Baccarat Casino Game Free Lessons
Baccarat Strategy
Baccarat (Bah-Caw-Rah) is an Italian reference to "zero". The classy-sounding monicker and allusions to high-style, tuxedoed James Bond types is no coincidence: baccarat is believed to have originated in Italy shortly before the turn of the 16th century, and had been claimed by the French nobility as their favorite game.
Baccarat todays remains hugely popular all over the European casinos. In no time, the game spread and spawned North and South American versions. Cuban baccarat has emerged as the game's most widespread variation, and is what can be likeliest found at the casino tables.
How to Play Baccarat
Baccarat is a table game played with eight decks of cards. 
The Jokers are not included. The values of the cards are as follows:
10 / Jack / Queen / King = 0 (Zero)
Ace = 1 (One)
2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 = Face Value
The card values in baccarat may seem a bit odd to you at first, especially that 10, J, Q, and K are known to have a value of 10 in most other card games. To spare yourself the confusion, keep this in mind: in baccarat, the first digit in a two-digit number always does not count. Thus, 10, J, Q, and K count as 0 while the Ace counts as one. This rule is applied not only to single cards but also to the total value of two cards combined. If the value of the hand is ten points or more, subtract ten, and the remainder is the total value of your hand.
For example: 7 + 6 = 13 = 3; 4 + 6 = 10 = 0
A game of baccarat begins when the dealer, known as the "banker", shuffles all eight decks together and places them in the dealing shoe, or the container holding the cards, known as the "bank". The banker then takes the top card out of the deck, and the value of this card becomes the number of cards to be "burned" or removed from the game. For example, if the banker draws a top card of 4, then he takes the first four cards from the bank and discards them along with the original top card. The baccarat game proper is now ready to start.
The player and the banker are each dealt two cards. Once all participants have a two-card hand, each one may make any of the following moves in baccarat:
Draw. To "draw" is to add a third card from the shoe to your original two-card hand.
Stand. To "stand" is to leave your two-card hand as is, without taking any additional card.
Natural Win. A "natural win", sometimes simply called a "natural", is not a move but a hand in which your two cards total 8 or 9. You automatically win the game.
Note that when the banker or player must draw, only one card is being drawn. Therefore, the most cards that any banker or player will have are three. The way the game proceeds is that the player with a hand that is closest to 9 wins.
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