Baccarat

Back Player, Banker or Tie — or any combination of the three — and two hands are dealt. The hand closest to nine wins. You are betting on which hand that will be; neither of them is yours.

Cards are worth their face value, an ace counts one, and tens, jacks, queens and kings count nothing. Only the last digit of a total counts, so a hand cannot go bust: nine plus five is fourteen, which is four.

Two cards go to each hand. An eight or a nine on those two cards is a natural and ends the round immediately — no third card is drawn for either hand.

If there is no natural, Player draws a third card on a total of nought to five and stands on six or seven. Banker then draws on nought to two; on three unless Player's third card was an eight; on four if it was a two to a seven; on five if it was a four to a seven; and on six if it was a six or a seven. Banker stands on seven. No hand ever takes more than three cards.

Player pays even money. Banker pays 0.95 to 1, after a five per cent commission on the win. Tie pays 8 to 1. When the round is a tie, Player and Banker stakes are returned rather than lost.

Banker is the best bet on the table and Tie is the worst: the return to player is 98.94% on Banker, 98.77% on Player and 85.88% on Tie. Winnings are rounded down to the smallest unit of your currency.