Baccarat—If The Shoe Fits
The elegant game of Baccarat allows one to the show and channel his inner James.
House Edge: As little as 1.06%
A Game For The Ages
Ranking among the most venerable of casino games, baccarat dates back to the 1400s when it was created in Italy and originally called “baccara.” Cards that normally count as 10 in other games are worth zero in baccarat. The rules are simple: Four cards get dealt from the shoe onto the table; two for banker and two for player. You bet on banker or player, and whichever side gets closer to nine (aces count as one, two through nine count for what they are and the others count as zero) is the winner. You can also bet to tie, but you shouldn’t (more on that later). It’s a simple game of chance, with the house maintaining a minuscule edge, making it one of the best casino games, statistically speaking.
Your Hands Are Tied
The game really plays itself. Baccarat rules mandate additional cards being drawn under certain circumstances. Once all the cards are drawn (or not), denominations are tallied and whoever gets closer to nine is the winner. In the event of a tie, nobody wins, except for gamblers who bet on tie.
Bet On Banker
Only stone-cold suckers take the tie bet. People get lured in by the 8:1 payout, but they forget that the house has a 14 percent edge on that wager. In of betting banker or player, banker is the better bet to make. The house advantage on banker is 1.06 percent (including a 5 percent commission on wins). The house edge on player is 1.24 percent, though there is no commission.
A Veil Of Elegance
Novels like Casino Royale and the film Dr. No have imbued Baccarat with a sense of elegance and a certain amount of mystique. Some of that stems from a fresh deck of cards being used for each round, with high-stakes players turning over cards and getting off on abusing them. These same people tend to keep track of whether hands go to banker or player, claiming to sniff out trends that will ultimately pay off. This may be fun, but it’s also nonsense.
Finding An Edge
Mini-baccarat is a lower-stakes iteration, in which cards do not get touched by players and are reused. It’s the version that was exploited by poker star Phil Ivey and the crafty advantage player Cheung Yin “Kelly” Sun. Deploying a technique known as edge sorting—in which Sun was able to recognize tiny inconsistencies between the top and bottom of face-down cards—Sun and Ivey made tens of millions during a wild series of months in 2012. Sun skipped eating or sleeping for a time. “One time we played 24 hours,” she told Cigar Aficionado. “That’s why they called me Baccarat Machine.”
