Baccarat
The game's origins are a mix of precursors from China, Japan, and Korea, which then gained popularity in Europe with a faster French rendition following, and today the most common version played derives from Cuba.
[6] Its name and rules suggest it may have been brought over by sailors returning from Asia where similar card games have been played since the early 17th century such as San zhang, Oicho-Kabu, and Gabo japgi.
[8] It was the most popular game in Watier's, an exclusive gentlemen's club in London, where it led to the ruin of Beau Brummell.
It was declared illegal late in the 19th century, as a gambling game of almost pure chance; however it remained wildly popular in high society, with HRH the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) shockingly implicated in the scandalous Tranby Croft case.
The match in Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Night Games (Spiel im Morgengrauen) contains instructions for Macao under the name of baccarat.
Like Macao and Victoria, baccarat was banned in Russia during the 19th century[10] though the rules continued to be printed in game books.
[12]: 230 During the Napoleonic era and before the legalization of casino gambling in 1907, people in France commonly played baccarat in private gaming rooms.
[13][14] Later, Chemin de Fer emerged as a two-person, zero-sum game from Baccarat Banque.
[12]: 231 In punto banco, the casino banks the game at all times, and commits to playing out both hands according to fixed drawing rules, known as the "tableau" (French: "board"), in contrast to more historic baccarat games where each hand is associated with an individual who makes drawing choices.
Punto banco is a pure game of chance and therefore it is not possible for a gambler's bets to be rationally motivated.
Should both the player and banker have the same value at the end of the deal the croupier shall announce "égalité — tie bets win."
In the US, the full-scale version of punto banco is usually played at large tables in roped off areas or private rooms separated from the main gaming floor.
The game is frequented by high rollers, who may wager tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single hand.
[19] The table is staffed by a croupier, who directs the play of the game, and two dealers who calculate tax and collect and pay bets.
Punto banco has both some of the lowest house edges among casino table games, and some of the highest.
[20] Most casinos in the United Kingdom pay the tie at 9-to-1, resulting in a house edge of approximately 4.85%.
House edge details (8 decks)[23] Mini-baccarat is a version of banco punto played on a small table with smaller minimums/maximums.
Players are seated in random order, typically around an oval table; discarded cards go to the center.
Traditional practice – grounded in mathematics, similar to basic strategy in blackjack, but further enforced via social sanctions by the other individuals whose money is at stake – dictates that one always accept a card if one's hand totals between 0 and 4, inclusive, and always refuse a card if it totals 6 or 7.
Unlike punto banco, which is purely a game of chance, chemin de fer includes an element of player skill.
[12]: 231 In Baccarat banque the position of banker is more permanent compared to Chemin de fer.
In some circles, the person who has first set down their name on the list of players has the right to hold the first bank, risking such amount as they may think proper.
The croupier shuffles the cards then prompts one punter from their right, one from their left then the banker to reshuffle and finally selects a random player to cut.
It is then open to any other player (in order of rotation) to continue the bank, starting with the same stake and dealing from undealt cards.
In the event of their losing, the croupier pays the punters in order of rotation until the bank runs out of money.
[30] The Tranby Croft affair in 1891 and William Gordon Cumming's subsequent lawsuit were known together as the royal baccarat scandal, due to the involvement of the future King Edward VII.
Since the Prince of Wales was involved in the incident, it inspired a huge amount of media interest in the game, bringing baccarat to the attention of the public at large.
[32] Baccarat chemin-de-fer is the favoured game of James Bond, the fictional secret agent created by Ian Fleming.
It is also featured in several filmed versions of the character,[12]: 231 including the 1954 television adaptation of Casino Royale, where Bond bankrupts Le Chiffre in order to have him eliminated by his Soviet superiors; Dr. No, where Bond is first introduced while playing the game in film; Thunderball; the 1967 version of Casino Royale, which is the most detailed treatment of a baccarat game in any Bond film; On Her Majesty's Secret Service; For Your Eyes Only; and GoldenEye.
[35] The same year, Ivey and a female companion won $9.6 million at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City using edge sorting and another $500,000 playing craps using his gains as a stake in the game.
