Baccarat Strategy: Basic Strategy

To the uninitiated Baccarat can often give the impression it's a complex game of skill, but the truth is very different – success is very much driven by the luck of the cards. With that in mind scrutinising the house edge on its three betting options is the best way to understand the optimum way to approach playing this classic table game at a real-world or online casino.

For a typical Baccarat game found in a UK online casino, eight decks are used in its virtual shoe. The odds offered for each bet and the resultant house edge values are as follows:

Do not forget that the Banker Bet also accrues a commission, typically in the region of 5%, that is paid to the house, but this still leaves it the bet with the lowest house edge of the three possible. The lower the commission and the fewer decks are used in the shoe, the more advantageous the Banker bet becomes, so it can be worth checking the game rules of the UK online casinos you're interested in playing to compare them.

The house edge of the Tie Bet is significantly higher than the other two, so unless you like to play in a devil-may-care-style, it's not a very favourable bet to make since the reward is not nearly as close to the true risk as the other two bets are.

Clearly, with the house edge of the Banker Bet marks it out as strategically the best bet, especially in online casino Baccarat games where the commission is collected in a less complex way than the real-world game. Simply betting the same way on every hand might seem a little dull, however if you want to play the best possible odds at this table it is the strategy to achieve that aim.