Baccarat: How It Works, Odds and Payouts

Baccarat is a table game where you bet on which of two hands, Player or Banker, finishes closest to 9, or that they tie. You make one choice, the cards are dealt, and the third-card rules decide the rest. There are no decisions mid-hand.

Coins are virtual and have no cash value. "Player" and "Banker" are just names for the two hands; you do not play as either.

How a round works

1. Bet on Player, Banker or Tie.
2. Two hands are dealt, two cards each. The hand closest to 9 wins.
3. The third-card rules may add a card to either hand.
4. Player pays 1.96x, Banker pays 1.90x and Tie pays 10.16x. On a tie, Player and Banker bets push and your bet comes back.

Card values and totals

Aces count 1. Cards 2 to 9 count their face value. Tens, Jacks, Queens and Kings count 0. A hand's total is the sum of its cards with the tens digit dropped (the sum modulo 10), so 7 + 8 = 15 is a 5, and 9 + 9 = 18 is an 8. In Cashout Arcade every card is drawn independently from an endless shoe, so there is no card counting.

The third-card rules

If either hand has an 8 or 9 on its first two cards (a natural), both hands stand. Otherwise:

• Player draws on a total of 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7.
• Banker acts after Player. If Player stood, Banker draws on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. If Player drew a third card, Banker follows this table:

These are the standard punto banco rules, applied by the server. You never choose to draw.

The odds of each result

Because the draw rules are fixed, the chance of each outcome can be worked out exactly by following every card combination.

Banker wins more often than Player, which is why it pays less. The three bets are set so that each returns exactly 97%: for Player, 0.4461 x 1.9602 + 0.0954 x 1 (the tie push) = 0.97, and the Banker bet works the same way. Tie: 0.0954 x 10.1649 = 0.97. The shared limits for all games are on the odds page.

A worked example

You bet 100 coins on Banker. Player is dealt a King and a 5, a total of 5, so Player draws and gets a 6, finishing on 1 (5 + 6 = 11). Banker is dealt 4 and 2, a total of 6. Because Player's third card was a 6, Banker draws, and receives a 3, finishing on 9. Banker 9 beats Player 1. Your bet returns 1.9077x, about 190 coins. If both hands had finished on the same number, your bet would have been returned in full instead.

Max win and caps

The biggest Baccarat payout is the Tie bet at 10.16x. That is well under the game-wide limits of 50,000x the bet and 250,000,000 coins per round.

What is the same as other table games

Like Roulette: How It Works, Odds and Payouts and Craps: How It Works, Odds and Payouts, every Baccarat bet is individually priced to return 97%, so there is no best bet. Unlike Blackjack: How It Works, Odds and Payouts, there are no decisions to make after the deal, so there is no skill element at all. The traditional rules and where this version differs are explained in Baccarat Rules and Odds: Player, Banker, Tie.

Tips that hold up

• There is no best bet for the long run. Banker wins slightly more often, but it pays less in proportion, and the return is the same.
• Tie is a different kind of bet. It wins about 1 round in 10 and its swing is much greater.
• Ignore the road, the scoreboard and the pattern. Every round is independent of the last.
• "Banker has won five in a row" tells you nothing. The cards have no memory.

Play with limits

With one choice and a fast result, rounds can come quickly. Set a time and coin limit before you start, and see Play Safely in Cashout Arcade: Limits and Breaks for tools. Cashout Arcade is for adults aged 18+, uses virtual coins and has no real-money prizes.