A short course in punto banco
Learn baccarat properly, one hand at a time.
Baccarat looks mysterious from the other side of a casino floor. It is not. Every card follows a fixed rule, and once you have seen those rules laid out plainly, the game becomes something you can follow from the first card to the last.
This site is a textbook with a table attached. Read three short lessons, test yourself on the drawing rules, then sit down at a practice table where the cards come from a proper eight-deck shoe and the stakes are virtual coins that are worth nothing outside these pages.
Start here
If you have never played, take these in order. Each step builds on the one before, and the whole path takes about an hour at an unhurried pace.
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How a hand works
Card values, counting totals, naturals and how each hand is settled. About eight minutes.
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The third-card rule
The part that confuses everyone at first: when each side takes another card, with the full Banker tableau.
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Drill the tableau
Twenty quick questions will fix the Banker rule in your memory better than reading it twice.
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House edge and odds
What each bet is really worth, why the tie looks generous and is not, and why patterns cannot help.
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Play at the practice table
Full hands with explanations of every draw. Watch the rules work while you play.
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Try the squeeze
Peel the cards back yourself, the slow ritual of high-limit rooms in Macau and London.
Player
Total 9
Banker
Total 7
The practice table
Here is a typical hand. The Player started with 4, which is low enough to require a third card. A five arrived and lifted the total to 9. The Banker held 7, which always stands, so the Player hand wins.
At the practice table every hand comes with a written explanation like that one, a bead plate of the last thirty results and a count of the cards left in the shoe. Bets are made in virtual coins, paid at the real casino rates, including the 5% commission on Banker.
What this site will and will not do
It will
- explain every rule in plain English, with real examples;
- show you the true odds and house edge of each bet;
- let you practise for as long as you like at no cost.
It will not
- take money from you, ever: coins cannot be bought;
- pay out anything of real value: coins cannot be withdrawn;
- pretend that a system or pattern can beat the game.