Online Baccarat is a rich man’s game where the stakes are high and the cause behind this is the house edge of Baccarat that is lesser compared to slots, roulette and blackjack. The game of online Baccarat is full of fun and entertainment and is really easy to play too. All that said it is still a decent and a sophisticated casino game. The game is always played in a different space or room as you may see in many of the Las Vegas casinos. This is a way of attracting players to try different games and baccarat is certainly not an exception. The secret behind winning at baccarat is to place your bet on a hand that will end with a score of nine or closer to this. The bets are called as Banker and Punto bets. The Punto or the player bet has a house edge of 1.24% and the banker has an advantage of 1.06% whereas the American Roulette has a house edge of only 5%. This is also one of the reasons why the Baccarat is so popular.

 How to play Baccarat Online in Casinos:

The game of Baccarat is played in a different space in a casino. Its table is as big as a craps table. There are three dealers from the casino and around 12 to 14 players. You can either bet as a banker or a player also known by the name Banco for a banker and Punto for a player. Many casinos allow the players to deal the cards while some casinos have their own dealers for dealing the cards. But if it is an online Baccarat then the cards will be dealt automatically through a virtual dealer.

Traditionally the dealer has to bet on Banco or banker but a player can bet on any one of them. If asked the player can also pass the ‘Shoe’ to the next player by not opting to deal the cards. The ‘Shoe’ stays with the player till the bank is winning and when the bank loses that is Punto wins the ‘Shoe’ is passed again.

Baccarat is similar to betting in Roulette as only two hands are dealt and bets are put on whichever seems to be winning to the player. The player can also bet on the fact that the game might end up in a tie. The mode of payoff is even i.e. 1:1 but in winning a Banco bet can cost the player 5% commission or casino tax.

The cause for levying the tax on a Banco bet is the fact that on an average a Banco will win three to four hands more than a Punto in an 8 deck cards play.

When dealing the cards every hand will have two to three cards and the dealer must put two cards facing downwards. This is also called as tucking under the shoe. Now the dealer will give the player the largest Punto bet having the other two cards still facing downwards.

After receiving the bet and the cards the Punto bet player looks at his cards and gives them back to the dealer. Now it is the dealers turn to see the cards and while he is doing that another dealer will announce the winner.

The winner is determined on the basis of the sum of the hand of the player. The hand that has a total of 8 or 9 is the highest and is called a ‘Natural’. No more cards are dealt after this hand. But in case where the hand is not a natural the dealer decides when the next card is to be dealt after checking the value of each hand. The decision of dealing the card is made on the basis of common casino rules.

The winner is always the player whose hand has the highest count. The dealers are not responsible for the payouts. To make the payout the dealer first will collect the losing bets and only after that are the winners paid.

Strategy in Baccarat Online:

A casino player’s first curiosity is about improving his odds and the answer to that is that one cannot improve their odds but they can certainly try to avoid the Tie bet.

Next question would be about card counting. First of all don’t try it because it is not effective enough and it may work when the game hits the base of the shoe. But still it is not that much of an advantage as you may think.

There is a subtle advantage in the Banker bet. Don’t think that your long player win memories can disprove the fact that the Banker bet does have a higher probability of winning. The Banker bet has about a 45.8597% chance of winning, as compared to a 44.6247% probability of the Player bet winning. The Tie bet has a 9.5156% chance of winning, but the odds paid out on a Tie bet are not worth that much.

As Ties do not result in a loss for the Banker or Player bets, their probabilities of winning do not reflect their chances of a loss. With a 5% commission on Banker bet wins, and using 8 decks, the house edge for the different bets are 1.06% for the Banker, 1.24% for the Player, and 14.36% on Ties. You can find lower commissions on a Banker bets, around 5%. Commissions lower than 2% would be in favor of the player but normally the commission rate is around 4%. Play online Baccarat to improve your card playing skills in the game. Try the various sites on the internet for the game of Baccarat. Play on these sites for some of the best bonus offers.