300 Favorite Games/300GAMES.iso/32/baccarat.doc

Text File | 1986-05-02 | 14KB | 299 lines

                                  Baccarat
                         (C) 1986   Raymond M. Buti


Baccarat... one of my favorite casino games.  Many people shy away from
the game because they don't understand the rules.  Actually there isn't
much to understand except two things.

     1.  How much do you want bet?
     2.  Which side do you want to bet on?

The rules of Baccarat are preset and you don't have a choice on how you
play the hand.  We are going to be talking about the Mini-Baccarat game
where the house does all the dealing.  You'll find these games scattered
about the Blackjack tables in most casino clubs in Reno, Lake Tahoe and
Lost Wages.

The cards contain eight 52-card packs shuffled together and they are dealt
from a box called a shoe.  The shoe releases one card at a time as the dealer
deals from it.  It's a piece a cake.  After the cut, the dealer will wait
until all bets have been made before dealing.  If you happen to be the only
one sitting at the table, you must bet.  You are not required to make a bet
as long as there is more than one player at the table.

Card values:             Card   Value

                          Ace     1
                            2     2
                            3     3
                            4     4
                            5     5
                            6     6
                            7     7
                            8     8
                            9     9
                           10     0
                         Jack     0
                        Queen     0
                         King     0

After all players have made their bets, the dealer will deal out two hands.
One is called the Players hand, the other is the Bankers hand.  There could
be 15 people playing at the table and still only two hands are dealt out.
In front of each of the players at the table there is a section where you
place your bets.  Where do you bet?  You may bet either on the Banker,
Player or Tie.  Hey, if you want you can bet on all three spots.  The
casino will love it.  Now you decide where to place your bet.

How much do you bet?  No less than the minimum and no more than the maximum.
The Mini-Baccarat tables range in limits.  Some of the tables have a range
of $1 to $200, $5 to $500, $25 to $1000.  You'll find some a lot higher than
that in Lost Wages.  This game will have a minimum of $1 and a maximum of
$200.  Maximum bets allowed on a tie are $25.

                                   Rules

The house dealer will take care of all these rules.  You really don't need
to understand them or memorize them.  Hey!  You don't have any choices to
make.

Four cards are dealt face up, two for the Player and two for the Banker.  The
object is to get a card count of 9 or as close to 9 as possible.  When either
hand has a 2-card total of 8 or 9, the hand is over.  No one draws a third
card.  A 9 beats an 8 and ties are a stand off or push.  9's and 8's are
called Naturals (Big deal... just give me the money if I win).

If neither the Banker or Player have a natural then these rules apply:

                               Players Hand:

The Player is first to act and will ALWAYS draw a third card having a 2-card
hand total of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.
If the Player has a total of 6 or 7 he stands and CANNOT draw.

                               Bankers Hand:

The Bankers rules depend on what the Player has and what the Player drew.

The Banker ALWAYS draws to a 2-card total of 0, 1 and 2.

If the Player stands with a total of 6 or 7 then the Banker MUST draw a third
card if he has a 2-card total of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 and he MUST stand having
a 6 or 7.

If the Banker has a total of 3 then he MUST draw a third card ONLY when
dealing a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 9 as the Players third card.  He CANNOT
draw when dealing an 8 as the Players third card.

If the Banker has a total of 4 then he MUST draw a third card ONLY when
dealing a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 as the Players third card.  He CANNOT draw when
dealing a 0, 1, 8 or 9 as the Players third card.

If the Banker has a total of 5 then he MUST draw a third card ONLY when
dealing a 4, 5, 6 or 7 as the Players third card.  He CANNOT draw when dealing
a 0, 1, 2, 3, 8 or 9 as the Players third card.

If the Banker has a total of 6 then he MUST draw a third card ONLY when
dealing a 6 or 7 as the Players third card.  He CANNOT draw when dealing
any other card as the Players third card.

If the Banker has a total of 7 he CANNOT draw a third card.

