How to play baccarat: rules, third card chart and house edge

Key facts

You bet on the banker hand, the player hand or a tie. The hand closest to 9 wins; the cards are dealt by fixed rules, so you make no decisions after betting.
In our exact calculation for 8 decks, the banker wins 45.86% of hands, the player 44.62% and a tie 9.52%.
House edge: banker 1.06% (after the 5% commission), player 1.24%, tie at 8 to 1 a hefty 14.36%.
If a casino pays 9 to 1 on the tie, its edge falls to 4.84%, still several times worse than banker or player.
Baccarat is legal in person at Australian casinos. Online baccarat is a casino game that cannot legally be offered to people in Australia.

How to play baccarat in five steps

Baccarat is a card game where you bet on which of two hands, the banker or the player, will finish closer to 9. Despite the names, you are not the player and the casino is not the banker: they are just the labels on the two hands.

Bet on banker, player or tie before the deal.
Two cards each are dealt to the player hand and the banker hand.
Score each hand. If either has 8 or 9 (a "natural"), both stand and the hand is over.
Third cards are drawn, or not, by the fixed rules below. Nobody chooses.
Settle. The higher total wins. Equal totals are a tie, and banker and player bets are returned.

Card values and scoring

Cards	Value
Ace	1
2 to 9	Face value
10, Jack, Queen, King	0

Add the cards and keep only the last digit. A 7 and an 8 make 15, which counts as 5. A 9 and a King make 9. You can never go bust; the highest possible total is 9.

The third card rules

This is the part that looks complicated. You do not need to memorise it, because the dealer applies it, but it explains why the banker bet wins more often.

The player hand (it always acts first):

Player's first two cards total	Player
0 to 5	Draws a third card
6 or 7	Stands
8 or 9	Natural: both hands stand

The banker hand: if the player stood, the banker draws on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. If the player drew a third card, the banker follows this table:

Banker total	Banker draws if the player's third card is	Banker stands if it is
0, 1, 2	Anything	Never
3	Anything except 8	8
4	2 to 7	0, 1, 8, 9
5	4 to 7	0 to 3, 8, 9
6	6 or 7	Anything else
7	Never	Always

The banker gets to see the player's third card before deciding. That small information advantage is where the banker's extra wins come from.

Baccarat payouts and house edge

We calculated every possible deal from an 8 deck shoe, removing each card as it is dealt, using the drawing rules above.

Result	Chance per hand
Banker wins	45.86%
Player wins	44.62%
Tie	9.52%

Bet	Pays	House edge
Banker	1 to 1 less 5% commission (0.95 to 1)	1.06%
Player	1 to 1	1.24%
Tie	8 to 1	14.36%
Tie (where paid at 9 to 1)	9 to 1	4.84%

Ties are where the edge on banker and player looks smaller than it is: a tie returns those bets, so you play many hands without a result. Measured only on hands that actually decide a banker bet, its edge is 1.17%.

No-commission tables. Some tables drop the 5% commission and make up for it another way. One version pays only half on a banker win with a total of 6, which happens on about 5.39% of hands. In our calculation that version's banker bet has a 1.46% edge, worse than paying commission. Our baccarat strategy guide compares the no-commission formats and prices every side bet.

What baccarat costs per session

At $25 a hand and 60 hands, you bet $1,500. On average that costs:

Bet every hand on	Average cost of 60 hands at $25
Banker	$15.87
Player	$18.53
Tie at 8 to 1	$215.39

Banker and player are among the cheapest bets in the casino. The tie is one of the most expensive bets on any table. For comparison, the same $1,500 on single zero roulette costs $40.54 on average; our roulette odds guide has the full table.

Pundit tip: bet banker or player and never tie. Switching between banker and player because of a "streak" on the scorecard does not help: banker stays the slightly cheaper bet on every hand.

Patterns, scorecards and streaks

Baccarat tables often show scorecards of past results, and players look for streaks. The shoe is shuffled and the drawing rules are fixed, so past hands tell you very little about the next one, and a run of banker wins does not make a player win due. Expecting one is the gamblers fallacy. Treat the scorecard as decoration.

Baccarat casino rules in Australia

Baccarat is played in person at licensed Australian casinos, and new versions need the regulator's approval. In Victoria, the VGCCC's published decisions include allowing a continuous shuffling machine without a cutting card (December 2024), adding Dragon Tiger side wagers and removing the Tiger and Tiger Pair side wagers (October 2025), and introducing Immortal Baccarat with an optional Immortal Dragon side wager (August 2026). Side wagers have their own pay tables and edges, separate from the numbers above. Dragon Tiger is also a separate game with one card each; our dragon tiger guide covers its rules and why the tie rule decides the price.

Online baccarat, including live dealer casinos and live baccarat tables that stream a real dealer, is a casino-style game that cannot legally be offered to people in Australia under the Interactive Gambling Act. If you want a card game where your decisions change the odds, read our blackjack rules guide, and see the casino games guide for how every game compares.

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Frequently asked questions

How do you play baccarat?

Choose to bet on the banker, the player or a tie, then two hands of two cards are dealt. Each hand is scored by adding the cards and keeping the last digit, so 7 and 8 make 5. A third card may be drawn under fixed rules, and the hand closer to 9 wins.

Which baccarat bet has the best odds?

The banker bet. In our calculation for the standard 8 deck game it has a 1.06% house edge after the 5% commission, against 1.24% for the player bet. The tie bet at 8 to 1 has a 14.36% edge.

Why is there a commission on banker bets?

Because the banker hand wins more often, 45.86% of hands against 44.62% for the player in our calculation, mainly because it acts after the player's third card. Without a commission the banker bet would favour the player, so casinos keep 5% of banker wins.

Should you bet on a tie in baccarat?

Not if you care about value. A tie happens about 9.5% of the time, so at 8 to 1 the bet loses about 14.4% of what you stake on average. Even at 9 to 1 the edge is 4.84%, roughly four to five times the banker bet.

Do patterns or scorecards help in baccarat?

No. The cards are shuffled, the drawing rules are fixed and each hand is effectively independent of the last. Scorecards record what happened; they cannot tell you what comes next.