There’s a huge variety of different games available at online casinos and many of the big names include the slots, poker, and blackjack amongst many others – but there has been a resurgence for many other popular games in recent years with a changing audience and changing styles for casinos as a whole. One of the games that has been emerging as a player favourite in quite a short amount of time has bene Baccarat – seeing popularity in old Bond movies and having been around for hundreds of years, is one of the older games available to be played, but what should newcomers know about the game?
First off, the odds – Baccarat is one of the more favourable games that can be played at a casino both online and offline, the house will win 45.8% of the time, a little higher than the player average at around 44.6% of the time, with the remainder going to ties. The game slots into that similar area that Blackjack, Craps, and Roulette faces with a near 50% change of winning which are great odds for any casino game. It is very much a game of luck, however, and no matter how experienced a player is there isn’t any essence of skill that can help bring a win, particularly with modern card shoes and the likes that hold many more decks of cards.
Secondly, the game is extremely easy to learn making it very simple for newcomers – there are three possibilities, the player win, the banker win, or the tie – the banker doesn’t refer to the house, instead it’s a game of betting – players will bet on either the bankers hand winning or the players hand winning, rather than handling the cards or hand themselves. Two cards are dealt to both the player hand and the banker hand with the goal to reach 9 – the tens and the face cards are worth zero points, and the ace is worth one point, with all other cards representing their face value.
Because of the simplicity of the game and the quite far odds, winning percentages and amounts can vary quite wildly – minimums on tables can be very low and very high with it often settling somewhere in the middle, US casinos tend to lean towards $20 or so – but the fairness does make it very easy for some players to bring in a very strong return – there is the commission to be considered as most casinos will have a commission on baccarat hands, but can be quite a small amount to pay and makes Baccarat one of the most exciting games to play.