Note that since the goal is a total count of 9, a count of 10 counts as zero,
11 counts as 1, 12 as 2 etc.

A 5% commission is charged on any bets made on the Bankers hand that are won.
The minimum commission charge is .25 cents.  Bear this in mind when making
bets on the Bankers hand!  If you bet less than $5 on the Bankers hand and
win, you'll be paying the minimum commission charge of .25 cents.  With a
bet of $1 on the Bankers hand and assuming you win the bet, your commission
is 25% and not the normal 5%.  Remember the minimum .25 cent charge.

Bets on the Banker and Player are paid off at even money except for the
commission charge on the Bankers hand.  Ties are paid off at odds of 8 to 1.
If you play in the Casinos, be sure you remember to save a few bucks for
the commission charges which are collected after the deal of the shoe.
This game will collect commission charges after each hand is dealt.



                               Options

Pressing the first letter of each option will do the following:


<M>arker - Used for the Score Card

You'll find a score card at each table you play at.  The score card is used
to keep track of the flow of the shoe.  Its not necessary but should be used
to spot long runs and patterns.  There are few ways to maintain the score
card.  <M>arker will toggle the way the score card will be maintained.  The
default setting is X.  Each time you press <M> the marker toggles from X to #.
Using X just marks the winning side with an X and ties are marked on both the
Bankers side and Players side with three dashes "---".  With the <M>arker
toggle set to #, the score card is marked with the number of times that side
has won.  The score card is not designed to keep track of your profit or loss.


<A>uto Play

Pressing <A> will allow you to set the amount of hands you wish to play.
If you want to place a bet and automatically deal a million hands, go for it.
It takes approximately 23 seconds to deal 100 hands when <H> and <C> below
are both set to <N>o.


<H>ands On - Used to speed up the play of the game.

If set to <Y>es then the hands are shown when being dealt.  If set to <N>o
then the hands are not shown.


<C>ard - Used to speed up the play of the game.

If set to <Y>es then the score card is <M>arked as described above.  If set
to <N> then the scored is not marked at all.


<R>edo -  Allows the repeating of the last set up.

If the <A>uto Play mode has not been set then <R>edo will only deal 1 hand.


<B>anker <P>layer <T>ie -  Placing your bets.

Pressing any one of these will prompt you for a bet amount and that bet is
placed on either B/P/T depending on which letter you've pressed.  You may
place bets on all three if you wish.  I'm not sure why anyone would want to
do that but the option is there.  To clear a bet, either enter a 0 for the
bet size or hit [Enter].  If you decide to change a bet between the Banker,
Player or Tie, your previous bet remains until its cleared out.


<Q>uit -  I think this means the opposite of start.


[Enter] - Press [Enter] when you've decided you're ready to have the cards
dealt.


<S>ystems - A few of the many so called "Systems" provided here are only for
your information.  To my knowledge, there no such thing.  BUT, there are
systematic ways of playing any game.  Some good, some bad.  I will explain
what each System does and what the goal of each is.

When pressing <S> you'll have another menu pop up with a few Systems.  You
may return to the Options Menu by pressing <O>ptions if you decide not to
use one of the System Plays.  Here we go...



                             Systems Menu

                             <B>est Bet
                             <D>Alembert
                             <M>artingale
                             <T>hirty-One
                             <O>ptions


Martingale

Lets start with the worst one of all, the Martingale.  The Martingale was
designed to start with a single betting unit and after a loss that betting
unit is double.  This continues until you have a win.  Simple, nothing to
it.  Start with the minimum bet of $1.  After a loss you bet $2.  Another
loss, bet $4 etc.  Hell, I'd use this all the time if there were no house
limits and I could afford to come up with the amount of money needed for
the bet after a long losing streak.  The series of bets after each loss is
as follows:   1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 and now what???  The next bet takes you
over the limit of the house and that's all she wrote.  After 8 losses you
must either keep betting the limit or start over.  In either case your ass
is mine.  Another thing...  Why would anyone want to bet 128 bucks with the
hopes of winning $1???  I've seen people play this way.


