Baccarat Canada — Rules, Odds and the Real Cost of the Tie
Banker at 1.06%, Player at 1.24%, and a Tie bet that costs fourteen times as much. The full third-card rules, plus what speed tables do to your hourly cost.
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Three bets and no decisions
Baccarat deals two hands — Player and Banker — and you bet on which will finish closer to nine. Tens and face cards count zero, aces one, and totals drop the tens digit, so 7 plus 8 is 5. Whether a third card is drawn is decided entirely by a fixed table of rules. Nobody at the table makes a choice, which is precisely why the house edge is so low and so stable.
| Bet | Pays | Win probability | House edge | Return to player |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banker | 1:1 less 5% commission | 45.86% | 1.06% | 98.94% |
| Player | 1:1 | 44.62% | 1.24% | 98.76% |
| Tie (8:1) | 8:1 | 9.52% | 14.36% | 85.64% |
| Tie (9:1) | 9:1 | 9.52% | 4.84% | 95.16% |
The third-card rules
Player draws on a total of 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. Banker’s decision depends on its own total and on the card Player drew, which is where the asymmetry — and the commission — comes from.
| Banker total | Draws when Player’s third card is | Stands when it is |
|---|---|---|
| 0, 1, 2 | Any card, or Player stood | — |
| 3 | 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 | 8 |
| 4 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 | 0, 1, 8, 9 |
| 5 | 4, 5, 6, 7 | 0, 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 |
| 6 | 6, 7 | 0–5, 8, 9 |
| 7 | — | Always stands |
| 8 or 9 | Natural — no third card is dealt to either hand | — |
Speed baccarat and the cost of pace
The house edge per coup does not change with the speed of the table — but your expected loss per hour does, because it scales directly with how many coups you play. A speed table completing a round in 27 seconds deals roughly twice as many hands per hour as a classic table.
| Table type | Coups per hour | Turnover | Expected loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic live baccarat | ~60 | C$600 | C$6.36 |
| Speed baccarat (27s) | ~130 | C$1,300 | C$13.78 |
| No-commission baccarat | ~130 | C$1,300 | C$18.85 |
No-commission baccarat removes the 5% charge but pays only 1:2 when Banker wins with a total of six. That single change raises the Banker house edge from 1.06% to about 1.46% — an example of a rule that looks like a gift and is not.
Side bets
Every baccarat side bet is more expensive than the main game, usually by an order of magnitude. Perfect Pair, Player Pair, Banker Pair and Either Pair typically run house edges between 6% and 14%. They exist because the base game is too cheap for the house to be satisfied with.