Baccarat has done an excellent job of making itself look complicated and tough to grasp. Whether it’s the appearances in movies alongside people wearing tuxedos, or perhaps any card game involving words like Player, Banker and natural nine simply sounds like something you should study fiercely before being allowed anywhere near it.
Luckily for anyone who can’t be bothered with all that hassle, you’ll be pleased to know that baccarat is actually one of the easiest casino table games to learn, play, and win on – thanks to its favourable players odds.
Unlike other table games (we’re looking at you, blackjack!) You also don’t need to memorize any complicated strategy charts or cheat sheets. You don’t need to decide whether to hit or stand, nor do you need to hit with a fixed poker face or try to bluff anybody. Once the bets are placed, the cards are dealt according to fixed rules and the game takes care of the rest.
That only leaves you with making the decision of where your money should go. While this isn’t always an easy choice to make, a little knowledge about the game can certainly help – hence this quick and easy guide for learning baccarat the lazy way.
Crash Course in Baccarat
Because baccarat is so simple, we can probably get through this summary part in about 30 seconds. Here’s what you need to know:
- A standard baccarat hand has two sides: Player and Banker.
- You’re betting on which one will finish closest to nine, or whether they’ll tie. Despite the names, “Player” doesn’t mean you and “Banker” doesn’t mean the casino. They’re simply the names of the two hands.
- Cards from 2 through 9 are worth their face value. Aces are worth one, while 10s and face cards are worth zero.
- If a hand totals more than nine, you only use the final digit. So 7 + 8 gives you 15, which becomes 5. A 9 + 7 gives you 16, so the hand is worth 6.
That’s basically the whole game in a nutshell. However, depending on the first cards, another card may be dealt, but you don’t have to decide whether that happens because baccarat automatically does that for us anyway.
The Best Bet: The Banker
If you want the simplest useful piece of baccarat strategy: the Banker bet generally has the lowest house edge of the three standard bets. Under common baccarat rules, the Banker bet has a house edge of roughly 1.06%, while Player is around 1.24%. The exact figures can vary with the rules being used.
That said, there is a catch. Casinos aren’t in the habit of accidentally offering the better side of a wager, which means a winning Banker bet traditionally carries a 5% commission rate, although some baccarat variations handle Banker payouts differently.
Even with the standard commission, Banker remains mathematically attractive compared with the other main options. Does that mean Banker wins every hand? Absolutely not. It can lose five times in a row just as you’re telling your friend how clever your new baccarat strategy is.
The advantage only shows itself over large numbers of hands. It isn’t a prediction about what happens next.
Player Bet As The Second Choice
If you’d rather avoid calculating commission or simply fancy backing the Player, you’re not suddenly committing some enormous baccarat sin. The Player bet is still a relatively low-house-edge casino bet under standard rules.
It also usually pays even money without the commission attached to Banker wins, which makes everything pleasantly straightforward. Bet $10, win the hand, receive $10 in winnings.
For the genuinely lazy baccarat player, you could reduce the basic strategy to this: Banker is generally the strongest mathematical bet. Player is a reasonable alternative. But just to throw a spanner in the works, there’s also the Tie bet.
The Tie Bet Is Where Things Get Expensive
Tie looks tempting because the payout is much bigger. Depending on the game, you might see something around 8:1 or 9:1 which is a lot more enticing compared with an even-money Player bet.
The reason for this is because ties don’t happen very often, and the house edge on the standard Tie bet is considerably higher than on Player or Banker. Under common rules, it can exceed 14%, which can make it considerably pricey.
If you’re playing baccarat because you like the occasional long-shot wager, you may still decide to make one, but just bear in mind that a bigger payout doesn’t equate to better value.
The same caution applies to baccarat side bets. Perfect Pairs, Dragon Bonus and other variations can make the game more interesting, but check the paytable and odds before assuming they’re a clever shortcut to bigger wins.
Fixing the Shoe and Doubling Your Bets
Now we get to baccarat mythology.
The Banker bet has won four hands in a row, so surely this means the Player is due? Unfortunately, patterns are never guaranteed in any type of casino game you play, as much as we’d love them to be.
Previous baccarat results don’t force the next hand to balance things out or continue a pattern. The scoreboard might show a beautifully satisfying zigzag of Banker and Player results, but the cards have no interest in completing the picture for you.
We’ll see three Banker wins and start constructing a theory before the fourth hand has even been dealt. Baccarat scoreboards are useful for recording what happened, but that doesn’t make them crystal balls.
As is the case with many blackjack strategists, you might think that increasing your bet after a loss could also give you an advantage in this game, i.e., bet $10, lose, bet $20, lose, bet $40 and continue doubling until you eventually win.
On paper, that final win recovers the previous losses and produces a small profit, but in reality, losing streaks happen, bankrolls have limits and casino tables have maximum bets. Doubling also gets uncomfortable quickly: a harmless-looking $10 starting bet becomes $160 after four consecutive increases and $320 on the next one.
The “lazy” option is considerably easier: choose a sensible stake and don’t turn a bad run into an increasingly expensive science experiment.
Your Bankroll Matters More Than Your “System”
Because baccarat requires so few playing decisions, bankroll management ends up being one of the areas where you genuinely have control. Decide what you’re willing to spend before playing and choose stakes that give that bankroll some room.
If you’ve set aside $100 for the session, repeatedly betting $50 per hand gives you very little margin for normal short-term swings. Smaller bets let you play more hands without every loss feeling like a minor financial emergency.
It also helps to decide when you’re stopping before you start, which includes winning sessions. If you double your starting bankroll and would be delighted to leave with it, consider actually leaving with it rather than immediately giving the game an opportunity to take it back.
The Lazy Baccarat Strategy
If there’s one thing worth remembering with baccarat, it’s how baccarat totals work. Favor Banker if you’re choosing purely on the standard mathematical house edge, with Player as a perfectly reasonable alternative. Treat Tie and side bets as higher-cost extras rather than secret weapons. Ignore streaks, don’t chase losses and decide what you’re prepared to spend before the first cards appear—that’s about as close as baccarat gets to a useful “system.”
It won’t guarantee that you win tonight, and no legitimate baccarat strategy can do that. What it can do is steer you away from some of the game’s more expensive bets and stop you wasting energy trying to predict patterns that aren’t predicting anything.
