Baccarat is one of the simplest casino games to learn and maintains a low house edge, so it can be an excellent choice for beginners or experienced players looking to play something different. But the game is not without its challenges, and a few simple rules can make it much easier to understand.

Bacarrat is played with 8 decks of standard 52-cards shuffled together. Aces have a value of 1 while face cards and 10-pip cards count as zero. The game starts when participants place their bets on Banker, Player or Tie and the dealer then deals two cards to each hand. The aim is to get as close to 9 points as possible.

The game is known by a number of names around the world, but it is mainly referred to as ‘baccarat’ in the United States. This is because the game was first described in the 19th century in a book called Album des jeux de hasard et de combinaisons by Charles Van-Tenac (1847). It later became popular as Baccarat Banque (Baccarat à deux tableaux) and then, after the arrival of railroad baccarat in America, it became known simply as baccarat.

In addition to Banker, Player and Tie bets, baccarat also offers a Super Six and Pair Bet. Super Six bets pay out 12x the bet amount if the Player or Banker hand hits 6 points. Similarly, Pair bets are paid out 11x the bet amount if a player places a bet on either the Banker or Player pair of cards.