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baccarat graphics & features

The card game Baccarat was relatively unknown outside of gambling circles for much of the 20th century. However, all that changed when Roger Moore’s James Bond sat down to play at the Achilleion Palace in Corfu during For Your Eyes Only. Bond was already a hugely popular franchise by then, with eleven previous movies already under special agent 007’s belt; the film raised $195.3 million at the box office – equivalent to almost $1.1 billion in today’s money. Theoretically, that would make the film roughly the 40th most popular of all time! Over the next few years, Bond would frequently be seen engaging in a few hands of Baccarat in each of his movie appearances – surely making Baccarat by far the ‘coolest’ casino game of them all! Unfortunately for fans of the game, it was replaced by Texas Hold’em Poker when Daniel Craig’s Bond sat down to play cards in the more recent Casino Royale.  

I’ve played several versions of Baccarat at online casinos over the years, but Habanero’s take on the game is undoubtedly one of the best-looking out of the bunch. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to tell this apart from many of the table games produced by their much larger rivals over at NetEnt – even the icons used in the game look eerily similar to those produced by the Swedish super developers. There aren’t really any user-selectable settings on offer though – no quick play option, not even the ability to disable the music and sound effects individually. Still, it has all the essentials you’ll need to enjoy a few coups of Bond’s all-time favourite casino card game!

how to play baccarat

I touched on the complex drawing rules employed by Punto Banco during the opening paragraphs, but it’s now time to discuss this aspect of the game in more detail. Let’s start from the beginning – rounds kick off with the player and banker being dealt two cards, each face up, with aces valued at one, face cards at zero, and all other cards assigned their face values. Should either hand be worth eight or nine after these initial four cards have been dealt, no more cards will be dealt during the current round.

If the player has a total of between zero and five, he is forced to draw a third card. The banker’s decision depends on what happens with the player – if the player does not draw, the banker will do if he has a total of between zero and five. If the player draws two or three, the banker will draw if he has zero through four. If the player draws four or five, the banker draws if he has a total of zero through five. If the player draws six or seven, the banker draws if he has zero through six. Finally, if the player has an eight, the banker will draw if he has a total of zero through two. 

Baccarat is played using an eight-deck shoe, which seems somewhat excessive given that the maximum number of cards dealt during any round is just six! This does give rise to some unusual possibilities, however – all six cards might be dealt as the same card, for example, an eventuality that is sometimes offered as a side bet in other variations of the game. However, Habanero hasn’t included any such bets in this particular version.

The betting limits offered in games like this frequently depend on the casino hosting the game. If the casino has opted to stick with the defaults as set by Habanero, you’ll have the option to bet between €1 and €50 on each of the player, banker, and tie, with up to three unique betting spots available for each. Of course, placing three bets that will all cancel each other out is a little pointless, but if you did, then I guess you could theoretically bet up to €450 per round!

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