Baccarat practice

Table rules

• Two standard 52-card decks (104 cards), shuffled with a cryptographically secure Fisher–Yates shuffle — the same shoe as our blackjack table.
• Each new shoe starts with a burn: the first card is turned over and that many cards are burned (10, J, Q and K burn 10). The shoe is reshuffled once about 75% has been dealt (78 cards); the meter above the table shows the cards left.
• Cards count at face value, Aces count 1, and 10s and picture cards count 0. A hand's total is the last digit of its points (7 + 8 = 15 counts as 5).
• Player and Banker get two cards each. If either has 8 or 9 (a natural), both stand.
• Otherwise Player draws a third card on 0–5 and stands on 6 or 7.
• If Player stood, Banker draws on 0–5 and stands on 6–7. If Player drew, Banker follows the drawing table below.
• Player and Banker bets push (your bet comes back) when the hand is a tie.
• Pair bets are decided by the first two cards of that hand: Player Pair or Banker Pair wins if they are the same rank (for example two 7s or two Kings). Either Pair wins if either hand has one; Perfect Pair needs the same rank and suit.

Banker drawing table (when Player draws a third card)

Payouts and house edge

The house edges are exact for this two-deck game: we worked them out by going through every possible deal from a full shoe, counting ties as a push for the Player and Banker bets. Banker has the lowest edge; Tie and the pair bets cost far more over time.

How to practise

Start with $500 in play chips · resets every visit. Nothing is saved — every page load starts again at $500. Pick a chip, tap the spots you want (at least $5 on each spot, and your total can't be more than your balance), then press Deal. Clear empties every spot; Rebet puts your last bets back but never deals by itself. Run out? Press Reset to $500. Sound is off by default.

Want to know more about real-money casinos? Read our Bovada review or browse all guides, and set limits first — see our responsible gambling page.

How to play baccarat

Baccarat (the punto banco version used in casinos) has two hands — Player and Banker — and you don't play either of them. You simply bet on which hand will finish closer to 9, or on a tie, or on the pair side bets. Every card after that is drawn by fixed rules, so there are no decisions to make once the cards are dealt.

Card values

• Aces are worth 1.
• Cards 2 to 9 are worth their number.
• 10s, Jacks, Queens and Kings are worth 0.

How totals work

A hand's total is only the last digit of its points, so totals always run from 0 to 9. A 7 and an 8 make 15, which counts as 5. A King and a 9 count as 9. You can never go bust in baccarat.

The third-card rules in plain words

1. Player and Banker each get two cards.
2. If either hand has 8 or 9 — a natural — both hands stand and the round is over.
3. Otherwise Player goes first: Player takes a third card with 0 to 5 and stands with 6 or 7.
4. If Player stood, Banker follows the same rule: draw on 0 to 5, stand on 6 or 7.
5. If Player took a third card, Banker's decision depends on Banker's total and that third card: with 0–2 Banker always draws; with 3 Banker draws unless Player's third card was an 8; with 4 Banker draws if it was 2–7; with 5, if it was 4–7; with 6, if it was 6 or 7; with 7 Banker stands.

The dealer handles all of this automatically — the table above the game shows the totals as the cards land.

The bets, payouts and house edge

• Player — pays 1 to 1. House edge on this two-deck table: 1.26%.
• Banker — pays 0.95 to 1 (a 5% commission is taken from Banker wins). House edge on this two-deck table: 1.04%.
• Tie — pays 8 to 1. House edge on this two-deck table: 15.02%.
• Player Pair — pays 11 to 1. House edge on this two-deck table: 18.45%.
• Banker Pair — pays 11 to 1. House edge on this two-deck table: 18.45%.
• Either Pair (common side bet) — pays 5 to 1. House edge on this two-deck table: 21.23%.
• Perfect Pair (common side bet) — pays 25 to 1. House edge on this two-deck table: 49.76%.

These house edges are exact for two decks: we worked them out by going through every possible deal from a full shoe (and checked them with a two-million-hand simulation of this game). For the Player and Banker bets, ties count as a push. The house edge is what you'd expect to lose on average per bet over a very long run — not a promise about any single session.

Why Banker is the best bet

The drawing rules favour Banker a little, because Banker acts after seeing whether Player drew. From a full two-deck shoe, Banker wins about 45.9% of hands, Player about 44.6% and Tie about 9.4%. The 5% commission brings Banker's edge down to 1.04%, which is still the lowest on the table, just ahead of Player at 1.26%.

Why Tie and the pairs are long shots

The big payouts look tempting, but they don't make up for how rarely these bets win. A tie happens on only about 1 hand in 10, yet pays just 8 to 1 — that's a 15.02% edge. A Player Pair or Banker Pair comes up on about 7% of hands and pays 11 to 1 (18.45%). Perfect Pair needs two identical cards (same rank and same suit); with only two decks there's just one matching card left in the shoe, so it wins rarely and carries a 49.76% edge. Treat these as long shots, not as a plan.

Reading the bead plate

The bead plate under the table records every hand you play this visit, filling each column from top to bottom and then moving right. P (blue) means Player won, B (red) means Banker won and T (green) means a tie. A small blue dot marks a Player Pair and a small red dot a Banker Pair. The counters show how many of each you've seen. It's a history only — every hand is independent, so streaks and patterns on the plate don't predict the next result.

Frequently asked questions