Goal as a player is to reach a hand total of as close as to 9 points in about 2 or 3 card draws. As in blackjack, two cards are dealt to the player and the banker, starting with the player. Now the hand that obtains point closest to 9 wins without drawing another card.

Numerical value of the cards in baccarat is:

• 2 to 9 have face value (Example: 5 has a value of 5)
• 10, Jack, Queen, King have a value of zero(0)
• Ace has a value of 1

The total of any hand is sum of card value in hand. Now if the card total of a hand exceeds 10, there are two ways to bring down the value less than 10, either by:

• Subtracting the total point value of cards by 10, or
• Dropping the first digit.

Example: If a player is dealt a pair of eights – the total is 16. So if we subtract it by 10 we get 6. Other way, we can drop the first digit to get 6.

Now if the first two cards total value is 8 or 9 then that hand is a “natural hand” and wins the game. If the cards total is not a natural hand then another card is drawn to determine the winner.

A player has three choices for making a bet on baccarat table. They are:

• Betting on banker hand winning
• Betting on player hand winning
• Betting a tie between the two

If the player bets on a tie and wins, he gets paid in a ratio of eight is to one. This means that if player bets seven dollars, he/she gets back seven dollars plus fifty-six dollars more.

If the hand player is betting on wins, either bankers hand or player hand, he/she gets even money. Even money bets are one-to-one. This means that if a player bets seven dollars, he/she gets back seven dollars plus a profit which equals to the bet. So here the player wins fourteen dollars. If a player wins a banker’s hand then he is taxed 5% by the casinos.

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