This baccarat simulator is a free-to-play punto banco table with play-money chips, eight decks, a bead plate and the exact house edge of the three bets: Player, Banker and Tie. You bet, the cards are dealt by fixed rules, and you never make a decision after the bet.
Chips have no value and cannot be cashed out. Baccarat looks mysterious because of its drawing rules, but each hand is a coin-like game with a small, fixed cost, and this page shows it.
How does this baccarat simulator work?
Put chips on Player, Banker or Tie and press Deal. Two cards go to Player and two to Banker, a third card is drawn by fixed rules, and the hand closest to 9 wins. You start with 1,000 play chips. The tally under the table compares how often each result occurred with its long-run chance.
- Choose a chip size (5, 25, 100 or 500) and click one or more bets.
- Press Deal for one hand or Deal 10 hands with these bets to repeat the same bets for ten hands.
- Watch the bead plate fill. It shows the last 40 hands as round beads lettered P (Player, blue), B (Banker, red) and T (Tie, green), so color is never the only clue.
- Read the tally. It shows Player, Banker and Tie counts next to their exact long-run shares of 44.62%, 45.86% and 9.52%.
The shoe has eight decks (416 cards) and is reshuffled when 16 cards are left. A break reminder appears after 15 minutes. Nothing is saved to your browser or sent anywhere.
What are the baccarat rules for scoring and drawing a third card?
Cards 2 to 9 count at face value, aces count 1, and tens and face cards count 0. A hand’s total is the last digit of the sum. If either side has 8 or 9 on the first two cards (a natural), no more cards are drawn. Otherwise the Player and Banker third-card rules decide.
Player draws a third card on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. Banker follows a table that depends on the card Player drew. If Player stood with 6 or 7, Banker draws on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7.
| Banker total | Banker draws if Player’s third card is | Banker stands if Player’s third card is |
|---|---|---|
| 0, 1, 2 | Always draws | Never |
| 3 | 0 to 7 and 9 | 8 |
| 4 | 2 to 7 | 0, 1, 8, 9 |
| 5 | 4 to 7 | 0 to 3, 8, 9 |
| 6 | 6 or 7 | 0 to 5, 8, 9 |
| 7 | Never | Always stands |
You do not decide any of this. That is why baccarat has no strategy beyond choosing the bet.
What are the odds and house edge of Player, Banker and Tie?
Banker wins most often (45.86% of hands) and costs the least at 1.06%. Player wins 44.62% of hands and costs 1.24%. Tie happens 9.52% of the time and pays 8 to 1, which costs 14.36%. These shares come from counting every possible eight-deck shoe outcome, not from a sample.
| Bet | Pays | Chance the bet wins | Chance of a tie (push) | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banker | 0.95 to 1 (5% commission) | 45.86% | 9.52% | 1.06% |
| Player | 1 to 1 | 44.62% | 9.52% | 1.24% |
| Tie (8 to 1) | 8 to 1 | 9.52% | not applicable | 14.36% |
| Tie (9 to 1, where offered) | 9 to 1 | 9.52% | not applicable | 4.84% |
The Banker bet pays 1 to 1 minus a 5% commission, so a 10 unit win pays 9.50. Without the commission it would be a profitable bet, which is why casinos charge it. Where the commission is 4% (New Jersey rules allow 4% or 5%), the Banker edge is lower, about 0.60% by our arithmetic. No-commission versions change the Banker payout in other ways and have their own edge, so check the rules.
How is the Banker house edge worked out?
Multiply each result by its chance and add them up. For a 1 unit Banker bet: win 0.95 with probability 0.458597, lose 1 with probability 0.446247, and tie (return the bet) with probability 0.095156. The average result is 0.95 x 0.458597 minus 0.446247, which equals minus 0.01058, a house edge of 1.06%.
Example: bet 10 units on Banker every hand for 60 hands an hour (an assumed pace). You stake 600 units and lose about 6.35 on average. The same hour on Player costs about 7.41. The same hour on Tie at 8 to 1 costs about 86.
Work out your own sessions with the expected loss calculator or the gambling session cost calculator.
Does the bead plate predict the next baccarat hand?
No. The bead plate records past results, but each hand comes from a shoe that has barely changed. After a card is removed, the house edge on Banker moves by less than one hundredth of a percentage point. A run of five Banker wins gives no signal about the next hand.
Casinos display scoreboards, and players see patterns in them, because people are good at seeing streaks in random sequences. Streaks and runs are normal in chance results. You can test it here: play 200 hands and compare the bead plate with a coin-flip sequence. The same shapes appear.
Is free baccarat the same as online baccarat?
Free baccarat uses the same rules and payouts as casino punto banco if the commission and tie payout match, but no money is staked. Online baccarat for real money adds deposits, faster dealing and variants such as no-commission baccarat, side bets and live tables. The Banker and Player edges stay near 1%, and side bets cost more.
Before you play any version, read the paytable: the Tie payout (8 to 1 or 9 to 1) and the commission rate (5% or 4%) matter more than the table’s look. Chancepedia does not link to operators or recommend where to play. To check that a site is licensed, search for its licence number on the regulator’s own register.
Which baccarat bet is best?
Banker is the cheapest bet at 1.06%, Player is second at 1.24%, and Tie is the most expensive at 14.36% (or 4.84% at 9 to 1). The gap between Banker and Player is small, about 0.18 percentage points, and the choice makes almost no difference to a short session. Avoiding the Tie bet matters far more.
No system changes this. Doubling after a loss, following streaks or betting against them all face the same edge on every hand. A system changes how the losses are spread, not their average size.
Does playing free baccarat make real gambling more likely?
A 2022 survey of Australian 12 to 17 year olds linked simulated gambling play, and the money spent on it, to gambling for money and to gambling problems. It was a one-time survey, so it cannot show cause, but it is why this page has no prizes, levels or rewards, and why it shows the cost of every bet.
This page is meant for adults who want to understand the game. If you notice you are playing longer than planned, or thinking about real stakes, take a break and open the Safer play toolkit or Get help.
What should you try next?
- Deal 200 hands on Banker only, then 200 on Player only, and compare the tally with the exact shares.
- Put 10 chips on Tie for 100 hands and see how long the gaps between wins can be.
- Look at the bead plate after 100 hands and try to predict the next bead. Check how often you are right.
- Price a real session in advance with the expected loss calculator.
How to read your session
The tally compares how many hands went to Player, Banker and Tie with their exact long-run shares (44.62%, 45.86%, 9.52%). The panel shows your net result and the average result at each bet's house edge. Short runs wander far from both.
How it is calculated
All eight-deck shoe outcomes were counted: Player 0.446247, Banker 0.458597, Tie 0.095156. Player edge = Banker chance minus Player chance = 1.235%. Banker edge = Player chance minus 0.95 x Banker chance = 1.058%. Tie edge at 8 to 1 = (Player + Banker chances) minus 8 x Tie chance = 0.904844 - 0.761248 = 14.36%.
Worked example
Worked example
Banker bets of 10 units, 60 hands an hour (assumed pace): 600 units staked, about 6.35 units average cost an hour. Player: 7.41. Tie at 8 to 1: 86.16.
Limits
Edges assume eight decks, a 5% Banker commission and Tie at 8 to 1. Other rules differ. The bead plate is shown for illustration only. Averages are long-run values, not predictions.