Baccarat is, as you probably know, a banking game available in the casinos worldwide. The word baccarat comes from the Italian baccara, meaning zero. The word refers to cards such 10s or face cards, which have zero value in the game. Baccarat is a simple game to play. There are not many decisions or options; no degree of skill is required for either player.

In land casinos, players may sit in any open seat at the table, their seating position doesn’t affect the play. Each seat corresponds to a number on the layout, from 1 until 15. Three dealers service each table. The one between positions 1 and 15 is also known as the "caller." His duty is to run the game as cards are being dealt from the shoe. It’s so much fun! Each player gets a turn to handle the shoe. The player must bet the bank when he has the shoe, but any player may decline the shoe and it passes right along from player to player. Again, there is no advantage or disadvantage in dealing the cards.

The caller gets the cards from the players with the shoe, places them in the appropriate boxes and then calls for another card or declares the winner, according to the rules of the game.

The objective of baccarat is for the players to guess which of the three possible propositions will win on the next round: Bank, Player, or Tie. Two cards are dealt to the Bank hand and two cards are dealt to the Player hand. Sometimes a third card is dealt to either or both hands. The hand closest to nine wins the game.

If there is a tie, the bets on the banker or player are returned. After you place your bet, there are no further decisions to be made: the banker hand as well as the player hand is dealt according to the game rules, resulting in final hands of either two or three cards for each.

The value of a hand is calculated by summing up the values of the individual cards. The value of the Tens and face cards is zero and the value of all the other cards is counted according to their numerical value. The only thing that counts is the last number of the total, meaning that all baccarat hands’ values vary from 0 to 9. So, for instance, seven plus six is not 13, but 3.

The winner is the hand with the highest value; if the hands have the same value, the result is a tie.