Baccarat has many points of resemblance to Vingt-un, but the element of
chance is much more prominent. The stakes are made before any card is
dealt, and one player plays for several. There is therefore, save on the
part of the banker, scarcely any scope for personal skill or judgment.
The object of the game is to hold such cards as shall together amount to
the point of _nine_. The cards from ace to nine count each according to the
number of its pips. Court cards are equivalent to tens, and ten at this
game is _baccarat_, a synonym for zero. Thus a player holding a three and a
ten (or court card) is considered to have three only; a player holding two
tens and a five counts five only. And not only is a tenth card baccarat
(0), but ten occurring as part of a total score, however made, is
disregarded; so that a five and a six count, not as eleven, but as one
only; three, seven and five, not as fifteen, but as five; and so on.
There are two forms of Baccarat, known respectively as _Baccarat Chemin de
Fer_ and _Baccarat_ {5} _Banque_, the latter being the version more
frequently played. A description of Baccarat Chemin de Fer will, however,
be the best introduction to the explanation of Baccarat Banque, and we
therefore take it first in order.