The Gentleman's Game, from the felt up
How to Play
Baccarat looks ceremonial and plays simple: back one of two hands, watch the tableau deal them by fixed rules, and the total nearer nine wins. There are no decisions after your bet — which is exactly why knowing how the cards fall is the whole education. Ten minutes here and the table will hold no surprises.
The Object
Two hands are dealt every round — Player and Banker. They are not you and the house; they are just two sides you can back, like horses. You may also bet that the round ends in a Tie.
Each hand scores by adding its card values and keeping only the last digit. A 7 and an 8 make 15, which counts as 5. Totals therefore run 0–9, and the hand closer to 9 wins the round.
An 8 or 9 on the first two cards is a natural — the aristocrat of hands. Naturals stop all drawing immediately.
Count Like the Table
The only arithmetic baccarat ever asks of you. Build a hand and watch the ten's digit vanish:
Tap up to three cards — suits never matter
The Deal, Step by Step
This is a real hand from a freshly shuffled six-deck shoe, dealt by the same engine that runs the simulator. Step through it and the tableau explains every card as it falls — deal new hands until you've seen a natural, a stand, and a full five-card coup.
The Banker's Tableau
The Player's rule is one line: draw on 0–5, stand on 6–7. The Banker's rule is the famous part — when the Player has drawn, the Banker's decision depends on the value of the Player's third card, not the Player's total.
Because the Banker acts last with that extra information, the Banker hand wins slightly more often than it loses — the structural fact behind the 5% commission and every number in the strategy library. You never need to memorize this grid — the table plays it for you — but reading it once removes all the mystery.
Hover or tap a cell — Banker total × Player's third card
Banker holds 4, Player's third card is worth 7 — Banker draws.
This grid only applies when the Player drew a third card. If the Player stood on 6 or 7, the Banker ignores the table entirely and plays the Player's own rule: draw on 0–5, stand on 6–7. Naturals (8 or 9) stop everything before any of this happens.
Payouts & the Commission
| Bet | Pays | House edge | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | 1:1 | 1.24% | Clean even money. |
| Banker | 1:1 less 5% | 1.06% | The commission buys the best odds in the house. |
| Tie | 8:1 | 14.36% | Player and Banker bets push when it lands. |
On a Tie, bets on Player and Banker push — returned untouched. In the simulator's Settings you can pay the Tie at 9:1 or switch the commission off to see how each rule moves the math.
Driving the Simulator
You sit down with $5,000 in virtual chips at a $1–$1,000 table. Pick a chip from the tray, click a lane to stack it, and deal. The bead plate above the felt records every result of the current shoe — blue for Player, red for Banker, green for Tie — and clears when a fresh shoe arrives, exactly as the roads do in a live casino.
Your bankroll, history, and settings persist in your browser. No account, no real money — just the game.
Lesson over