01 · Banker and Player are just hand names
This lesson teaches only Punto Banco, which has fixed drawing rules. Two hands on the table compare their final totals: the higher total wins, 9 is the best, and equal totals are a tie. Whether your earlier pick matched that result decides how your practice chips are settled.
Think of baccarat as two hands on the table competing: one is called Player, the other Banker. You are a learner watching from the side, not the house; picking Player does not let you decide whether that hand draws. The dealer follows a fixed order.
A teaching "bet" means choosing which result you expect and placing a set number of practice chips first. There are three results: Player higher, Banker higher, or equal totals (Tie). This shows how results connect to settlement; it is not prediction practice — the cards here are arranged in advance and the chips have no money value.
02 · New to playing cards? Start with four symbols
A playing card usually shows a number or letter and a small symbol. The symbol is the suit, and there are four: spades ♠, hearts ♥, clubs ♣ and diamonds ♦ — a pointed leaf, a heart, three round leaves and a diamond. Suits only tell cards apart; they don't tell you which hand will win.
Each suit has 13 cards — A, 2 to 10, J, Q, K — so four suits make 52 cards: one deck without jokers. J, Q and K are the picture cards; the K (King) is not a king to protect like in chess, and it is not a Joker. Baccarat usually uses eight decks, 416 cards in all, so two identical cards can appear.
The same Ace can count differently in different games. In this baccarat lesson, A counts 1 and 10, J, Q and K count 0; 7♣ and 7♥ both count 7 — the suit never changes the value. Dealing means taking the next card from the shoe and placing it in a given hand; pressing the deal button never lets you choose a value.
03 · No tables yet: start with 4 plus 4
Card values first: an Ace is 1, 2 to 9 are worth their number, and 10, J, Q and K are worth 0. Suits make no difference. When you add cards, keep only the last digit: 7 plus 8 is 15, so the hand is worth 5, not 15. The best total is 9, not 21.
This example deals four cards in the order Player, Banker, Player, Banker: Player gets 4, Banker 2, Player another 4, Banker 3. Each click deals one card, so watch which hand it goes to. In the end Player has 4+4 = 8 and Banker has 2+3 = 5. The counting exercise asks you to pick the right total yourself.
04 · Your first stake: 100 becomes 90
You start with 100 teaching chips. Your balance is what you have not yet put on the table. Follow the prompt: choose Player, choose a 10-chip stake, then confirm. Until you confirm it's only a draft; after confirming, the 10 leaves your balance, which becomes 90, and the table shows 10 committed.
A balance of 90 does not mean you've lost 10 — the result isn't out yet, and that 10 is waiting to be settled. Once confirmed, you can't switch to Banker or change the amount after seeing the cards. You can restart the teaching example if you make a mistake, but in a real game a bet cannot be taken back.
05 · Why no more cards are dealt here
Once each hand has two cards, first check whether either hand totals 8 or 9. If so, it is a natural: both hands stop drawing and the totals are compared straight away. Here Player has 8, so Banker does not draw even though it only has 5. This rule comes first — you can't give Banker another card just because 5 looks low.
Player's 8 beats Banker's 5, so Player wins. "Player wins" describes the cards; whether you won teaching chips depends on what you picked earlier. Someone who picked Banker gets nothing back just because Player won. Keep the hand result and the bet result separate.
06 · Getting 20 back is not a profit of 20
This lesson uses a common payout set: a Player win pays 1 to 1; a Banker win pays 1 to 1 minus a 5% commission on the winnings; a Tie pays 8 to 1. Not every table works this way, and no-commission versions have their own rules. In the first example you bet 10 on Player and won: you win 10 and get your 10 back, 20 in total, so your balance is 90 + 20 = 110 — a net gain of 10.
If Player had lost, your 10 would be gone and your balance would stay at 90. If the result is a tie and you bet on Player or Banker, your 10 comes back and your balance returns to 100. If you bet on Tie and it is a tie, you win 80 plus your 10 back, for a balance of 180. A winning Banker bet of 10 pays 10 minus 0.5 commission, returning 19.5 for a balance of 109.5. The settlement exercises check each case with you.
07 · Second example: drawing without a natural
Drawing means getting a third card after the first two; standing means getting no more. Without a natural, settle Player first: Player draws on 0–5 and stands on 6–7. Then Banker: if Player stood, Banker draws on 0–5 and stands on 6–7. A hand never has more than three cards.
If Player drew a third card, Banker's decision depends on the value of that third card, not on Player's new total. In the second example, Player starts on 5 and draws an 8, so its total becomes 3. Banker starts on 3 and stands because Player's third card was an 8. Both hands end on 3, so the result is a tie. Follow this example first, then check the full table below; you don't need to memorise it yet.
08 · The drawing table: look it up in order
Look things up in this order: check for a natural, then whether Player draws; if Player stands, use the simple rule from the previous section. Only when Player has drawn a third card do you use the Banker table below. "Draw" means one more card; "stand" means no more.
When Player has drawn, Banker decides like this: on 0–2 Banker always draws; on 3 it draws unless Player's third card is an 8; on 4 it draws if Player's third card is 2–7; on 5 if it is 4–7; on 6 if it is 6–7; on 7 Banker stands. When reading the third card, 10, J, Q and K count as 0.
Try two lookups: Banker 4 and Player's third card 2 — 2 is within 2–7, so Banker draws. Banker 4 and a third card of 8 — not in range, so Banker stands. In the second example, Banker 3 against a third card of 8 also stands: you look at that 8, not at Player's new total of 3.
Drawing is decided entirely by the rules; there is no hit-or-stand choice and no picking cards. A run like Banker, Banker, Player says nothing about the next hand. This lesson only practises reading cards, looking up draws and checking the practice settlement; don't mix in payouts from no-commission versions.