What punto banco is
Punto banco is the most widespread form of baccarat in casinos. Each round, two hands are dealt, called "Player" (punto) and "Banker" (banco). The names are only labels: they refer neither to a person at the table nor to the house. Participants bet on one of the two hands or on a tie, and the dealer deals the cards according to fixed rules.
Unlike blackjack or poker, nobody makes decisions in punto banco: neither the participants nor the dealer choose whether another card is drawn. The only choice is what to bet on and how much. In some casinos, the participants with the largest stakes turn the cards over themselves; the gesture is only a ritual, because the card values and the drawing rules do not depend on who turns the cards. Older forms of baccarat also exist (chemin de fer, baccarat banque), in which the participants make some decisions; this page describes punto banco only.
The game is usually dealt from several decks shuffled together in a shoe. The figures on this page assume 8 decks of 52 cards; the number may differ from one casino to another.
Card values
- An ace counts 1.
- Cards from 2 to 9 count at face value.
- Tens, jacks, queens and kings count 0.
The value of a hand is the last digit of the sum of its cards. For example, 7 and 8 make 15, so the hand is worth 5; a 10 and a king make 0. A hand is therefore worth between 0 and 9, and the hand closer to 9 wins.
How a round is played
Once the bets are placed, the dealer deals two cards to each hand, alternately: one card to Player, one to Banker, another to Player and another to Banker. What follows depends only on the values.
Naturals
If either hand is worth 8 or 9 with its first two cards (a "natural"), neither hand receives more cards and they are compared directly. A natural 9 beats a natural 8.
The Player rule
If there is no natural, the Player hand is completed first:
- with a total of 0–5, Player receives a third card;
- with 6 or 7, Player stands.
The Banker rule
If Player stood (with 6 or 7), Banker follows the same rule: it receives a third card on 0–5 and stands on 6 or 7.
If Player received a third card, Banker's action depends on its own total and on the value of that third Player card (a ten or a face card counts 0):
| Banker's total | Banker draws if Player's third card is | Banker stands if Player's third card is |
|---|---|---|
| 0, 1, 2 | any card | — |
| 3 | 0–7 or 9 | 8 |
| 4 | 2–7 | 0, 1, 8 or 9 |
| 5 | 4–7 | 0–3, 8 or 9 |
| 6 | 6 or 7 | 0–5, 8 or 9 |
| 7 | — | any card |
Each hand receives at most three cards. At the end the hand with the higher value wins; equal values make a tie.
An example
Player receives a 2 and a 3 (total 5), and Banker a king and a 4 (total 4). There is no natural. Player has 5, so it receives a third card: a 7, and the sum of 12 means a value of 2. Banker has 4, and Player's third card is a 7, which lies between 2 and 7, so Banker also receives a card: a 5, which brings it to 9. Banker wins with 9 against 2. Throughout the round, the dealer only applied the rules; nobody chose anything.
Bets and payouts
- A bet on Player pays 1 to 1.
- A bet on Banker pays 1 to 1, less a commission, usually 5 percent of the winnings.
- A bet on a tie usually pays 8 to 1; some tables pay 9 to 1.
When a round ends in a tie, bets on Player and on Banker are not lost: the stakes are returned. The table uses the payouts above, with the tie paid 8 to 1.
| Bet | Pays | Chance of winning | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banker | 1 to 1, less 5% commission | 45.86% | 1.06% |
| Player | 1 to 1 | 44.62% | 1.24% |
| Tie | 8 to 1 | 9.52% | 14.36% |
Some tables use no-commission variants in which, instead, certain Banker wins are paid at a reduced rate, and many tables also have side bets with their own payouts. These carry different house edges and are not covered here.
Why the Banker bet has a lower edge
Banker completes its hand second. Its drawing rules take into account whether Player stood or drew and the value of the card drawn, information that the Player rule does not have. Even though nobody chooses anything, this information makes the Banker hand win more often: 45.86% of rounds, against 44.62% for Player; the rest, 9.52%, are ties. The difference between the two hands is small but constant, and it comes entirely from the rules.
Without the commission, the Banker bet would have a positive average result for the bettor. The commission reverses this and moves the edge to the house: 1.06%, slightly less than on Player, where the house edge is 1.24%. Both bets still lose on average.
Why the tie bet has a much larger edge
A tie occurs in 9.52% of rounds. At such a low frequency, a fair payout would have to be noticeably higher than 8 to 1. The gap between the actual payout and a fair one becomes the house edge, which on the tie reaches 14.36%, many times more than on the Banker or Player bets. A 9 to 1 payout, where it exists, reduces this edge but leaves it far above the other two bets.
The record of past results
At many tables, the results of previous rounds are noted on score cards or shown on screens next to the table. These records do not change the drawing rules and do not provide a way to cancel the house edge: every round is decided by the cards in the shoe, under the same fixed rules. The idea that a result is "due" after a streak is discussed in The gambler's fallacy, and methods of varying stakes according to results in Betting systems.
The figures above are averages over a very large number of rounds. In the short term, results can deviate from them considerably, in both directions.