From: jacobs@cs.utah.edu (Steven R Jacobs)
Subject: Re: Baccarat
In-reply-to: kgirodias@azcc.arizona.edu's message of 29 Jul 92 15:49:57 GMT
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept
Date: 29 Jul 92 10:50:35

In article <1992Jul29.084957.1@azcc.arizona.edu> kgirodias@azcc.arizona.edu writes:
>
> Is there anyone who could post the rules of Baccarat?  Where to play in
> Vegas? 

From the FAQ:

Q:M1  How is Baccarat played?
A:M1  (Steve Jacobs)

  Baccarat is a card games that is usually dealt from a shoe that holds
  6 or 8 decks of cards.  Two hands are dealt by the house dealer, the
  "bank" hand and the "player" hand.  Before the hands are dealt, the
  players can bet either on the bank hand or the player hand, or on a
  tie.  Winning bets are paid 1:1, but a 5% commission is charged on bank
  bets.  Tie bets are paid 8:1.  Once a bet has been placed, there are no
  opportunities for the player to make decisions -- both the bank hand and
  the player hand are dealt according to fixed rules.

  A game of baccarat is started by dealing two cards for the player hand
  and two cards for the bank hand.  The object of the game is to be dealt
  the hand with the highest rank.  The rank of a hand is determined by
  totalling the ranks of the individual cards.  Tens and face cards are
  counted as zero, while all other cards are counted by the number of
  "pips" on the card face.  No baccarat hand can have a total greater
  than nine.  If a card is added that would give a total greater than
  nine, the hand rank is adjusted by subtracting 10.

  According to the rules of baccarat, the player will stand if the first
  two cards total 6, 7, 8, or 9.  An eight or a nine is a "natural", and
  is an automatic winner if the other hand has a lower total.  If both
  hands are eights or both are nines, then a tie occurs and neither side
  wins.  If neither hand is a natural, then cards might be drawn before
  the game ends.  If the player hand totals 5 or less, then a third card
  is drawn for the player hand and the player will stand regardless of
  the total.  The banker stands when holding 7, 8, or 9, and always draws
  one card when holding 0, 1, or 2.  For other banker totals, drawing is
  determined by the rank of the player hand, according to the following
  table:

       Bank     0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  <- player hand rank
      --------------------------------------
        9       s  s  s  s  s  s  s  s  s  s
        8       s  s  s  s  s  s  s  s  s  s
        7       s  s  s  s  s  s  s  s  s  s
        6       s  s  s  s  s  s  H  H  s  s
        5       s  s  s  s  H  H  H  H  s  s
        4       s  s  H  H  H  H  H  H  s  s
        3       H  H  H  H  H  H  H  H  s  H
        2       H  H  H  H  H  H  H  H  H  H
        1       H  H  H  H  H  H  H  H  H  H
        0       H  H  H  H  H  H  H  H  H  H


  When baccarat is dealt from 8 decks, the probability of a banker win
  is 45.86%, the probability of a player win is 44.62%, and the probability
  of a tie is 9.52%.  The house edge on "player" bets is about 1.24%.
  Winning "bank" bets are charged a 5% commission, resulting in a 1.06%
  edge on these bets.  The house edge on "tie" bets is about 4.9%.
--
Steve Jacobs  ({bellcore,hplabs,uunet}!utah-cs!jacobs, jacobs@cs.utah.edu)
"Never try to teach a pig to sing.  It wastes your time and annoys the pig."
Newsgroups: rec.gambling