Baccarat strategy

Baccarat is one of the best games to play in a casino because of the low house edge. The Baccarat "banker" bet has one of the lowest house edge you can find in a casino.

House edge and payoffs

These numbers are accurate for single deck baccarat.
Betting on the "banker" has a 1.01% house edge and pays even money.
Betting on the "player" has a 1.29% house edge and pays even money.
Betting on the "tie" has a 15.75% house edge and pays 8 to 1, if you can find a game with 9 to 1 payoff on the tie bet that will reduce the house edge to 4.8%

Bet Payoff House edge

Banker 1 to 1* 1.01%
Player 1 to 1 1.29%
Tie 8 to 1 15.75%
Tie 9 to 1 4.8%

*even money less a 5% commission.

Baccarat strategy tips

Despite the 5% commission for a winning banker bet it is still the best bet for baccarat that yields the lowest house edge.

Baccarat is normally played with 8 decks, however the fewer the decks the lower the house edge becomes for the banker bet; so single deck Baccarat is optimal.

The tie bet has the highest house edge; some casinos pay 9 to 1 instead of the usual 8 to 1.

In a land based casino is sometimes possible to find less that 5% commission baccarat tables.

Mini-baccarat is the same as regular baccarat except they have lower table limits and less players can sit around the table.