How to Win Baccarat – Rules, Strategies & BTC Casinos

Win Bitcoin at Baccarat like the Pros – Expert Advise, Rules and Strategies

Baccarat (pronounced bäh-kər-äh, not ba-kuh-rat) is a classic casino game that inspires an air of aristocracy. For so long, it was considered a game exclusive to affluent nobles. Casinos perpetuated this impression by placing their baccarat tables in special VIP rooms, cordoning off the tables with red velvet ropes. Cinematic dramatizations of baccarat depicted the famous Agent 007, James Bond, competing for ultra high stakes against notorious villains in multiple adaptations of Ian Fleming’s best-selling novels.

Thanks to the more recent development of online casino games, baccarat is finally emerging from that inaccurate stereotype. The truth is, you don’t need to be rich to play, and there’s nothing intimidating about the rules. In fact, you don’t really play baccarat at all. You only bet on it. To help thwart cheating, today’s rules demand the dealer to do all the leg work.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, please take a look at our table of contents below. On this page, we’ll teach you all about the rules of the game, as well as proper winning strategies, and which casinos allow you to play baccarat for Bitcoin and other crypto currencies.

Table of Contents

• Rules of Baccarat
• Optimal Baccarat Strategy
• Baccarat Casinos Online
• Bet on Baccarat with Crypto

How to Play Baccarat – Rules, Objective and Paytable

Baccarat is one of the easiest casino games you’ll ever play, partly because you don’t play it at all. Like roulette, all you have to do is choose where to place your chips. In this case, you have three basic betting options – the Player, the Banker, or a Tie. The dealer will take care of both hands, dealing cards based on a very specific set of house rules. You don’t even have to know these rules to play, but it will help you understand what’s happening along the way.

House Rules of Baccarat

A new game begins with two hands being dealt two cards each. Depending on the current totals of those hands, more cards may or may not be dealt. To determine this, the current totals are calculated using a special formula that dictates no hand can exceed 9 points. But the hand won’t bust like blackjack. Instead, every time the value meets or exceeds 10 points, 10 is subtracted from the total.

Hand Calculation: Cards are counted at face value, with Aces being 1 and face cards 10. When the total value of a hand meets or exceeds 10, we subtract 10. Thus, the highest possible hand is 9, and the lowest possible hand is 0.

Let’s look at a few examples.

Playing Out of Hands: Once the total value of each hand is determined, the dealer will either declare a winner, or deal another card to the Player and/or Banker. This decision is based on a very simple formula:

“IF this… THEN do this…”

Win, Lose or Draw: Once all hands are finalized using the criteria above, the total of each is compared. The hand with the highest total wins. If the two totals are equal, it is a tie.

Baccarat Bets and Payouts: To play baccarat, you will place a bet in one (or more) of the three betting circles. You can wager on the Player hand to win, the Banker hand to win, or on a Tie between the two. The chart below defines each type of bet and their corresponding payouts. Note that a Tie is not a push. If you bet on the Player or Banker and the result is a Tie, you lose the bet.

*The house rules of baccarat give the Banker hand a slight advantage over the Player hand. To offset this advantage, bettor’s must pay a 5% commission on winning Banker bets. Thus, the payout is 0.95 to 1 (i.e. 1 to 1, minus 5%).

Baccarat Strategies to Win More Often

The basic strategy for baccarat is as straight forward as it gets; not just easy, but supremely simple. If you read the rules, and especially the annotation on the paytable above, you may have already figured it out.

The house rules provide the Banker hand with a slight advantage over the Player. That means the Banker hand will win more often. If it weren’t for that 5% commission on winning Banker bets, the edge would be a lot closer to 0%. With it, the odds of Player, Banker or Tie winning, and the subsequent house edge, are as follows:

To better explain why the Banker hand is the right choice, let’s assume there is no option for the hand to Tie. If we remove Ties from the equation, the odds of the Banker hand winning would be about 51%, and the odds of Player winning 49%. Thus, the Tie is where the house truly gains its edge.

The key to any good gambling strategy is to reduce the house edge to the absolute minimum. Since players cannot make any decisions in baccarat (outside of choosing where to place their bet), the obvious choice is to bet on the Banker.

The perfect strategy here is to always – every time, no matter what past hand history dictates – bet on the Banker. Some professional gamblers will deviate from perfect strategy and bet on the Player now and again. If you feel you must deviate, go ahead, but whatever you do, never ever bet on the Tie. That 14.36% house edge makes it one of the absolute worst bets in the casino.

Stick To Plain Old Baccarat

Take a virtual jaunt through a few online casinos, and you’ll find there are multiple baccarat variants at some of these websites. None of these are worth playing, compared to the good old standard rules of baccarat.

Don’t be fooled by titles like ‘No Commission‘ and ‘Zero Commission‘ baccarat. As good as that sounds – after all, we just talked about how the casino’s edge comes from the commission on Banker bets – I assure you, there’s nothing good about it. The casino always has the edge.

In the case of No/Zero Commission games, the casino makes up for the lack of commission by only paying out 50% winnings (1 to 2) whenever the Banker wins on 6. You might be surprised just how often that happens – just often enough to secure a 1.46% edge on Banker bets. At that rate, the lowest edge in the game belongs to the Player hand at 1.24%; not nearly as low as the original 1.06% edge on Banker bets with commission applied.

The only games in which you might find a better RTP are variants known as EZ Baccarat or Reduced Commission Baccarat. EZ Baccarat is very hard to find, and only drops the edge from 1.06% to 1.02% – better, but maybe not worth the trouble of seeking out. Reduced Commission Baccarat is beyond rare, but the edge is just 0.60% if you can’t find it. I’ve never seen one available online.

Prevalence of Online Casinos with Baccarat

Baccarat is one of the most popular casino games the world over. It ranks right up there with blackjack and roulette. In fact, it’s so popular in Asian culture, you may find large-scale casinos with dozens of baccarat tables, but little or no blackjack games. It’s just that popular!

For online casinos, providing players with baccarat is an unquestionable choice. Every operator has baccarat on its menu. Most of today’s online casinos have taken the extra step to provide live baccarat tables as well; some with rule variants like baccarat squeeze, mini baccarat, or no commission baccarat.

That’s not to say that baccarat variants are any better than the original game. Baccarat squeeze is the exact same game, with the same odds, payouts and strategy. Almost every other variant, including mini baccarat and no commission baccarat, are actually worse for players (i.e. higher house edge). So if you see them, enjoy a practice hand or two if you must, but stick to traditional baccarat for the best odds.

Play Baccarat to Win Bitcoin and Altcoins

If every standard online casino in existence has baccarat, it’s safe to assume most Bitcoin casinos have it, too. The only crypto casinos we’ve come across that didn’t offer baccarat, either in RNG format, live dealer, or both, are those that only support ‘provably fair’ casino games; the ones that run on a blockchain, just like the crypto currencies you’d wager on them with. And even in these cases, I’ve seen provably fair baccarat tables on the menu.

I think it’s fair to say at least 95% of crypto casinos have baccarat on their gaming menus. That means you, as a player, can be picky in choosing the casino that works best for you. The following is a brief list of the most reputable, licensed and regulated casinos that offer baccarat, accept Canadian players, and welcome CAD-to-crypto deposits (and/or fiat currencies). Feel free to click on any casino name for a full review from our editors.