D'Alembert

Another old system, the D'Alembert.  The idea sounds good but you still
can get ripped off bad.  As in any sort of double up or the increasing of
bets while losing, the house limit can and most likely will be reached at
one point or another.  D'Alembert devised a method of playing that would
eventually put you to the plus side.  It does too!  Sometimes???
This method was designed for a game that was as close to even odds as
possible.  Baccarat, Craps and Blackjack can be played using this.  I didn't
say you would win either.  D'Alembert figures that eventually all hands will
break even.  Flipping a coin 5000 times should produce 2500 heads and 2500
tails.  I agree, but who's to say the break even point is at 5000.  It may take
6000 flips, maybe only 2 flips or how about 10,000,000 flips?  In any event
you start with a 1 unit bet.  After a loss you increase your bet by one unit.
After a win you decrease your bet by one unit until you've reached your
starting bet of 1 unit.  These units can be any size you care to bet.  The
hopes are that the house limit would never be reached.



Thirty-One

Another form of a double up system but with a limit of 31 units.  Nice little
system but lady luck still has to be on your side.  The object is to start
with this series of bets:  1 1 1 2 2 4 4 8 8 which totals 31 and so came the
name of the system.  Your first bet is 1 unit and if you've won the bet the
series ends and you start over again.  Once the first bet is lost, you must
win two bets in a row before the series ends or you lose the last bet in the
series.  If you lose 9 hands in a row, the series ends and you lose 31 units.
If you lose the first bet then your next bet is another 1 unit.  Anytime after
a win you must let the bet ride and if you win the double up bet, the series
is over and you start again.  Lets assume you have lost on the first 5 hands.
You've made these bets, 1 1 1 2 2.  Now the next hand you bet 4 units and win.
Let it ride for 8 units and if you win the series is over and you start again.
If you lost then you've made these bets, 1 1 1 2 2 4 and the next bet is 4.
Remember, if you win you let it ride until you win the double up bet.  You
only lose after you've made your last 8 unit bet in the series.  The only
bad thing about this is that you MUST win two hands in a row or keep winning
the first bet of the series.

Best Bet

This system is the best of all.  Why?  Because here we also use a progressive
betting pattern except that we only increase bets as we win.  The series of
bets is 1 2 3 5 5 8.  Start with a betting unit of 1 and keep betting that
unit until you win a bet.  After a winning bet, jump to the next bet in the
series until you lose a bet.  Anytime you lose a bet you start the series
over with a 1 unit bet.  As long as you keep winning bets, you increase to
the next bet in the series until you reach the 8 unit bet.  At that point
you keep your bets at 8 units until a loss occurs and then start over.  Any
system that increases your bets while you are winning is worth looking at.

During any of the system plays, you'll have the option to choose how
many <H>ands you wish to play using whichever system you've chosen.  By
entering 0 or [Enter], you'll be able to play the system manually rather
than have the hands played automatically.  Just keep pressing the [Enter]
key to deal the next hand and you can single step through the system.

Note:

Remember that there aren't any sure fire ways of making money gambling.
There are ways of minimizing your loses or methods that can be used to
increase your chances of winning the maximum amount during your stay at
a table or even methods that allow you to play the best possible bets at
any one game.  None will guarantee a winning strategy in the long run.
Most all gambling systems work for the short play in one way or the other.
But to sit and use a system for hours on end will eventually put you in the
poor house.


That should about cover it except for the cost of the program.  Beats me how
much it should cost.  If you don't like it, delete it.  How about $3.00 if
you like it and intend on playing it?  It's a Shareware program and you got
it for free and most likely aren't planning on sending anything anyway.

       Christ... for $3.00 I'd watch a monkey hump a football.
                (Ahh...  An idea for an Arcade game)


                           Raymond M. Buti
                           P.O.  Box 21081
                       Castro Valley, Ca. 94546