The Rules of Real Baccarat
Real™ Baccarat with Sarati offers authentic games of baccarat played at a traditional bean-shaped table, where Sarati deals the cards from an eight-deck shoe. There are two dealing positions on the table: Player and Banker, and it’s up to you as the player to bet on one of them. Once you’ve made your betting decision, Sarati deals a hand of two cards face up to both Player and Banker. Whichever hand has a total closest to nine is the winner. Cards from two to nine have face value, aces are worth one, and 10s, jacks, queens, and kings count as zero. Drop the first digit for hands that total more than nine. A pair of eights, for example, would add up to 16, which comes to six when you drop the first digit.
Sarati may deal extra cards to the Player or Banker hand. If, for example, the Player hand has a value of five or less, Player receives another card. In all other cases, Player stands. If the Banker hand has a value of five or less and Player stands, Banker hits. Both hands stand if either Player or Banker totals eight or nine.
Player bets pay out at odds of 1:1, while winning Banker bets incur a 5% commission, so they pay out 95% of your wager. The reason is that the win rate of the Banker hand is ever so slightly higher. As a result, a reasonable strategy would be to bet on Banker every time, although this is considered unsporting in traditional baccarat circles.
A third betting option is a Tie, which pays out at odds of 8:1.
