Baccarat: rules, third-card table and house edge

Baccarat (Punto Banco) has no strategy beyond picking a bet. Once your chips are down, the cards are dealt by fixed rules. That makes the bet choice everything: Banker carries a 1.06% house edge, Player 1.24%, and Tie 14.36% at the usual 8:1, all in an eight-deck shoe.

How baccarat works

1. You bet on Banker, Player or Tie. The names are just labels for two hands; you are not playing either one.
2. Two cards are dealt to each hand.
3. Cards 2 to 9 count at face value, aces count 1, and tens and picture cards count 0. Only the last digit of the total matters, so 7 + 8 = 15 counts as 5.
4. If either hand has 8 or 9 on its first two cards (a natural), both hands stand.
5. Otherwise the third-card rules below decide whether each hand draws one more card.
6. The hand closer to 9 wins. If Banker and Player tie, bets on both are returned (a push) and Tie bets win.

Third-card rules

Player draws a third card on a total of 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7.

Banker, if Player stood on two cards, draws on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. If Player drew a third card, Banker follows this table (D = draw, S = stand), using Banker's total and the value of Player's third card:

The dealer applies these rules. You do not need to memorise them, but they explain why Banker wins slightly more often: it acts second, with information about Player's third card.

Odds and house edge

In an eight-deck game the outcomes break down like this. We checked the figures by exact calculation over every possible deal; they match the Wizard of Odds analysis.

Ties occur 9.52% of the time, and Banker and Player bets push when they do.

The Banker commission. Banker wins more often than Player, so casinos take 5% of Banker winnings: a £20 Banker win pays £19. Without that commission, the Banker bet would give the player an edge of about 1.24%.

No-commission baccarat

Many tables, especially online and live, drop the 5% commission and change one payout instead. The most common version pays 1:2 (half your stake) when Banker wins with a total of 6, and even money on all other Banker wins. Banker wins with a 6 about 5.39% of the time.

The Wizard of Odds puts the Banker edge in this version at 1.46% in eight decks (1.45% in six). Our own calculation gives the same 1.46%. Player is unchanged at about 1.24%. So the no-commission game is simpler to settle, but Banker costs you about 0.4 points more than in the commission game.

Other no-commission rule sets exist, with different trigger hands and edges. Check the help screen for which Banker win is paid at a reduced rate.

Side bets

Side bets are where baccarat gets expensive. Common ones include pair bets (on the first two cards of a hand being a pair), Dragon bonus bets (paying more for winning by a wide margin) and bets on Banker winning with a 6 at a high payout, often called Super 6. With Banker winning on a 6 about 5.39% of the time, one common Super 6 version paying 12:1 has a house edge of almost 30% by our calculation. Pay tables differ from game to game, so check the help screen; nearly all side bets carry far higher edges than Banker or Player.

Strategy basics, honest about limits

• Bet Banker or Player. Banker is marginally better at a commission table.
• Skip the Tie bet at 8:1. At 9:1 it is less bad (4.84%) but still worse than Banker or Player.
• Ignore scorecards and "roads". Results do not follow streaks or patterns. Each hand is independent of the last in any way you can use.
• Betting systems such as Martingale do not change the house edge; see the worked example in our roulette guide.

Playing online

RNG baccarat is dealt by a random number generator, with fast rounds and demo play at many sites. Live baccarat is dealt by a real dealer on camera, often with squeeze, speed and no-commission variants. See our live dealer games guide and studios such as Evolution and Playtech. Faster games mean more hands per hour, so the cost per hour rises even when the edge is the same. Our RTP and volatility guide explains why.

If you like baccarat's simplicity, Dragon Tiger is a one-card cousin with a higher edge, and blackjack offers a lower edge if you learn basic strategy.

Where to play

We list licensed casinos only: UK casinos, Ontario, Alberta, rest of Canada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. See how we rate casinos.