Punto Banco or otherwise known as Baccarat is a game where the player needs to be able to calculate the cards which are laid out on the table. Players participate in this card game by just picking which side they are on just before the game commences. Punto Banco is Baccarat with a North American twist.
The objective of Punto Banco is the highest value you can compute from just two or more cards. Two to nine cards are valued at their pips value or their face value. On the other hand, ten to king cards have zero value or no value at all. One is the value of Aces and suits do not matter. The highest value of any hand a person can get in Punto Banco is 9.
Playing Punto Banco
To play Punto Banco, the player gets 2 cards and so does the banker or the dealer. If the two cards in one hand sums up as 6 up to 9 there are no ore additional cards give out. A possible tie between the player and the dealer can happen also. Additional cards need to be given to either the player of the dealer if their hands do not reach the 6 to 9 natural hand. Betting in Punto Banco occurs even before the cards are dealt. There are just three bets possible in Punto Banco and these are player, banker or tie.
Payoffs in Punto Banco
The player actually bets on either of the two hands which are given the names player and bank but they are not relevant names at all. If one hand reaches 6, 7, 8 or 9, the hands stands and waits for the other hand to form its best sum. The highest value wins in this game.
- Players who have placed bets on the winning hand ay win as much as 1 is to 1 ratio from the casino. There is also an option for the players to place a bet on a tie if they want to, although this is not usual in this game but it can still happen.
- Ties can occur when both hands have the same value and it usually results in a push, where the players just get back the wager that he has placed.
- The simplicity of the game may be the reason why Punto Banco offers very low house advantage. Player bets usually have the advantage of 1.24 percent and the baker bet has 1.06 percent. It is the tie bet that has higher advantage compare to the other two, which is 14.44 percent if the decks played are six decks.
In the long run, playing Punto Banco would result to a loss on the part of the players unless they have a stroke of luck. Money passes hands very quickly in the Punto Banco game of Baccarat. This game is usually played by wealthy patrons of the casino and may even affect the casino’s overall standing when the bets are high enough and if a player wins and does not play anymore.
