How To Play Punto Banco Like a Pro
Baccarat is a game that continues to enjoy a surge in popularity. There are three main baccarat variants played today, and Punto Banco is the most popular by far.
Punto Banco, which translates simply as player (punto) and banker (banco), accounted for 91% of income at Macau casinos in 2014! That is an astronomical sum of money and shows how popular the table game is. The game looks complicated to the untrained eye, but it is simple once you learn the tableau of drawings.
It pays to remember the value of the cards. Twos through nines have their face value. Tens through kings are worth zero, and aces are one. For example, a player receiving a 3 and 4 has 7 points. However, a player receiving a 6 and 7 (13) only has 3 because you remove the tens units.
Punto Banco Rules
The casino banks the game at all times when you play Punto Banco and plays out both hands according to a fixed drawing table. A shoe containing six or eight decks of cards is used, and the dealer burns the first card face up. The dealer then burns the number of cards based on this first card’s value. Twos through nines have their face value. Tens through kings are worth zero, and aces are worth one.
Two cards are dealt face up to the player and banker, alternating who receives them. A result is declared if either the player or banker has eight or nine. The player gets an additional card if their initial total is 0-5, and they stand if the initial total is 6-7.
Things are more complicated for the banker in punto banco. The banker acts like the player if the player only has two cards in front of them. That is, they draw a third card if they have 0-5 and stand pat with 6-7. The table below shows the rules for the banker if the player drew a third card.
| Banker total | Drawing rule |
|---|---|
| 0-2 | Banker draws a third card, regardless of what the player’s third card is |
| 3 | Banker draws a third card, unless player’s third card was an 8 |
| 4 | Banker draws a third card, if the player’s third card was 2,3,4,5,6,7 |
| 5 | Banker draws a third card, if the player’s third card was 4,5,6,7 |
| 6 | Banker draws a third card, if the player’s third card was 6,7 |
| 7 | The banker stands |
Tips For A Profitable Session
The super-low house edge is one of the main reasons punto banco is popular. Betting on the player has a house edge of a mere 1.24%. Betting on the banker has a house edge of only 1.06%. However, bets on the banker come with a 5% commission charge. Those figures are for eight-deck shoes.
Punto banco payouts at 1:1 for winning player bets and 1:0.95 for winning banker bets. Avoid the tie bet like the plague! It pays 8:1, which is attractive, but comes with a 14.4% house edge! Tie bets pay 9:1 in the United Kingdom, reducing the house edge to a more favourable 4.85%, but you should still avoid it.
Some online casinos offer zero commission on the banker bet in their punto banco games. This looks too good to be true, and it is. Zero commission banker bets see the banker win with a six, and winning banker bets are halved! Stick to a standard table and either side with the banker or the player.
An eight-deck shoe is the industry standard, but there are venues using six-deck shoes. They are rare, but your odds of winning increase with the fewer decks used. Shop around and play the six-deck punto banco game if you find it.
Finally, play punto banco online before heading to the casino. Live games tend to have high stakes, sometimes a $100 per hand minimum. Online offerings allow you to bet as low as $1 per hand or less.
