Archive for January 23rd, 2009
These 3 kings….count for jack.
I had the misfortune of watching Rush Hour 3 on Sunday night. It was offensive on so many levels and Chris Tucker’s voice makes Fran Drescher sound sultry and seductive. But what did get my attention was the scene in the Parisian casino. Tucker’s character tries to get the attention of a beautiful woman with all the subtlety of a rhinoceros on viagra, at one of the casino tables where she is playing a card game. Tucker gets 3 Kings in his first hand and thinks he has won. The ever so snooty croupier says to him ” Messeur, this is Baccarat, that is the worst possible hand”. I realised I had no idea how Baccarat works and thought others like me may want to know a little bit about the history of the game and how it works.
The game arrived in France from Italy in the 15th century and is similar to Faro and Basset. It was first played by Italian Felix Falguierein with a pack of Tarot cards in the middle ages before it moved across the Alps to France where it became the game of the French aristocracy. There are 3 versions of the game. Punto Banco or North American Baccarat, Baccarat Chemin de Fer, and Baccarat Banque.
The rules are basically this.
- Cards 2 to 9 are worth their face value.
- Aces are worth 1,
- 10 and the face cards are worth zero.
- Unlike in blackjack where you aim to total 21, in Baccarat the aim is to total 9.
- The name Baccarat, meaning zero, is the name for the worst possible hand which is zero.
- To make it slightly more conmplicated, if for example, you have a 6 and a 7, totalling 13, the 10 is dropped meaning the total of your hand is 3.
- There are only 3 possible results. Player, Bank or Tie. The idea is to bet on whether the Player or Banker will win or whether there will be a tie.
- Player and Banker dont represent the gambler or the casino, they are simply the names for each hand.
Each versions has different rules but I think you get the gist. In the 2nd to last James Bond, the remake of Casino Royale, Bond plays Texas Holdem against Le Chiffre due to the popularity of that game at present. However, in Fleming’s novel and the original version of the movie, the game was Baccarat. This game is popular with high rollers with players winning and losing tens of thousands of dollars per hand. Another reason the game is probably not as well known is that the tables are usually tucked away in the more exclusive parts of casinos.
However with the growing popularity of online casinos you and I are able to step into the shoes of the French nobility and give it a go. Just remember what happened to them though and that your card playing experience from those all night poker sessions counts for nought…or baccarat.
