Baccarat is an exciting casino game, but it’s important to know how much you want to spend before you sit down. Set a spending limit and stick to it, whether you’re playing in person or online. Also, remember that gambling is not a way to get rich quickly. Instead, treat it as money you’d spend on a night out, and only use cash that you can afford to lose.

The rules of baccarat are simple. Six decks of cards are used, shuffled together and dealt out to players at a table in random order. Players are seated in a circle or oval arrangement around the table, and betting is placed in counterclockwise order. One player will act as the banker and set an initial bet amount, while other players place their bets in accordance with a predetermined pattern. Depending on the casino, minimum bets vary between $20 and $25.

Once everyone has placed their bets, the croupier deals two cards to the Banker and Player hands. If either hand totals 8 or 9, the round is over and any placed bets are paid out. Otherwise, a third card may be drawn, depending on the initial total of the hand.

If the third card is a 7, 8, or 9 then the winning hand is declared and any bets placed on the winner are paid out. If the third card is a 6 then the winning hand is a tie and the bets are reset for the next round.

A double win streak for both the Banker and Player is a good sign, but don’t make the mistake of over-betting. As a general rule, the best bets in baccarat are those where the odds are the lowest. For example, a bet on Banker that pays 8-to-1 is one of the worst bets in a casino, but this doesn’t stop countless baccarat players from laying down big bets on hunches.

As with other casino games, baccarat can be beaten by using a strategy or system. A popular strategy is the martingale, which works best for bets that pay even money (outside bets). A more sophisticated system uses a technique called edge sorting to calculate which cards are most likely to appear. The advantage of this method is that it can reduce the house edge by about 0.05%. It has gained popularity since Phil Ivey won $10 million from casinos by using this system. However, the method is not foolproof and can be beaten with practice.