A casino game that has long been associated with high rollers, baccarat is an elegant table game where players wager on the outcome of a hand. The player’s or banker’s hand with the total closest to nine wins. Baccarat is played with a dealer and a bank, with betting areas located in the center of the table.

Aside from its elegance and reputation for high stakes, the game is easy to learn and offers a good chance of winning. In fact, baccarat has the lowest house edge of all casino games. It’s also a very fast-paced game. Unlike many other casino table games, baccarat does not involve betting on individual cards or combinations. A bet on either the player or banker pays out 1:1, minus a 5% commission. There is a third bet, the tie, which pays eight to one but has a much higher house edge. Most serious players stick with the player or banker bets.

Baccarat has a rich history, dating back to the Napoleonic era in France and beyond. It is believed that it originated as a card game of life or death, where drawing any card lower than a six meant certain death. However, the modern version of baccarat developed in 15th-century Rome, created by Felix Falguiere, is more likely based on Etruscan legends, according to historians.

The modern baccarat that we play today has a different history than the traditional game, but the rules and the objective remain the same. The banker is determined through auctioning, and the player can bid to hold the first hand, risking any amount they choose. Once a player has held the bank for one round, they may retire and pass their chips to any other player at the table. The outgoing banker must state the amount they are retiring with, and the seat becomes open for any player to become the new banker, starting with the same amount of money at stake as the original banker and dealing from undealt cards.

During each hand, the player and banker both receive two cards, which are dealt face up and visible to everyone at the table. A scorecard is then kept, with the values of each hand added up to determine the total value. The hand with the highest total wins. Depending on the type of bet, you can place a bet on the player hand, banker hand, or both.

Baccarat has a lot of appeal for Asian high rollers, and the game is now being offered on the regular casino floor. It has lost a bit of its James Bond pageantry and now looks more like a blackjack table, but the table minimums are still quite high in most casinos. Nevertheless, Baccarat has grown in popularity and is now widely available in North America. Baccarat is also a popular choice for online gambling, as it is easy to learn and offers a similar experience to playing at a land-based casino.