Three Baccarat Bets

There are three baccarat bets available. Pay attention to the house edge and house commission when placing baccarat bets.

There are Three Baccarat Bets

Baccarat is quite a simple game as far as betting is concerned.  While in many other games, there are numerous bets that can be placed, baccarat contains only three types of bets.

The Three Baccarat Bets Explained.

The three baccarat bets available are a bet on the banker, the player, or a tie bet.  The winning hand in baccarat is the hand with the value closest to nine.  Players win by predicting (and betting on) which hand will receive the baccarat hand value closest to nine.  These are explained in detail below.

The Banker Bet

Because of the nature of the game, the banker bet is usually the most popular of the three bets.  The house advantage is the lowest for this bet.  The rules about when the third card can or cannot be drawn for a banker hand help to make this bet even more popular.  The odds are such that the banker hand is the most likely hand to achieve a hand value of nine, and therefore win the round.
 
Because the banker bet has such a high chance of winning, casinos take a 5% commission from winning bets placed on this hand.  It is very important that the player ensures that they have enough funds to cover the house commission, or that they put it aside after each win, as it needs to be paid either at the end of each shoe, or when the player leaves the table.  It is very embarrassing and somewhat problematic for a player to bet and lose the commission owed to the house.

The banker bet pays 1 to 1 (minus the 5% commission).

The Player Bet

The player bet is much the same as the banker bet, except that it is betting on the opposite hand.  It is a bet placed upon the player hand winning the game, by receiving a hand value closest to nine.

The player hand, while still having fairly good odds of winning, has slightly worse odds when comparing it to the banker hand's odds.  The reason for this is that the third card rule for the player hand is a bit less favorable than those for the banker hand.  The player hand also draws their third card before the banker hand, which means that the banker hand is still an unknown quantity when this hand is being played.

The player bet pays 1 to 1 odds.  Note that there is no house commission when betting on the player hand.

The Tie Bet

This bet is considered to be the least wise choice of a baccarat bet.  The tie bet is betting that both the banker hand and the player hand, will have equal values.  The value does not have to equal the ideal nine, or anywhere near it.  The hands simply need to end up with the same values.  The odds of both hands turning up the same values are somewhat small.  The house advantage for this bet is higher than 15%. 

On the other hand, should a player win when placing the tie bet, the payoff is 8 to 1 - much more than the other two baccarat bets.