The goal
Before each hand, you bet on which of the two hands will finish with the total closest to 9: PLAYER or BANKER. You can also bet on a TIE and on a pair for either side. The names are just the two hands on the table: betting on the Banker doesn't make you the house.
This is punto banco, the version played in most casinos. Nobody chooses to draw or stand: the rules decide everything.
The shoe, the chips and the limits
Cards come out of an eight-deck shoe. Once 15% of the cards or fewer are left, the shoe is reshuffled before the next hand.
You sit down with 500 chips and bet with chips of 5, 25, 100 and 500. The limit is 5 to 500 on each betting spot, and your total bet can never be more than you have.
The chips are play money: you can't buy them, they aren't worth anything and they can't be cashed in. Baccarat on Selminha.com is just for fun.
Card values
A hand's total is always the last digit of the sum: 7 plus 8 is 15, which counts as 5. So totals run from 0 to 9, and in baccarat nobody busts.
- Ace
- 1 point
- 2 through 9
- Their number
- 10, jack, queen and king
- Zero
The bets
Player and Banker are opposite sides of the same hand, so the table won't take chips on both at once. The Tie and the pairs can be played on their own or alongside one side. A pair means matching cards: a queen and a king are not a pair, even though both count as zero.
- PLAYER
- Wins if the Player hand finishes closer to 9.
- BANKER
- Wins if the Banker hand finishes closer to 9.
- TIE
- Wins if both hands finish on the same total.
- PLAYER PAIR
- Wins if the Player's first two cards are the same, like two 7s or two kings.
- BANKER PAIR
- Wins if the Banker's first two cards are the same.
The deal and the squeeze
With your bet down, tap DEAL. Four cards come out in table order: Player, Banker, Player, Banker. They land face down.
Turning them over is up to you: drag your finger across a card to bend it slowly until the suit peeks out at the corner, the way they do it at high-limit tables. A quick tap flips a card at once, and REVEAL ALL turns over every card on the table. Squeezing slowly or quickly doesn't change the result.
Naturals
If either the Player or the Banker has 8 or 9 on the first two cards, it's a natural. Neither side draws another card, and the hand is decided right there.
The Player's third card
- Total of 0 to 5
- The Player draws a third card.
- Total of 6 or 7
- The Player stands.
The Banker's third card
If the Player stood on 6 or 7, the Banker follows the same rule: draws on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. If the Player drew, the Banker looks at its own total and the Player's third card:
- Banker on 0, 1 or 2
- Always draws.
- Banker on 3
- Draws, unless the Player's third card is an 8.
- Banker on 4
- Draws if the Player's third card is 2 through 7.
- Banker on 5
- Draws if the Player's third card is 4 through 7.
- Banker on 6
- Draws if the Player's third card is a 6 or 7.
- Banker on 7
- Always stands.
For the Player's third card, 10s and face cards count as zero and the ace as 1. Each side gets three cards at most.
Who wins and what it pays
On a tie, bets on Player and Banker don't lose: they come back in full. Pair bets are settled separately, on the first two cards only, whoever wins the hand.
- PLAYER
- Pays 1 to 1.
- BANKER
- Pays 1 to 1, minus the commission at the table you picked (see below).
- TIE
- Pays 8 to 1.
- PLAYER PAIR and BANKER PAIR
- Pay 11 to 1.
The two tables and other choices
Before you sit down, you choose the table and the card design. The drawing rules are the same at both tables; the only difference is how the Banker pays when it wins:
- The Repeat last bet box is checked by default, and CLEAR takes your chips off the table.
- On a computer, D deals and A turns over a card.
- CASH OUT gets you up from the table with the chips you have. That number is your score and goes on the top-five board.
- If you run out of chips and can't cover the 5 minimum, the night is over.
- CLASSIC
- The Banker pays 1 to 1 and the house takes a 5% commission on the winnings.
- NO COMMISSION
- The Banker pays even money with no commission at all, but a Banker win on a total of 6 pays only half.
Tips for beginners
- The Banker wins a little more often than the Player, which is why the house takes a commission on it. Even so, it is the bet that costs you the least over the long run.
- The Tie pays 8 to 1 and looks like a great deal, but it comes up in fewer than one hand in ten. It is the most expensive bet on the table.
- Pairs pay well precisely because they are rare: treat them as an extra, not your main bet.
- No streak of past results tells you what the next hand will be.
- Decide beforehand how far you want to go and use CASH OUT: knowing when to get up is part of the game.
Baccarat variations
There are other forms of baccarat, such as chemin de fer and baccarat banque, where players make some decisions and take turns acting as the bank. Some tables also pay the Tie and the pairs differently. On Selminha.com the game is punto banco, with the fixed third card rule, the Tie paying 8 to 1, pairs paying 11 to 1 and the two tables described above.