Baccarat is a casino card game played with six, seven, or eight standard decks of 52 cards. Its goal is to correctly predict which hand will win the round, or if it will be a tie. The winning hand is the one that comes closest to nine points in value, with tens and face cards worth zero points and aces counting as one point.

In the past, baccarat was mostly found in high-limit gambling areas at luxury casinos. Today, the game is played throughout the world and is especially popular among Asian gamblers. It has even made its way into the mainstream in the United States, with some American players choosing to play it instead of blackjack or roulette.

Like other casino games, baccarat requires skill and strategy to be successful. Players can use card counting techniques to reduce the house edge and improve their chances of winning, but it’s important to understand the rules of the game before attempting to employ these tactics.

Baccarat rules differ slightly depending on whether you’re playing the “punto banco” or “chemin de fer” version of the game. The basic rules are the same, however: Players place bets on either the Player or Banker hands and hope to come close to a total of nine. In order to do this, the player’s cards and the banker’s cards are dealt in two separate stages.

First, a player places their chips in the Player or Banker boxes, and a dealer then deals a single card to each box. If the Player or Banker has a total closer to 9 than the other, the hand wins, and no more cards are drawn.

If the Player or Banker has a number between 4 and 7, a third card may be drawn. If the player has a number between 8 and 9, no third card is drawn. A third card is also drawn if the player has an Ace or a 9 with a 7 as the second number.

In addition, a player can place a Super Six Bet. This bet is based on the number 6 and pays out 12x the initial bet amount if the Banker hand has a total of 6.

It is also possible to place a Pair Bet, which is a bet that wins if either the Player or the Banker has a pair of cards in their first two rounds. This bet is a little riskier than other bets, but can pay well if the pair is a 9 and a 8.

While baccarat has its roots in ancient Etruscan legends, it’s now more associated with James Bond movies. Despite this, it’s a simple enough game to learn and can be enjoyed by players of all skill levels. Just make sure to be careful and don’t spend more money than you can afford to lose! To avoid this, decide how much you want to spend before you play. Treat it like money you’d spend on a night out, and only take out the amount of cash you know you can afford to lose without regret.