If you’ve never played baccarat, you’ve probably at least seen the game being played by high rollers in a movie.
Hollywood glamorizes baccarat as a fast paced, high stakes game. For many would-be baccarat players, hearing and seeing the game being played at such high stakes instantly turns them off from ever sitting down at a table.
The truth is, baccarat is one of the easiest games to learn how to play. One of the reasons high rollers play it is because you can get on a hot streak and rapidly make a lot of money. If you can play blackjack, baccarat is just as easy. The Pennsylvania baccarat games can now be played both in-person and online.
How to Play Baccarat
Here’s is a quick rundown on how start playing. When you first begin playing at a baccarat table, you’ll notice that the dealer will deal out two sets of cards. The dealer arranges the two competing hands in their respective spots that is clearly denoted as the player spot and the banker spot.
Unlike blackjack where 10s, jacks, queens and kings count have a value of ten, baccarat gives these cards a value of zero. The objective of the game is to get as close to 9 as possible without going over. If you do go over, that’s fine, because you can simply subtract ten from the score and that will be the score for the hand.
For example, if the player spot contains a king and a 3, this score would be three, not thirteen.
The dealer will deal cards to the two spots and you must place your wager in one of three places. You can bet that the banker will have the winning hand, you can bet that the player will have the winning hand or you can bet on the end result being a tie. A tie pays out 8/1 where bets on the player pay out 1/1 and bets on the banker pays out slightly under 1/1 odds.
When the dealer deals out cards, if any of the two cards equate to 8 or 9, this called a natural 8 or a natural 9 respectively. In this scenario, there are no more cards that will be pulled from the shoe. The casino floor can give you a chart showing you when additional cards will be pulled from the shoe but generally speaking, if the player’s total is 0-5, more cards will be drawn.
If the player’s total is 6 or 7, the player will stand. The banker’s action are completely dependent on the players total and the rule get a bit more complex in terms of when the banker draws. Don’t worry because if you are playing Pennsylvania baccarat online or in person at a place like Parx casino, the dealer or the software will handle all of this for you.
Getting Started with Pennsylvania Baccarat Games
The best way to get started playing baccarat is to play online in the Parx online casino. Available from any PC, smartphone or tablet, Parx casino is the premier Pennsylvania baccarat provider both on the virtual felt and on the physical felt.
The best part about playing online is that you can get a feel for the game without risking any money. You can certainly play for fun just to get the feel for the game and when you’re ready to switch over to real money, you can do so rapidly by making a deposit into your Parx online casino account. If you’re located in the state of Pennsylvania, there is no better place to play baccarat other than Parx casino.