Baccarat is a gambling card game supposed to have been introduced into France from Italy during the reign of Charles VIII of France. There are two accepted variants of the game: baccarat chemin de fer (railway) and baccarat banque (or a deux tableaux).

Baccarat has many points of resemblance to blackjack, 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 acquire a hand of cards with a total sum (called the point) of nine. The cards from ace to nine count each according to the number of its pips. Face cards and tens are baccarat, a synonym for zero. Thus a player holding a three and a ten has three only; a player holding two face cards, a two and a five counts seven only. Similarly, every ten points reached 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. In other words, Baccarat scores are reckoned modulo 10.

In blackjack, it is possible to count cards and bet more when it is favorable to the player. Application of methods used at blackjack to calculate the change in advantage at baccarat due to card removal do not yield an advantage to the players as a practical matter on the main wagers. Certain end-deck subsets of cards can prove enormously advantageous to highly-skilled card counter, for example, an end-deck subset of eight ten-valued cards must be a win for the tie wager with its 8-1 payoff, though opportunities are extremely rare.

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