With "What are the rules of baccarat?", the key is the order in which cards come out. Baccarat looks formal and plays simply: two hands, called player and banker, are dealt, and the bettor backs one of them or a tie. Nobody at the table makes a decision about drawing, because a fixed rule decides whether each hand takes a third card. Knowing the point values and that rule makes every round easy to follow, from the first card to the final count.
Baccarat tables display scoreboards, often called roads, that record the result of every recent round in grids of coloured marks. Many players read patterns into them and bet on streaks continuing or breaking. Each round is dealt from a shoe that does not remember the last one, so the boards describe the past and predict nothing. They are useful for following a table, and harmless as long as no betting plan is built on them.
The main bets are player, banker and tie. A winning player bet pays even money, a winning banker bet pays even money less a fee taken because the banker hand wins slightly more often, and a tie usually pays eight to one. When the round ends in a tie, player and banker bets are returned at most tables. Pair bets and other extras sit beside the main boxes, each with its own payout printed on the layout.
The player hand acts first. With a total from zero to five it draws a third card, and with six or seven it stands. That part of the rule is simple and never varies between tables. The player's third card, if one is drawn, then becomes the key to what the banker hand does next, which is why the banker's rule looks more complicated than it really is. The dealer applies both parts as a matter of course.
Pair bets and other extras sit beside the main boxes, each paying at the rate printed on the layout for that particular wager.
If the player stood, banker draws on five or less; otherwise banker always draws on two or less, stands on seven, and between three and six follows a printed table.
The player hand draws on any total from zero to five and stands on six or seven, a rule that stays the same at every table.
A tie usually pays eight to one on the tie box, and at most tables bets on player or banker are handed back rather than lost.
No: the roads only record past rounds in coloured marks, and since the shoe has no memory of earlier hands they forecast nothing.
Each box on the layout carries its own minimum, and the table limits show the smallest accepted stake for player, banker, tie and pair bets.