Baccarat

Factual Questions
1

Where can I get a computer baccarat game? I tried download.com and d/l’d a 14MB file. I get a “105 error” when I try to run the setup. Okay, so I go to d/l another one. This one won’t let you play for money unless you play with real money. The other games I looked at seemed to require playing at an online casino. One reviewer said the one he d/l’d messed up his colours and internet settings. Hey, I just want to learn how to play the game on the computer so I can try it for real when I go to Vegas.

I guess the best bet would be to buy a game-in-a-box from the computer store. Can someone give me the name of a computer baccarat game that I could buy (like from amazon)?

2

Oh: I did look on amazon and they had Beat the House 2 and Caesar’s Palace 2000. Both had poor reviews.

3

I don’t know any good computer baccarat games, but if all you want to do is to learn to play it, you can find a good rundown of the game in Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale. Or any good book on card games or gambling (Scarne is good for this kind of thing) can give you the rules, although not in such an interesting manner as Fleming describes.

Rather than a computer game, I’d suggest getting a rundown of the rules and a deck of cards at home. The game is quite simple to play, and as a player in a casino, you don’t really “play” baccarat at all, at least not in the blackjack sense. In baccarat, the rules are specific and dictate everything that happens, meaning that (unlike blackjack) play is not dependent on the players’ decisions.

Briefly, the dealer pulls cards from a shoe, making a Bank hand and a Player hand. Whichever hand totals nine or gets closest to it wins. Picture cards and tens count for zero, and if the hand total goes over 9, the first digit is discarded (for example, a hand totalling 13 would be a 3, a hand totalling 16 would be a 6, etc.).

As a player, you just bet your money on either Bank or on Player (in the casino game, they’re just names; they might as well be called Red and Black, like roulette) and wait for a decision. If you bet Player and it wins, you win too. If you bet Bank and it wins, the house will deduct some of your winnings as a commission. This is how the house makes their money on the game.

That’s about it, really. If you can find a computer baccarat game, this somewhat-confusing explanation should be clearer, but if not, I think I covered the main points. And no doubt, the casino will be glad to explain the game further and perhaps offer a lesson or two. Good luck!

4

Thanks Spoons. I read the rules online and it seems a fairly simple game. But I have a few questions:

  1. Are only two hands bet, and everyone at the table bets on the bank or the player?

  2. If someone “passes you the shoe”, you become the banker, right? Does that mean that you can’t bet?

  3. If you’re the banker, does that mean that everyone is betting against you? That is, you’re responsible for paying everyone who wins the hand?

  4. If #3, is there a limit to how much can be bet so that the players can’t win more than you have?

  5. Suppose the hand is 10 (a nine and an ace, two fives, etc.). Is that work zero; or 10?

  6. Can the banker draw a card? How many cards can be drawn?

The reason I’m looking for a computer game is so that I can see the mechanics of the game without actually gambling. I think a store-bought game would be best, but if anyone knows of a downloadable game that A) I can run the setup for, and B) doesn’t require I play online, and C) doesn’t mess up my settings, please LMK.

Thanks.

5

It’s been a long time since I’ve played, Johnny L.A., or reviewed the proper rules (my copy of Scarne is not handy at the moment), but I’ll see what I can do with your questions.

  1. Yes, that’s it.

  2. You are the banker, but I believe that’s a more traditional thing than anything else. You can still bet, but there may be a rule that says you can only bet on Bank–check a source or with casino staff to make sure.

  3. In the casino game as played nowadays, I believe that you are playing against the house at all times–unlike James Bond and Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, who were expected to put up their own funds. In other words, I don’t think that you are expected to cover Players’ wagers out of your own bankroll.

  4. There are minimums and limits on the table, as with other casino games. But as I said, you’re not covering other players, so don’t worry.

  5. A 10 would be a zero–throw out the first digit of a double-digit count.

  6. Drawing cards, and the number of cards that can be drawn, are specified in the rules. The player who is the Banker, and the other players, really doesn’t have any say in the matter; that’s how specific the rules are. In fact, the dealers can (and do) deal without direction from the players–the rules spell out exactly what they must do at all stages of the game.

In essence, the game doesn’t require much more thought or work on your part than betting heads or tails on a coin flip–it’s the same 50-50 proposition. But in a much more elegant setting, of course.

Hope this helped, but I hope you can also locate a computer game–it would demonstrate the game much better than I can describe it.

6

A few more points.

You can bet on a tie (but the odds are bad)

If you exclude the tie bet (9.6% overall)
Banker wins 50.7% and Player wins 49.3%
Because of the advantage on a banker bet you will pay a 5% commission of your winnings bringing everything close to a 50-50 coin flip as Spoons mentioned.

On your questions I agree with spoons but will add….
2&3) you can bet anyway you want regardless of where the banker shoe is. You can pass the shoe. The casino takes and pays all bets.
5&6) I wouldn’t worry about the particulars of how this works. After you place a bet everything is on autopilot and you can’t influence the hands in any way.

7

Try shareware.com - it’s a CNet engine that will query a bunch of sites for you. I put in ‘baccarat’ and got a lot of hits. I’ve never played the game myself, so I can’t recommend any specific version but I’m sure there’s something out there that’ll fit your requirements.