Online baccarat: rules and the best bet

Baccarat looks formal and plays simply. You do not hold a hand; you bet on which of two hands, banker or player, ends closer to 9. The dealer does the rest.

Counting a hand

Aces count 1, twos to nines their number, and tens and picture cards count zero. Only the last digit matters: 7 and 8 make 15, which counts as 5. A king and a five is simply 5.

Three bets

• Banker pays 1 to 1 minus a 5% commission. RTP 98.94%, house edge 1.06%. The best bet on the table.
• Player pays 1 to 1. RTP 98.76%, house edge 1.24%.
• Tie pays 8 to 1, at some tables 9 to 1. RTP about 85.6% at 8 to 1. Leave it alone.

The third card

A total of 8 or 9 on the first two cards is a natural and ends the hand. Otherwise, the player hand draws on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. The banker's draw depends on its own total and, if the player drew, on that third card. The software applies all of this automatically; you never have to learn the table.

Mini and speed baccarat

Mini-baccarat uses the same rules on a smaller table with lower limits and is the usual online version. Live Speed Baccarat from Evolution gives you about 11 seconds to bet and deals much faster, for players who want more hands per hour.

Why banker comes out ahead

The banker hand acts second and its drawing rules respond to what the player hand did. That small information advantage makes it win slightly more often. The 5% commission takes most of that back, but not all of it, which is why the banker bet stays the cheapest one to make.