บาคาร่า is an old game that dates back to the late 15th century where it’s said to be travelled from Italy to France with the help of soldiers during the Italian wars under Charles VIII.
The game was said to have originated in Italy during the 1400s and it became pretty famous among the French nobility during the 19th century because of the legalization of gambling in France at the time.
Mostly played way
Baccarat is said to have many variations and with each variation, they have little distinction among the rules. But mostly the rules of the game are as follows:
- There are two hands: “Player” and “Banker”.
- From either of these two hands, you had to place a bet on who would win the game
- You can also place a bet on a tie.
- The croupier then distributes two cards (face down to both hands).
- Then the cards are turned and the score is calculated (by reading the value of each card)
- The hand with a score of 8 or 9 wins the game.
- If neither of them had won then the third card was drawn.
- Then the score is calculated and the hand with a score closer to or equal to wins the game.
Here are four generally played and one uncommon variation of บาคาร่า.
Punto Banco
The most traditional version of the บาคาร่า and it’s generally played with a six or eight-card deck. In the game, one croupier deals the hand while the other two dealers keep an eye on the bet and win money. The rules are almost the same.
The stakes here are pretty high.
Mini-Baccarat
The mini baccarat as the name suggests is a smaller version of บาคาร่า. It’s called a smaller version because it’s played on a smaller table with the capacity to seat seven people. There is only one courier who is also the dealer.
Chemin de Fer
The Chemin de Fer is derived from the French
meaning “railway”. It’s the French version of บาคาร่า that has the croupier as a shuffler only while the distributor is the “Banker” hand.
Other rules are as follows:
- The player is given the first chance to have the biggest bet
- The players participating get to be bankers.
Baccarat Banque
The Baccarat Banque is a famous European version of the game. The game is played with three inter-shuffled decks that are distributed the same as the rules of the Chemin de fer. It contains somewhere between 10-16 players that are present at one time playing at the oval table. Here only one player gets to be the dealer, unlike the Chemin de fer where nearly everybody gets a chance to play.
Macao
This variation of Baccarat is a little less popular nonetheless it appeared in novellas like Arthur Schnitzler’s Night Games (Spiel in Merengue). The game is usually played with a two-deck card. The game is usually said to be appeared at the end of the 18th century and was pretty famous in Europe.
The variations of บาคาร่า listed above can be mostly found in any of the casinos (especially the first four) and you can go and enjoy them.
