Baccarat is a classic casino card game. Although baccarat is a game relying only on chance it is very popular among casinators due to the very small house edge. The game is very simple, fast and does not require any player decision except the initial bets.

The Baccarat game is one of the oldest casino games, it's origins dating from the 15th century. It has three versions, but only one of them ("Punto Banco") is played in most casinos. The goal of the game is to guess the winning hand. The two hands involved in the game are called "player" and "banker". The player has three betting options: "player", "banker" and "tie". Six decks of cards are used. Two cards are dealt to the player and the banker. Depending of the value of those two card hands either the player or the banker may draw a third card. The value of the hand ranges from zero to nine. Cards from 2 to 9 have their face value, aces value 1 point while 10, J, Q and K are 0 points. The total hand value is the last digit of the sum value of the cards. A hand consisting of a 6, 7, J has a value of 3 (6+7+0=13, 3 being the last digit). The winning hand is the one with a higher value.

If the player's or banker's first two cards have a value of 8 or 9 the game will end without further draws. Otherwise a third card may be drawn. The player draws if his hand value is 5 or less while the banker draw depends on its two card hand and the player's third card (if any). The banker's action is a forced one, resulting from a predefined algorithm.

The player bet pays 1:1, the banker bet pays 1:1 with a 5% commission and the tie pays 8:1. The player and banker bets have a house edge of less than 1.5% which is the lowest from all the casino games.

The hand with the worst value (zero) is called baccarat, which is quite unusual for a casino game name.