Baccarat is played with eight decks of cards. Each numbered card less than ten is worth its face value, aces are worth 1, and tens and face cards are worth 0. The suit does not matter.

Play begins by all players betting either on the 'player', 'banker', or a tie. I put player and banker in quotes because that is the correct terminology but they do not necessarily represent the dealer or the actual players.

After all bets are down the dealer gives two cards each to the player and the banker. The score of the hand is the right digit of the total of the cards. For example if the two cards were an 8 and 7, then the total would be 15, and the score would be a 5. The scores will always range from 0 to 9 and it is impossible to bust.

The score of the player and dealer are compared, the winner is the one which is greater. Winning bets on the banker pay 19 to 20 (or even money less a 5% commission), winning bets on the player pay 1 to 1, winning bets on a tie pay either 8 to 1 or 9 to 1, depending on where you play. Regardless of whether the tie pays 8:1 or 9:1 it is a very bad bet and should be avoided.