Baccarat is the most elegant of casino table games. From sticky-floor California card rooms to the tuxedo-laden casinos of Monaco, baccarat is known for its glamour and elegance. But despite its image, the game is actually quite simple and easy to play. The rules are simple: place your wagers using chips/tokens/checks on either the Player hand, Banker hand or a Tie bet. Afterward, the croupier will deal the cards from the shoe until a winner is determined.
While the game is fairly straightforward, there are a few things you should keep in mind to ensure you have the best chance of winning. The most important thing is to be aware of how the points are calculated in a baccarat hand. A win is awarded to the hand that has a total closest to nine. To do this, all of the individual cards are tallied and the winning hand is determined by adding up the two most significant values: the player’s and banker’s. The game of baccarat is played with three to six standard 52-card decks which are shuffled together and placed in a dealing machine called the ‘shoe’. The croupier does all the work during the game and the players simply have to place their bets, wait for the cards to be dealt, and then watch as their fortunes change with each round.
Once all bets have been placed, the dealer will then deal two cards to the Player and Banker hands. The goal of the player is to get a hand which is closer to 9 than the banker’s. However, the game is not a complete lottery and it is possible for a third card to be drawn when a player’s hand totals 0 or 5. A ‘natural’, meanwhile, is a total of 8 or 9. In this case, no further cards are drawn.
Baccarat has been around for more than 250 years, making it one of the oldest and most renowned of all casinos games. Its strong showings at the Great Exhibitions of the 19th Century brought it fame and popularity across Europe and beyond. Some of its more celebrated designs include its 1867 ‘Jusivy’ table service, designed for the Exposition Universelle in Paris, and a glass ‘Temple of Mercury’ which was created for the Dolmbahce Palace in Istanbul. It is also responsible for the design of a number of iconic drinkware pieces, including its Harcourt wine glasses, which were first commissioned by King Louis-Philippe of France in 1841.