Tactics for Baccarat

A comprehensive breakdown of baccarat strategy for online casinos, covering both player and dealer approaches.

A ‘player’ and a ‘dealer’ are designated in the game of baccarat. The remaining players have no say in the play of any cards and must simply choose one of these two to support. Therefore the blackjack strategy focuses on the tactics of the ‘player’ and the ‘dealer’.

Tactics of the Players

If the player’s hand value is 5, then he must pick a choice. He must decide whether or not to take the third card. Below are the scenarios that might result in him picking up a third card.

The value of his hand can rise to 6 if the third card is an ace, a 2, a 3, or a 4.

The value of his hand drops from 5 to lower if the third card is a 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9.

If the third card is a ten, jack, queen or king his hand value remains at 5.

The player can choose between two different approaches.

Assuming that each card has an equal chance of being drawn, this is the simplest possible approach. The player should stand since he gains on four cards and loses on five.

In order to employ a successful card counting approach, it is necessary to account for the fact that not all cards have an equal chance of being drawn. The odds of improving one’s hand value by drawing low cards are higher if more valuable cards have been thrown away. Therefore, asking for a new card is the best move to make. As more low cards are discarded, the odds of drawing a high card and lowering the hand’s value increase, respectively. Therefore, it is not a good move to try to get another card. High cards are given a negative value and low cards are given a positive value in card counting tactics, with the score of the discarded cards being kept in a running total. A positive running count implies that a larger proportion of high value cards are remaining in the deck and vice versa.

Game plan of the dealer

The dealer’s move depends on what he knows about the player’s and his own hands. The dealer knows everything about his hand. The dealer can make the following inferences about the player’s hand.

If the player’s hand value is 5 or less, he may draw a third card.

If the player’s hand value is 6 or above, he should not draw the third card.

Computer simulations have indicated that the following is the ideal strategy for the dealer.

If the dealer’s hand value is 5 or less and the player has not taken a card, the dealer must do so.

The dealer must also draw a card if his hand value is three or less if the player has drawn a card.

The dealer shall not draw if his hand value is 7 after the player has taken a card.

If the player has taken a card, then the dealer must do the same if the player’s third card is of intermediate value or below.