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Three Card Baccarat

A version of the popular live and online casino game of baccarat that is beginning to gain a foothold is three card baccarat. This follows a similar pattern to conventional baccarat, but rather than using the values of the players and bankers first two cards in order to determine whether a third card is dealt to either or both of them, a third card is always dealt. This simplifies the game enormously and allows the game to be played at a much faster rate.

Scoring is different from conventional baccarat. The highest scoring hand is three picture cards. If neither the player nor the bank has three picture cards, then the scores are calculated by summing the face values of the three cards with picture cards and tens having a zero score. Aces are counted as one. If the total is greater than nine, then the first digit is dropped. As an example, of the cards were 10, 6, 8 then the sum would be 0 + 6 + 8 = 14 and dropping the first digit the final score would be 4.

The hand that comes closest to 9 wins. If the hands tie then the winner is the hand that has the most picture cards. If neither hand has a picture card or if they both have the same number of them, then the result is considered to be a tie.

In addition to betting on the bank, the player or on a tie as in conventional baccarat, it is also possible to bet on the actual score of the dealer and on whether the dealer gets three picture cards. Whilst the payouts for player and bank wins are the same as in ordinary baccarat, ties are paid out at 11 to 1 rather than 8 to 1 and bets that correctly guess the dealer’s total are paid at 8 to 1.

The payout on three picture cards is 16 to 1. Although this might seem to be generous, in fact it is a poor bet to make as it has a massive house edge of around 80%.