Baccarat has loyal following

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Updated: November 24, 2011 3:34AM

The game of baccarat has a long history. For decades it was segregated from the main casino floor and played in an upscale room with upholstered chairs and tuxedo-clad hosts.

A favorite of high rollers, baccarat is veiled in romance, legend and lore, but now it has been adapted to mainstream casino gambling.

Baccarat is a card game that requires no skill. In many respects, it’s just a guessing game, comparable to calling heads or tails on the flip of a coin.

Multiple decks of cards, generally eight, are shuffled up and dealt out of an elongated plastic shoe. Individual players do not receive cards.

At the start of a game, the dealer draws two sets of two cards each and positions them in front of him on the table for all to see.

One set is the player’s hand and one set is the banker’s hand. In baccarat, face cards and 10 count as zero value, 2 through 9 carry face value, and aces count as one. Suits are irrelevant.

In order to determine the value of each hand, you merely drop the value of the “tens” place.

For example, if the hand is comprised of a pair of nines you add them together and get 18, then drop the digit in the tens column. The hand has a value of eight.

The object of the game is to get as close to nine as possible, with nine being the highest hand. If either the player or the banker has a hand that totals eight or nine, it is considered a “natural” winner. The higher value hand wins.

The player has three options: Betting on the banker’s hand, betting on the player’s hand or betting on a tie.

Keeping in mind that the dealer does all the work, a third card will be dealt to the player’s hand if the player’s total is less than or equal to five.

A third card will be dealt to the banker’s hand in the following cases:

If the player’s hand does not take a third card, banker’s hand draws a third card on total of five or less.

If the bank total is zero, one or two, the bank draws a third card.

If bank hand totals three, the bank draws a third card unless the player’s third card was an 8.

If bank hand totals four, then the bank draws a third card if the player has drawn a third card of 2 to 7.

If the bank hand totals five, the bank draws a third card if the player has drawn a third card of 4 to 7.

If the bank hand totals six, the bank draws a third card if player has drawn a third card of 6 or 7.

If the bank hand totals seven, the bank stands.

Winning player bets are paid at even money (house edge 1.24 percent).

Winning bank bets are paid at even money less a 5 percent commission (house edge 1.06 percent).

Winning tie bets are paid at 8 to 1 (house edge 14.36 percent).

Many players like to keep track of the decisions on a white card and base their bets on past performance, but the value of doing this is questionable.

An additional, relatively new betting feature known as the dragon bonus, is gaining in popularity.

But the best strategy from an economics perspective is to stick to wagering on either the player or the banker.

John G. Brokopp’s Beat the Odds tips air at 8:20 a.m., 2:50 p.m. and 10:42 p.m. Sundays on WBBM-AM (780). The freelance casino columnist and author can be reached at jbrokopp@comcast.net.