NinoGaming Live Baccarat: Card Values, Draw Rules and House Edge

Does the dealer decide anything in live baccarat? No. Every draw follows a fixed table, and the only choice you make is where to put your chips. This page sets out those rules and the published house edge; the wider live casino overview of dealers and studios explains who runs the table and who holds your money.

Rules and figures below come from Wizard of Odds’ baccarat analysis, which assumes eight decks. At NinoGaming, live tables sit under the Live Feed tab; open a table’s help screen for its paytable and limits.

How live baccarat cards are counted

Card	Value
Ace	1
2 to 9	Face value
10, Jack, Queen, King	0

A hand is scored by adding its cards and dropping the first digit if the total is over 9. A 7 and an 8 make 15, which counts as 5. The highest possible hand is 9.

The order of a live baccarat hand

1. You bet on Player, Banker or Tie before betting closes.
2. The dealer gives two cards each to the Player and Banker hands.
3. If either hand has 8 or 9, that is a natural, and both hands stand.
4. Otherwise, the Player hand draws a third card on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7.
5. The Banker hand then draws or stands by the table below.
6. The hand closer to 9 wins. Equal totals are a tie.

When the Banker draws a third card

If the Player hand stood, the Banker draws on 5 or less and stands on 6 or 7. If the Player drew, the Banker’s move depends on its own total and on the Player’s third card.

Banker total	Banker draws when the Player’s third card is
0, 1, 2	Any card
3	Anything except 8
4	2 to 7
5	4 to 7
6	6 or 7
7	Never, stands

You never have to remember this. The dealer applies it, and the result is the same whoever deals.

Payouts and house edge on each bet

Bet	Pays	House edge, 8 decks
Banker	19 to 20 (even money less 5%)	1.06%
Player	1 to 1	1.24%
Tie	8 to 1	14.36%
Tie, where it pays 9 to 1	9 to 1	4.844%

On a tie, Player and Banker bets push: the stake comes back. The Tie bet is the one to be careful with. At 8 to 1 it keeps more than 14 pesos of every 100 staked over time, against about 1 peso on Banker.

For a sense of scale, the sic bo Big and Small bets carry 2.78% and dragon tiger’s version of the tie costs half your Dragon or Tiger stake.

Live baccarat variants and the help screen

Studios run variants with different payouts. Evolution lists a No Commission Baccarat among its live baccarat games, for example, and its paytable is not the standard one above. That table’s help screen shows its exact payouts and return, and this page does not quote them.

Check which studio runs a table before relying on any rule sheet, including this one. Evolution’s licences are on the Evolution baccarat studio record.

Problems and fixes at a live baccarat table