3 Card Baccarat – Rules Strategy & Tips

How to Play 3 Card Baccarat

3 Card Baccarat is a fairly new variation on the popular casino game Baccarat and isn’t widely available in internet casinos yet.

There are some sites that offer it though and the rules are very simple to learn making it an easy game to have a go on if you fancy something different.

3 Card Baccarat Rules

Firstly, the scoring is the same as in the standard version of Baccarat.

All face cards count as ten, an Ace a 1 and all other cards equal the value of their pips – so 3 counts as 3 points, 6 as 6 points etc.

The aim of the game, as in standard Baccarat, is to guess who will have the highest value hand, the Dealer or the Player. There is also the option of a Tie but this is less likely in 3 Card Baccarat than in the standard version as the number of face cards in the hand need to be equal for a Tie as well as the value of the hand.

Once you have placed your bet in 3 Card Baccarat, 3 cards are dealt for the Player hand and then 3 for the Dealer’s hand. No further cards are dealt which is another difference to the standard version.

Points are then added up for each hand depending on the value of each card and the winning hand is then decided. Payouts are then made.

Some websites differ at this point as to the hand total.

Whilst some add the points up and allow the 2 digit total of up to 30 to count, others follow the route of standard Baccarat and only take the last digit. Therefore a hand of 7, 8, 9 would count as 4 as opposed to 24 which would be the normal total. It is worth checking with the casino you wish to play at which version they have before you play.

Above is the layout for a standard version of 3 Card Baccarat.

3 Card Payouts

Once the hand is finished, payouts are made. This is normally even money minus 3% to 5% commission for bets on the Player and the Dealer, and 20 to 1 for the Tie. Again, due to the low number of sites that offer this variation of Baccarat, the payouts can be slightly different depending on the site so it is worth shopping around.

3 Card Baccarat Strategy

One of the worst casino bets we have come across is within 3 Card Baccarat.

Many casinos offer a side game ‘Three Faces’, which pays out if the Dealer has 3 face cards.

The table below gives an overview of how this works:

 
As the game is played with a single deck of 52 cards, the odds of this coming in are 0.83%, so less than 1% of the time. The house edge for 3 Card Baccarat is 83% so leave this well alone whatever you do!

The Tie is a tempting bet for many with payouts of between 20% and 25%, and those that play standard Baccarat will surely be tempted.

However, as mentioned above, in order for a Tie to come in, not just the value of the hand but also the number of face cards need to be equal.

Therefore, the probability in 3 Card Baccarat is around 3.7% giving the house edge as 20.8%. This is, therefore, another one to avoid unless you are feeling particularly lucky and fancy a big payout before walking away.

3 Card Baccarat Tips

Steer clear of the Tie – like other forms of Baccarat, the Tie in 3 Card Baccarat should be avoided, not only does it have a poor house edge, the number of cards in each hand also needs to be equal for the Tie to count.

Play for fun first – Most online sites offer you the chance to play casino games for fun chips as well as real money, as 3 card Baccarat is considerably different from the standard game, even if you consider yourself something of a Baccarat expert, we still recommend playing for fun first to get used to the differences between versions.

Manage your bankroll – Like all casino games, it is important to ensure you have enough funds for a good session to maximize enjoyment levels and your chance of winning, therefore start the session with around 40 hands and stick to your bet amount.

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