and since then it has made its final migration onto
the world wide web.
STRATEGY
Often sought though rarely found, a good baccarat strategy
is usually considered a myth among gamblers. I happen to disagree.
What I DO agree with is the fact that any strategy that promotes
itself as a system is most likely full of false, misleading,
and useless information. There are, however, many basic baccarat
strategy moves one can make to up their chances of winning.
A predominant aspect of the baccarat games played at the
local casino is the scorecard. It looks like everyone at the
table is keeping track of the outcome on each hand, and that's
exactly what they're doing. These people are trying to spot
patterns and then change their own betting patterns in order
to take advantage of a streak. The casinos encourage this
behavior simply because they know it has no bearing on the
outcome of the game. Chasing patterns in baccarat is as pointless
as it is in roulette. One hand has no bearing on the next,
and is never influenced by the preceding hands. This is a
simple trap that gamblers all around the world fall into at
one time or another. If you were betting on the flip of a
coin, and it landed heads up 9 times in a row, part of your
brain will inevitably yell out to you that a tails is imminent,
and it's likely that the 10th flip will land tails up. This
reasoning is spurious; the chance of the coin landing tails
up on the 10th flip is exactly 50%, just as it was the first
nine times. Any baccarat strategy that makes you change your
bets based on previous hands is useless and should be completely
disregarded.
RULES
The rules of baccarat are basic and simple to follow. Once
you learn it's easy to remember and you can feel completely
comfortable sitting at any baccarat table or mini baccarat
table at the casino, or playing online. If you're learning
the simple (yet non-intuitive) baccarat rules for the first
time you should download a free software package from one
of the many online casinos out there and play along. Many
offer unlimited free play. We have a number of downloads available
on this site which include a selection of online casino packages
and a few tutorial style baccarat programs. I have honestly
found it easier to learn, and easier to teach, by simply downloading
a game from a real casino (one which offers free play of course)
and reading along while messing with the software. The tutorial
style software available for baccarat often overcomplicates
the learning process and tends to leave you feeling more confused
than ever.
The goal of your two-card hand is to try and have a total
that is close to 9. Tens and face cards count as zero, with
the exception of the ace, which is worth 1. Cards 2 thru 9
are worth their face value. The simplicity of baccarat rules
reflects the simplicity of the scoring and goal itself. There
is really only one tricky part: although there is no such
thing as a 'busting hand' as in blackjack, when your initial
card total is a two digit number, the first digit is dropped.
Say you are dealt a pair of sevens - the total is 14, but
the count is set to 4, as the leading 1 is arbitrarily dropped.
If the first two cards of a hand 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, another card is drawn for each hand to determine
the winner. Winning banker hands are usually taxed 5% by the
casinos. Remember, anybody can be the banker, not always a
casino employee. This hint is enough to gain an advantage
in baccarat, because you know if the casinos take a cut of
just one hand, that one hand probably has a good chance of
winning.
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