Baccarat in 4 lines
- You bet on which hand will finish closer to 9, Player or Banker, or on a tie. You make no other decisions.
- Cards are dealt by fixed rules, so the game plays itself once the bets are down.
- The Banker bet has the lowest house edge, 1.06%, even after the 5% commission on wins.
- The Tie bet pays 8 to 1 and costs 14.4% of every stake. It's one of the worst bets in the casino.
How a hand plays out
The version played in UK casinos and online is punto banco. Player and Banker are simply the names of the 2 hands on the table. You can bet on either, and the dealer plays both.
- Bet. Put your stake on Player, Banker or Tie.
- Deal. The Player hand and the Banker hand get 2 cards each.
- Third cards. Each hand may get one more card, following the fixed rules below, which leave no choices to make.
- Settle. The hand closer to 9 wins. If both totals are the same, it's a tie.
Card values and totals
Aces count as 1. Cards 2 to 9 count as their number. Tens, jacks, queens and kings count as 0.
A hand's total is the last digit of its points. A 7 and an 8 make 15, so the hand is worth 5. A king and a 9 make 9, the best hand there is. You can never go bust.
A total of 8 or 9 on the first 2 cards is a natural. If either hand has one, both hands stand and the round is settled straight away.
The third-card rule
The Player hand goes first: it draws a third card on a total of 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7.
If the Player stood, the Banker follows the same rule: draw on 0 to 5, stand on 6 or 7. If the Player drew, the Banker's move depends on its own total and the value of the Player's third card:
| Banker total | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| 1 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| 2 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| 3 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | S | D |
| 4 | S | S | D | D | D | D | D | D | S | S |
| 5 | S | S | S | S | D | D | D | D | S | S |
| 6 | S | S | S | S | S | S | D | D | S | S |
| 7 | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S | S |
Column headings are the value of the Player's third card. A Banker total of 8 or 9 is a natural, so it never gets this far. You don't need to learn the table: the dealer, or the software, applies it for you.
Deal a hand and watch the rules
Deal a hand and each rule is applied in turn, with the Banker's decision marked on the table. Deal 1,000 hands to see how often each side wins next to the exact figures from an 8-deck shoe. It plays no money.
Player2♣3♥7♠2
BankerK♦6♠2♦8
- Player has a 2 and a 3: 5. Banker has a king and a 6: 6.
- Neither hand has a natural 8 or 9, so the third-card rule applies.
- Player has 5, so it draws a third card: a 7. Player now has 2.
- Banker has 6 and the Player's third card is worth 7, so the table says the Banker draws. It draws a 2. Banker now has 8.
- Banker wins, 8 to 2.
- Hands
- 0
- Banker wins
- 0exact 45.86%
- Player wins
- 0exact 44.62%
- Ties
- 0exact 9.52%
The three bets: what they pay and what they cost
These figures are exact for an 8-deck shoe, worked out by checking every possible hand.
| Bet | Pays | Wins | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banker | 1 to 1, less 5% | 45.86% | 1.06% |
| Player | 1 to 1 | 44.62% | 1.24% |
| Tie | 8 to 1 | 9.52% | 14.36% |
A tie happens 9.52% of the time. When it does, Banker and Player bets are returned, which is why the Banker and Player chances don't add up to 100%.
A 6-deck shoe barely changes anything: the Banker edge is 1.06% and the Player edge 1.24%.
Why the Banker bet pays commission
The Banker hand acts second, so the third-card rule lets it react to the Player's card. That small advantage means the Banker wins 50.7% of the hands that aren't tied.
If Banker bets paid evens, the casino would lose money on them. So the casino keeps 5% of every winning Banker bet: a £10 winner pays £9.50. Even after that, the Banker bet costs less over time than the Player bet.
No Commission and EZ Baccarat
Many online and live tables drop the 5% commission and recover it another way:
- No Commission Baccarat pays Banker wins at evens, except a Banker win on a total of 6, which pays half. House edge on Banker: 1.46%.
- EZ Baccarat pays Banker wins at evens, but a Banker win with a 3-card total of 7 is a push. House edge on Banker: 1.02%.
The Player bet is unchanged in both. Check the table's rules before you sit down: the name on the lobby tile doesn't always tell you which version it is.
The Tie bet
Tie pays 8 to 1 at most tables. A tie comes up about 1 hand in 11, and at 8 to 1 the bet loses 14.4% of every stake over time, more than 13 times the Banker bet. A few tables pay 9 to 1, which cuts the edge to 4.8%: still close to 5 times the Banker bet.
Pair side bets
Player Pair and Banker Pair win if that hand's first 2 cards are the same rank, such as two 7s or two queens (a 10 and a jack aren't a pair). From an 8-deck shoe that happens 7.47% of the time. At the usual 11 to 1, the house edge is 10.36%. Other side bets vary by table; the game's help screen lists each one's payout and return to player.
Scorecards, roads and streaks
Baccarat tables, especially live ones, show the results of past hands in grids called roads or bead plates. Each hand is dealt from the shoe the same way whatever came before, so those grids are a record of history and nothing more. A run of Banker wins says nothing about the next hand.
Card counting doesn't help either. Tracking the cards changes the odds so little, and so rarely, that it's of no practical use in baccarat.
What strategy is there?
Very little, and that's the appeal for many players. The only real decision is which bet to make, and the maths settles it: Banker costs least, Player is close behind, and Tie and the side bets cost far more. No staking system changes those edges, because every bet inside the system carries them.
The useful decisions are the ones you make before you play: how much you're prepared to spend, and when you'll stop.
Online and live dealer baccarat
Online baccarat comes as a computer game, where a random number generator deals the cards, or as live dealer baccarat, streamed from a studio with real cards. Live variants such as Speed Baccarat and Squeeze Baccarat change the pace and presentation. The odds stay the same unless the payouts change, so check the game's help screen for the payouts and the return to player before you play.
Baccarat questions
What is the best bet in baccarat?
Banker. From an 8-deck shoe it carries a house edge of 1.06%, even after the 5% commission on wins, against 1.24% on Player. The Tie bet at 8 to 1 costs 14.4% of every stake, more than 13 times as much as Banker, and the pair side bets cost 10.4%.
Why does the Banker bet pay commission?
The Banker hand acts second, and the third-card rule lets it react to the Player's card, so Banker wins 50.7% of the hands that aren't tied. Paying it at evens would lose the casino money, so 5% is taken from each winning Banker bet: a £10 winner pays £9.50.
How often is there a tie in baccarat?
About 1 hand in 11, or 9.52% of the time from an 8-deck shoe. When it happens, Banker and Player bets are returned. A Tie bet paying 8 to 1 loses 14.4% of every stake over time, and at the few tables that pay 9 to 1 the edge falls to 4.8%.
What is No Commission baccarat?
A version that pays Banker wins at evens, except a Banker win on a total of 6, which pays half. That moves the house edge on Banker from 1.06% to 1.46%. EZ Baccarat pushes a three-card Banker 7 instead, for an edge of 1.02%. The Player bet is the same in both.
Is there a strategy for baccarat?
The one decision that matters is which bet to make, and the maths settles it in favour of Banker. The roads and scorecards on live tables record past hands, which say nothing about the next one, and staking systems leave the edge where it is, because every bet inside them carries it.
Sources and checks
The rules, payouts and quoted figures were last checked against these sources on . Every other number on this page is worked out from those rules, as how we check the numbers explains. If you spot a mistake, our corrections page says how to report it.