Baccarat on Sky777: How a Hand Works, From the Deal to a Natural

Baccarat asks very little of you. You choose where to bet and how much, and the cards do the rest. The aim is simple: back the hand whose total ends up closest to 9.

The two hands on the Sky777 baccarat table

The dealer only ever deals two hands, one called Player and one called Banker. Neither belongs to you. You are betting on which of them will finish closer to 9, or that they will tie.

This has nothing to do with how many people are at the table. Up to 14 players can bet on the same round, and all of them are betting on the same two hands.

Counting cards towards 9

Card values in baccarat work like this:

• Ace counts as 1
• 2 to 9 count at face value
• 10, Jack, Queen and King count as 0

Only the last digit of a total matters. A 7 and an 8 make 15, which counts as 5. So the highest possible total is 9, and you can never go bust.

Naturals: le petit and le grande

If either hand's first two cards total 8 or 9, that is a natural. A natural 8 is known as le petit and a natural 9 as le grande. When one appears, both hands stand and the round is over, with no more cards drawn.

When there is no natural, the dealer may draw a third card for one or both hands under fixed rules. In the usual rules the Player hand draws on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7, while the Banker's decision depends on its own total and the Player's third card. You never make this choice yourself; the game applies it automatically.

Bets and results

If both hands finish on the same total, the result is a tie. A Banker or Player bet usually pays even money, with a Banker win normally carrying a 5% commission because that hand wins slightly more often. Check the table limits and payouts on screen before you start.

Every hand is independent, so past results on the scoreboard do not predict the next one. You can play baccarat on Sky777 or read more Sky777 reviews first.