Over the years different types of baccarat have emerged based in most cases on the country they are played in. The general rules are usually very similar with the main differences being drawing rules and player interactions.
Below we will take a closer look at three of the most popular game variants:
Chemin de Fer
Chemin de Fer is a form of baccarat where your knowledge of the game can play a significant role. The game is played with six decks of cards and differs from classic baccarat in two different ways.
First and foremost, there is always a player who deals the cards and who can also act as a banker. If neither Punto (the player) nor Banco (the banker) has received a nine or eight, each player is also given the opportunity to say yes or no to another card, which means that you as a player can influence the outcome of the game.
Baccarat en Banque
Baccarat en Banque became popular in French casinos with the lifting of the ban on public gambling. In this version, the house – ie the casino – is always the bank and deals the cards in each game round.
Here, as a player, you are also not allowed to make any active choices regarding extra cards, which makes Baccarat en Banque a game whose outcome is always random. In other words, the rules in this baccarat variant are considerably simpler than in Chemin de Fer.
That the game gained so much popularity was thus not very surprising. The game became extra popular in Monaco, where they even had to come up with a new version of the game to keep players happy – Baccarat a Deux Tableaux. Here, one and the same dealer plays with two players at the same time and the cards are first dealt to the player at table one, then to table two and finally to the house.
Punto Banco
Punto Banco is another name for classic baccarat. Punto refers to the player and Banco to the bank or in this case the casino. The game was developed in Latin America and usually uses six decks of cards with the same points system as in other variants of baccarat.
Punto Banco is a pure game of chance, which means that the outcome is based solely on chance. You can not choose extra cards or influence the game in any other way.
