Baccarat Bets - Player or Banker
Baccarat is a relatively simple card game. That is the reason why most expert gamblers would recommend the game to novice players who are a bit apprehensive to sit and play. The rules are simple - place a bet on the hand of your choice which is either the 'player' or 'banker'. The dealer places two cards at each hand. You may opt to draw a third card. Once the cards are dealt, the hand whose cards total points are closest to nine, wins. If you think a tie will occur, you may place your bet on the 'tie' option.
If you decide to place your bet on the Player's hand, you need to place your chips in the player's area that is facing you in the baccarat table. If after the cards are dealt, the player's hand shows a higher value compared to the banker's hand, you just won your bet. The payout is even or 1 to 1, which means they pay the exact amount of your bet. They do not take commission charges for player's hand bets. Winning percentage is 44.62. House edge is relatively low at 1.29 percent.
If you want to opt to bet on the Banker's hand, you should place your chips in the banker's area that is facing you on the baccarat table. Once the cards are dealt and the winning hand happens to be the banker's, you win. The payout is still even but the house takes a 5 percent commission charge. Winning percentage and house edge are practically the same as the player's hand. The dealer will not collect the commission immediately to avoid game delay; instead he will make a note every time a player owes him commission and proceeds to pay the winning bets. Once the cards from the shoe are all dealt or if someone wants to bail out that is the when the dealer computes the commission charges.
If according to your judgments there is a great probability that a tie will occur, you may place your bet on the 'tie' area. Most baccarat tables have numbers that correspond to the seat you are taking so you may place your bet there as well if you go for a tie. If eventually a tie will occur, you just got lucky by winning the bet. The payout is quite low at 8 to 1 which gives the house an extremely high edge. Losing percentage is highest at 90.48 percent. So, unless you are definite about a tie, you better stick with the player and banker's hands.