Baccarat is an old game, going back to the middle ages. The name is an old Italian word meaning zero. The game was introduced in the U.S. in Las Vegas in the 1950’s, after the Havana casinos were shut down. “Mini-Baccarat” is a simplified version with lower betting limits and is considered a good place to start.

Baccarat is dealt from a six or eight-deck shoe. Sometimes people looking for blackjack mistake a baccarat game for blackjack. Examine the layout and the sign by the dealer, and it will be obvious which is which. No matter how many people are betting, the dealer makes just two hands – a “player hand” and a “banker hand.” Bets are made prior to dealing on which hand will beat the other, or if there will be a tie.

A winning bet on either the player hand or the banker hand will be paid at 1:1. The banker hand pays a commission for the house, usually 5%. A winning bet on a tie is paid at 8:1 or higher. In the case of a tie, the player and banker bets are returned, as a “push.”

Each hand consists of either two cards or three cards. Whether the third card is dealt to the hand is determined by the rules themselves. There are no decisions on the parts of the dealer or the spectators, whether they make bets or not. The hands simply turn out the way they turn out.

Hands have a value associated with the cards. Face cards and tens are zero. The other cards count according to their number (of pips) from 1 to 9. The total of the two cards, if more than ten, is truncated so that only the “ones” place is used. (Nine and nine, for example, is an eight, and five and five is a zero.) The higher valued hand wins. If the values are the same, it is a tie.

The dealer will first look at the player hand. If its value is 6 or more, it will stand. If the value is less than 6, a third card is drawn into the hand.

The banker hand follows a similar rule, except that the cut off for standing is 7 or more rather than 6. If the hand totals 2 or less, a third card is drawn into the banker hand. If, however the hand totals more than 2 but less than 7, a third card may be drawn into the banker hand, depending on whether there was a draw into the player hand, and if so, what the card was.

This rule is usually presented as a table.

Many hands can be played within an hour, but as the only decision to make is how to bet, the dealer’s speed is really the only variable.

The house edge is also a fairly concrete number, as there is no way that the edge can change due to skill of play. There is no way to count cards and successfully predict anything about the next hand to be dealt.

Pure and simple, the odds of winning are:

These numbers presume that the entire shoe is dealt. The results from a six-deck shoe are not materially different from those for an eight-deck shoe. These figures imply a house edge of -5% on the bet to tie at 9:1 and -14% on a tie at 8:1. Bets on the banker hand have an edge -1.5% at a 5% vig and -0.6% at 4%. Bets on the player hand have a negative edge of -1.24%.

So, what is the optimal strategy? How can you become the best Baccarat player in the world (along with everyone else)? Always bet Banker. The odds will never change.