Well Howdy! And welcome to the Baccarat-Guru’s page for those who want to play baccarat. I’m called the Guru because I have a lot of knowledge about baccarat and gambling in general. Do you know what the word guru means? If you care to look it up, you’ll find that a Guru is universally thought of as a teacher. Well, that’s what I’m here for; to teach anyone who wants to listen. If you want to play baccarat and are a little short on information, I’ll share all the knowledge I’ve got; that’s what a teacher is for, right?
So! To start off; baccarat has been around a really long time, and historically, the ones to play baccarat were the extremely wealthy. Usually the only people that were rich enough to play baccarat were actually kings and queens. Generally speaking, if you were part of a royal family, or a high-ranking member of a court way back in the 1400’s you would have access to this game. The game of baccarat as we know it was originally played in France by the nobility, and didn’t show up in casinos elsewhere in Europe until much later. There are also a few names that are associated with baccarat that you may have heard; such as “Baccarat-en-Banque”, and “Chemin de Fer”.
Chemin de Fer is French for "railroad". The name probably came from thinking of the shoe as a train traveling around the table. This version of baccarat is mainly played in France. In this game you can’t bet on Player or Bank, you must BE one or the other, so it’s like the traditional game found in casinos. If you’re going to play baccarat you’ll find that there are some differences depending on where in the world you play. Also, don’t get mini-baccarat confused with Baccarat. Mini-baccarat is the “little brother” of the full version, and when you play baccarat in casinos today, you’ll find it much more popular since it’s more casual and faster-paced than the traditional game. More on that version can be found on my mini-baccarat page.
Baccarat-en-Banque is a variation of Chemin de fer in which three hands are dealt (1 Banker's hand and 2 Player's hands), and there are no set rules about the bank's play. The Banker, who is employed by the casino, can stand or draw as he sees fit and a player can bet on either of the Player hands but not on the Banker hand. You might sometimes hear it called “Baccarat a Deux Tableau”. At casinos, the usual version you’ll find is most like the traditional Chemin de Fer. I hope I’m not going to stop you from going out to play baccarat by making it seem really confusing! When you go to a casino you’ll find it’s really pretty simple. As a matter of fact, baccarat is one of the easiest gambling games to learn (the only thing simpler is the Slots!). My page on baccarat rules will fill you in on this part of the game.
Now, I’m here to convince you to go and play baccarat, and I hope you know you can play it online as well as in a casino. This site has so much information for you that I’ll just refer you to some of the other pages, rather that going on and on… If you want to play online, you can find out more on my baccarat online page. And for more of a general how-to, you can check out my how to play baccarat page.
I guess that’s about it for the Guru (on this page at least). You can be sure that there’s lots more information where this came from, so I invite you to take a cruise around the rest this site and fill up on knowledge. Please remember that I’m George the Baccarat-Guru, and my mission in life is to take you for a stroll down the path of knowledge, and show you The Way. The way to gambling fun that is! I hope you’ve enjoyed your time here and it’s helped you to become more confident, because old George here wants you to have the best time possible when you’re whoopin’ it up at the casinos!
