Punto Banco, also known as Baccarat, is a popular card game available at Taiwan’s mobile casinos. The game is like a combination of blackjack and poker - players compete against the gambling house or ‘bank’. The game is simple and easy to learn.
In Punto Banco, two hands are dealt, the player and the banker. Each hand consists of two or three cards, with the objective of getting as close to nine points as possible. The cards are given their face values, with aces worth 1, cards two through nine equal to their numeric values, and tens and face cards each worth zero. If the value of the cards in a hand total more than ten, the first digit is dropped, so that a 7 and a 4 would equal 1 (7+4=11; 11-10=1).
The game starts with each participant placing a bet. A player may bet on ‘Punto’ (player’s hand), ‘Banco’ (banker’s hand) or ‘Tie’ (draw). After the bets are placed, the dealer deals two cards to the ‘player’ and two cards to the ‘banker’. The player can then either ‘stand’ with the two cards they have been dealt or ‘draw’ an additional card. The banker will then act according to the established House Rules: if the player has drawn a third card, the banker will draw a third card in specific circumstances. The winning hand is the one that has a total closest to nine.