Spelling out "What game is baccarat?" starts with the rules. Baccarat and the casino poker games share a table, a dealer and a fixed house edge, and all of them are simpler than they look. Baccarat asks only which hand to back, while games such as three card poker, Caribbean stud and ultimate Texas holdem let a player make a few decisions against the dealer. Knowing the rules step by step and the edge of each bet is most of what separates them.
Ultimate Texas holdem is played against the dealer: each player posts an ante and a blind, sees two cards, and may raise three or four times the ante before the flop or less later. To deal ultimate Texas holdem, the dealer gives two cards to each player and to the house, then turns five shared cards in stages. What a casino poker rake means is different: in poker played between players, the house takes a small share of each pot instead of holding an edge, which is how card rooms make their money.
What happens when the player and banker both reach nine, a result players call two nines, is a tie, as with any other equal total: tie bets win, and bets on either hand are usually returned. Baccarat is a game of chance rather than skill, since the drawing rules are fixed and the only choice is which hand to back. It is not beatable over time, though the banker bet has one of the smallest edges on the casino floor. It is also a fast paced game, dealing a hand in less than a minute.
Nobody at the table does: a third card follows fixed drawing rules, which is why baccarat counts as a game of chance rather than skill.
The banker bet has one of the smallest edges on a casino floor, while the tie bet pays more and costs far more over time; neither makes baccarat beatable.
Cards up to nine count at face value, tens and faces count zero, and only the last digit of a hand's total matters, with nine the best.
Two nines are a tie like any other equal total, so tie bets win and bets placed on banker or player are usually returned.
A bettor backs the banker hand, the player hand or a tie, and after that single choice the cards are dealt under fixed rules.
Three card poker pits three cards against the dealer's three and is chosen mainly for its speed and its ante bonus rather than for favourable odds.