In the game of baccarat, tips are not only useful, they also add to your enjoyment of one of the most glamorous and popular diversions in any casino, whether you’re in Las Vegas or Monte Carlo. After all, this was the favorite casino game of the legendary James Bond, who played the French game of Baccarat known as Chemin de Fer in such movies as Dr. No, Thunderball, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and GoldenEye as well as in the novel Casino Royale. In French, Chemin de Fer translates as “path of iron”, or railroad, and likely comes from the perception that the dealer’s shoe resembles a railroad car and it is passed around the table as if on a track.
Baccarat is one of the easiest of all casino card games to learn, yet it is not as widely understood and played as many more complicated games throughout the world. Perhaps newcomers search for baccarat tips because they perceive the game as being difficult or complicated. This perception may come from the high visibility of the game as traditionally found in expensive casinos where bright lights and big bets often draw crowds to watch the action.
But mini-baccarat tables and online versions of the game have now opened this mysterious game to the masses, and many have found it to be an engaging diversion from the more standard casino games. And as the numbers of people playing the game grows, the more demand there is for baccarat tips that will help them win.
The rules for baccarat are simple. The player’s objective is to get a hand of 2 or 3 cards that total a number closer to 9 than the banker’s hand. Tens, Jacks, Queens and Kings count as 0, Aces count as 1 and all others count as their face value. If the cards total to more than ten you just drop the ten, so a hand totaling 18 is counted as an 8. Both the player and the bank receive two cards face up. Play is then dictated according the total of the hands, with the player and the bank having no decisions as to how play proceeds. Since play is dictated by the rules of the game, with no choices available for play, professional baccarat tips for playing strategies are most often targeted toward money management strategies.
In live games at traditional tables the shoe and hence role of dealer is passed around the table, giving each bettor the honor of dealing. While this may be the time honored form of the game, it is a very slow process usually reserved for very high minimum bet players. In the more popular mini baccarat game a house dealer plays out both hands and the play moves much more quickly. In online baccarat, hands are dealt out electronically so play is very fast. Any baccarat tips you choose to use in online games should become second nature to you so that the pace of the game does not confuse your play.
Baccarat offers one of the lowest house advantages in the casino so, combined with the fact that players make no decisions as to how the hands are played, it is an excellent game for beginners. Of all baccarat tips perhaps the most important is that wagering on the bank is a slightly better bet than wagering on the player, although both bets give the house only a small advantage. The high payout bet on a tie, however, gives a significant advantage to the house and should be avoided.
