Baccarat - Beginners' Guide

Baccarat is a casino table card game. It was a favourite one to play by the James Bond. Baccarat is without a doubt one of the most popular table games. It’s comparable to Blackjack and Roulette as well as Poker. However, it’s important to remember that Poker is a different story. To play it for real, you need a special website that supports it, and usually, sportsbooks and casinos don’t have that.

Although Baccarat looks elegant and sophisticated, it’s a very simple game. In short, it’s like betting on a coin flip.

What’s interesting about Baccarat – the game has a low house edge, and it doesn’t require any skill or effort on the player’s side. That’s perfect for relaxing.

If you would like to learn more about Baccarat, check out this full guide!

Is Baccarat a game of luck, or a game of skill?

Before we get into the specifics, we have to sort out some things.

When you play any casino game, it is good to know if there is some skill involved to it. Can your abilities or experience affect the outcome?

The answer is – it depends on the game. Let’s take slots as an example. There’s no real way of changing the house edge here, so the games depend solely on luck. It’s similar to Roulette – there’s no strategy to follow that would increase your chances to make profits.

However, there’s Blackjack, which involves some skill. If you play perfectly, you can get the house edge down to very low values like 0,5%. However, if someone plays poorly, it might raise a lot.

Then, where is Baccarat in all of this?

Baccarat has a simple strategy – the lowest house edge comes from betting on the banker. It’s 1,06%. Then, all you need to do is to bet on the banker. The game relies entirely on luck.

House Edge

What’s house edge we have mentioned?

In short, it’s an advantage of the casino. In all casino games, the house has the advantage, and it’s expressed in percentages.

What does it mean that Baccarat has 1% house edge?

It means that if you bet on a banker for a very long time, you would be getting back 99% of your money. In other words, Baccarat returns 99% money on average if you bet on a banker. It returns 98,76% if you bet on a player, so it’s also an OK option. Finally, if you bet on a tie, the game has 14,36% of edge, which means you would be getting back only about 85% of your bets back over time.

How does the house edge work in Baccarat?

What makes it that the banker has an advantage over you? The main fact is that the banker takes his action after the “turn” of the player is done. That gives him a small benefit; as he knows your outcome, then he is sure what he needs to do to beat you.

Does that mean you cannot win in Baccarat?

The good thing about house edge is that it doesn’t work on a small scale.

If the edge is low, so about 1%, there is a significant chance won’t lose because of it in a few games. Therefore, if you don’t play very long sessions, you should be fine as it comes down to a coin-flip game, where there’s about 50% of chance to win.

Then, it might be that you will hit a strike of wins and stop in a good moment to go out on profit. But there also might be that you hit a strike of losses and get cleared really fast. One of these happens rarely, and usually, the sessions are more well-rounded.

All in all, if you have luck – yes, it’s possible to win in Baccarat.

How to play Baccarat? The basics

I love simple games that allow you to relax. And this game is very simple.

All you have to do is to bet on the banker or the player. That’s it; the banker does the rest.

You can also bet on a tie, and various Baccarat variations might also have other side bets.

However, we’ve covered already that betting on the banker usually is the best option.

What are the rules of a Baccarat game?

The point of the game is to get to 9 as close as possible — the side that is closer wins.

Ace counts as 1, 2-9 count as their pip value, while 10 and face cards are equal to 0.

Player and banker get 2 cards. If they excess 9 and get, for instance, 18, then the 1 is subtracted and the hand counts as 8.

There is a possibility the dealer will draw another, third card. This happens if the player has a point count equal to or less than 5. Similar applies to banker’s hand.

How to play Baccarat good?

If the game is basically a coin flip, it’s hard to believe there are any viable strategies.

And in truth, there are not. It’s all random, so you cannot foresee the next outcome.

However, you might see some super-strategies on the net, and they also don’t work. One of the riskier strategies in 50/50 games is Martingale. After each loss, you double your bet to cover all losses on a win. If you want to see why this strategy doesn’t work well, try it first in a demo mode.

To sum up – in a regular Baccarat game, playing good means always betting on the banker.

What are the best Naija casinos with Baccarat?

Can our Naija players find a good casino with Baccarat? Naturally!

On our website, you can find reviews of various amazing casinos and sportsbooks. In the review, it will be clear whether a casino has Baccarat or not.

For the best experience with Baccarat, we advise checking out the places with well-developed casino section. We advise checking out live casinos of NetEnt and Evolution.

Can I play Baccarat on my phone?

Yes, you can play Naija Baccarat on the phone. It’s not a problem to play the best Baccarat tables.

The cell-phones nowadays can run awesome games, so it’s no wonder they also handle casinos.

You might see simple digital Baccarat tables playable in most sites.

However, some of the best Naija casinos will include Live Baccarat Tables available on phones.

Imagine – being in the centre of the action anywhere you wish, all of that at the reach of your hand! Indeed an amazing solution, and that’s why more and more players go mobile and bet on their phones.