Mini Baccarat

Mini baccarat spun off of baccarat, a casino table game that originated in 16th century Italy and remains huge in European casinos. Cuban mini baccarat has emerged as the game's most widespread variation, and is what can be likeliest found at the casino tables today. Among casino games, the betting rules for mini baccarat, along with baccarat, are some of the easiest to learn.

How to Play Mini Baccarat

Mini baccarat is a table game played with eight decks of cards. Mini-Bacarrat The Jokers are not included. The values of the cards are as follows:

10 / Jack / Queen / King = 0 (Zero)
Ace = 1 (One)
2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 = Face Value

The card values in mini baccarat may seem a bit odd to you at first, especially that 10, J, Q, and K are known to have a value of 10 in most other card games. To spare yourself the confusion, keep this in mind: in mini baccarat, the first digit in a two-digit number always does not count. Thus, 10, J, Q, and K count as 0 while the Ace counts as one. This rule is applied not only to single cards but also to the total value of two cards combined. If the value of the hand is ten points or more, subtract ten, and the remainder is the total value of your hand.

For example: 7 + 6 = 13 = 3; 4 + 6 = 10 = 0

A game of mini baccarat begins when the dealer, known as the "banker", shuffles all eight decks together and places them in the dealing shoe, or the container holding the cards, known as the "bank". The banker then takes the top card out of the deck, and the value of this card becomes the number of cards to be "burned" or removed from the game. For example, if the banker draws a top card of 4, then he takes the first four cards from the bank and discards them along with the original top card. The mini baccarat game proper is now ready to start.

The player and the banker are each dealt two cards. Once all participants have a two-card hand, each one may make any of the following moves in mini baccarat:

Draw. To "draw" is to add a third card from the shoe to your original two-card hand.

Stand. To "stand" is to leave your two-card hand as is, without taking any additional card.

Natural Win. A "natural win", sometimes simply called a "natural", is not a move but a hand in which your two cards total 8 or 9. You automatically win the game.

Note that when the banker or player must draw, only one card is being drawn. Therefore, the most cards that any banker or player will have are three. The way the game proceeds is that the player with a hand that is closest to 9 wins.