Baccarat is a casino card game. The game is commonly found at land-based casinos but has also made its way online. There are different versions of the game with punto banco being one of the most popular.
In the game of baccarat, the hands of the “player” and the “banker” are compared. Put simply, each round of the game has three possible outcomes: the player wins, the banker wins, or it’s a tie. But how do the actual hand values work? That’s what we’ll explain here!
How is the value of hands added up in baccarat?
In baccarat, each card has a point value. The numbered cards (two to nine) are all worth their face value, aces are worth one and 10, jack, queen and king are all worth zero. Jokers are not used in baccarat. This means that any card with the value of nine (no matter the type) has the highest single-card value.
The highest possible hand value in baccarat is nine, as hands are valued according to the unit digit of the sum of their constituent cards. This means that a hand consisting of one and four is worth five, but a hand consisting of five and nine is worth four (as three is the unit’s digit in the combined points total of 14). This also means that in baccarat, it is not as easy as to say the higher the numbered value of the cards, the higher the value of the hand.
Some of the best hands you can have
As mentioned, the highest possible value is nine. Therefore, the best baccarat hands include the following:
- Four and five/five and four which equals nine points in total.
- Three and six/six and three which equals nine points in total.
- Two and seven/seven and two which equals nine points in total.
- One and eight/eight and one which equals nine points in total.
- Nine in combination with any 10, jack, queen and king. Since those cards are worth zero, only the nine card will count.
If one of the players (player or bank) has any of the abovementioned hands and the other player has less points, the hand will give a win. If both parties have a total of nine points, it will result in a tie.
Play baccarat online
If you are interested in the game of baccarat, it is luckily very easy to get started. That is because baccarat is offered at most online casinos. Since there are so many online casinos to choose from, we recommend that you check a website such as CasinoBonus Code. Such comparison sites list and review online casinos to help you find the best match for you.
Play baccarat at a land-based casino
Baccarat is a classic casino game that can also be found at most land-based casinos. Here you can see the actual cards being dealt in person and see how the points unfold. Both with online and land-based versions of the game, it is normally possible to bet on the outcome (without being the player or bank yourself).
