Bacarrat is also known as Punto Banco. It is played in only particular areas in casinos. There are about 14 people of an average who play per table. Each table has three card dealers. The rules are as follows:

  1. The main principal behind this game is to make bets. The banker is known as the banco and the player as the punto. There are a few casinos, which let the players deal. But in the majority of them there is a separate card dealer.
  2. The player has to bet on a banco. If the player does not want to do so he calls a shoe. Which means the turn passes to the next player. If the banco wins he keeps the “shoe” else it moves to the next player.
  3. This game makes use of six decks or eight decks of cards. All the cards (faces) have a value of zero. The Ace card has a value of one. Multiples of 5 are counted as 5 points only.
  4. The whole point of the game is to bet on the person who you think possesses the highest total amount.
  5. Suppose the player/ bank obtain a total of 9 or 8 when they draw their first two cards, then they are not allowed to draw any more cards.
  6. Suppose the total is less than five, then the player has to draw an extra card. This is called the “third card rule”.
  7. There is also a “bank’s third card rule”. Here the bank tends to draw a third card if and only if the player had a card with values 0,1,8,9 or if the total point obtained by the bank is seven.
  8. This rule will hold for the entire stretch of the game.
  9. This rule has been incorporated because it tends to even out the points in the beginning of the game for a fair start.

This game has become very popular over the ages. You can find this game being the center of many James Bond movies. He was the one to have first popularized the game. Many of the jargons used in this game seem to be either French or Spanish. This is because France and Spain were the first few places wherefrom the game actually originated. This game doesn’t require too much of skill. In fact that is why it attracts so many people. This game is very popular in Las Vegas as it is the only game that can give you around a hundred thousand dollars in one shot (in one hand). Baccarat literally means “nothing”, meaning that the person who plays should end up with a total, which ends in a cipher. This number could go on to hundreds or even thousands! This game is definitely worth a shot! It is addictive and loads of fun to play, with a large number of players. Even families have a go at this game together, sometimes! What a game!