How to Play Baccarat Online

Baccarat is one of the easiest table games to play at an online casino. After placing your bet, there are no more decisions to make. You can learn the game in just a few minutes.

1. Select Your Game – navigate to the table games in the online casino lobby. Many casinos will have more than one version of baccarat. We suggest choosing a standard baccarat game, rather than the “no commission” variety, as the odds and house edge we cite later correspond to regular baccarat.
2. Adjust Your Stakes – after the game loads, you can increase or decrease your bets. Don’t worry if you make a mistake. You can always clear your bets.
3. Place Your Bets – in baccarat, you bet on either the Player, Banker, or a Tie. The Player and Banker do not correspond to you or the house – they are just names for the two hands that are dealt. You can freely bet on either one. After you place your bet and hit the “Deal” button, the dealer deals two cards to each hand. The winner is the hand whose cards add up closest to 9.
   • Cards 2 through 9 count as face value, Aces count as 1, and Tens through Kings count as 0.
   • If the Player or Banker is dealt a total of 8 or 9 right off the bat, that’s an automatic winner, called a “natural.”
   • If the cards add up to more than 9, the first digit is dropped and the second digit is the resulting value of the hand (ex: 6 + 8 = 14, drop the 1 to end up with a value of 4).
   • If the Player has a total of 5 or less, the Player will be dealt one more card. If the Player stands (is not dealt one more card), the Banker will take another card if the Banker’s hand is 5 or less.
   • There are other scenarios for the Banker taking another card if the Banker’s hand is more than 5 based on what third card the Player draws, but we won’t worry about those right now. The dealer does everything, so it is not important for our purposes at the moment. You can always check the game rules while you play to review everything. The important thing is which hand ends up closest to 9 in the end.
4. Payouts Are Made – If you bet on the hand that ends up with the higher total, regardless of which hand it is, you win! A winning Player bet pays out 1/1 (ex: you bet $10, you profit $10). A winning Banker bet also pays out 1/1, but the casino takes a 5% commission, effectively making it a 19/20 payout. The reason for this is that the Banker has an advantage, always acting second. A winning Tie bet pays 8/1, but more on that later.
5. Go Again – If you want to play another hand, you can clear your bets and start over, simply press the “Re-Bet” button to make the exact same bet you just made, or even click the button that doubles your previous bet. If you want to quit, just close the window and the money you had at the table will automatically be put into your account.