Baccarat has a reputation of a sophisticated casino game. One of the reasons for its reputations is that the baccarat table is usually hidden behind a velvet curtain. Nowadays you can play online baccarat from the comfort of your own home. Whether you plan to play baccarat in a land based casino or in an online casino, here you can learn how to play the game.

Baccarat is played with 12-14 players including 3 dealers. There are two basic types of bets in baccarat, banco or punto banker or player. The players have to choose whether to place their bets on banco or punto. The dealer is usually betting on banco.

Baccarat is played with 6 or 8 deck shoe. The face and the ten cards have no value and the aces are valued as one. The 1-9 cards are counted as their face value. Only single digit values are counted. For example, if the score is 15, it will be counted as 5.

The baccarat game starts with each players bet on banco, punto or standoff. The card dealer deals each player two cards. The player has to estimate which hand has the highest total value and to place a bet.

Baccarat rules include specific rules about dealing a third card. If the player or the banker has a total of 8 or 9, no third card will be dealt. This situation is called a natural and it marks the hand end. If the players score is 5 or less, the player is dealt a third card.