The Lemons & Sevens Ultimate Guide to Online Baccarat will take you from beginner to pro at this often confusing online casino card game.

Online Baccarat is played with standard playing cards, usually dealt from a shoe of 8 decks. (Though occasionally you’ll find Baccarat played with a shoe of 6 decks.)

The dealer does practically all of the work in Baccarat, dealing two hands simultaneously, called the “banker” and the “player” hands. As the player, you can actually bet on either the banker hand or the player hand,there are side bets like pair or tie but they have significantly worse house edges. Each bet has different odds and different payouts.

The aim of Baccarat is to get as close to 9 as possible on whichever hand you have bet on - unless you bet on a tie, in which case you want both hands to be, well, tied. (Shocker, right?)

How do you Play Online Baccarat?

When you take your virtual seat at the Baccarat table, you’ll be presented with a board that says “Player”, “Banker” and “Tie”. These are the main three bets you can make in Baccarat. Here’s an example of a Baccarat table - this one is from live online Baccarat at Pokerstars.

The goal of Baccarat is to get as close to 9 as possible, but in order to do that, you need to know what each card’s value is. As in Blackjack, the values of the cards are not immediately obvious to newbies when playing Baccarat online.

The values of the cards in Baccarat are as follows:

• Each number card from 2-9 is worth its face value (e.g. 7♣ is worth 7)
• 10, Jack, Queen and King are worth nothing. Big fat zero.
• Aces are worth 1.

The rules for Baccarat are very complex, luckily you don’t have to remember any of them, the dealer will take care of the whole thing. In case you were interested here are the rules:

• If either the player or banker is dealt a total of eight or nine, both the player and banker stand.
• If the player’s total is five or less, then the player will receive another card. Otherwise, the player will stand.
• If the player stands, then the banker hits on a total of 5 or less.

Is Baccarat a game of skill?

Baccarat is a game of chance, not a game of skill. There’s no real online baccarat strategy that you can use to beat baccarat, although some people do try to implement variations of the Martingale strategy typically seen in roulette. (This is a bad idea.)

The best bet in online baccarat is to bet with the banker, as it has the lowest house edge. Outside of that, the most skill you can enact when playing baccarat is to set an amount that you’re happy to play with, and then stop playing if you lose it all.

Online Baccarat odds

The odds of winning in Baccarat change depending on which bet you make. Some bets are less likely to win than others, and as such have higher corresponding odds.

At 11:1, the pair bet has the largest payout, but it also is the bet you’re least likely to win on - so will drain your wallet in no time. In comparison, the banker bet pays just 0.95:1 (assuming 5% commission) but is also the bet which is most likely to win.

All baccarat house edges are as follows:

• Banker - 0.95:1
• Player - 1:1
• Tie - 8:1
• B Pair - 11:1
• P Pair - 11:1

Online Baccarat house edge

The different bets in online Baccarat have different house edges which vary greatly. The house edge isn’t even the same on Banker and Player due to complex rules listed above. That’s the reason for the commission, without it betting Banker would have a positive expected value.

• Banker - 1.05% (Assuming 5% commission)
• Player - 1.23%
• Tie - 14.3%
• B Pair - 10.36%
• P Pair - 10.36%

Online Baccarat Strategy

There are no proven winning strategies in Baccarat however some players like to use patterns to inform their decisions. The commonly held belief amongst baccarat players is that the game plays in runs, so Banker or Player might run hot for a period of time prompting players to always bet on the previous winning outcome.

We recommend that you just always bet Banker because of the lower house edge. At just over 1% it’s a very good bet to make, that doesn’t require you to learn any fancy rules or strategy like you would need to in order to get that same house edge Blackjack.

Best Places to Play Online Baccarat

Unibet

Unibet operates 18 Baccarat tables 24/7/365 at various betting limits and with differing side bets.

All of the games are operated by either Evolution Gaming or Pragmatic Play.

Pokerstars

Pokerstars have a whole lobby of Baccarat tables available all hours. We counted 22 at time of writing but this can differ depending on the time of day. Minimum bets are mostly at the £1 level although there is always a £1000 minimum bet private table (1 player) available.

All of the Baccarat games on Pokerstars are operated by Evolution Gaming.

Learn to play Baccarat for free on mobile or PC. When you are ready for real money action find the best online casinos available in your country

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