Punto Banco
Underwear for men and for women has a name: Punto Blanco. Manufacturers and designers of quality socks and underwear since 1948. Baccarat Punto Banco, in which the bettor bets on whether the Player or the Banker hand wins, was a significant change in the development of modern baccarat. It developed into a house-banked game in Havana in the 1940s, and is the most popular modern form.
Would you like to explore new horizons at the casino? You’ve come to the right place, because at Grand Casino Brussels Viage there’s more to play than just poker and blackjack. Have you ever heard of ‘punto banco’? This card game is based on a five hundred year-old game called ‘baccarat’ which originated in Italy. After having conquered France by storm, the game soon became extremely popular in our region as well. The rules are surprisingly simple, but let’s go through them step by step.
Punto banco: the fundamentals
Baccarat was about a century old when the French court first started playing it. Many a fortune was won (and lost), and the game quickly evolved into variants still popular today, such as chemin de fer and, of course, punto banco.
Punto banco is a game where, instead of playing each other, players play against the bank (similar to blackjack). The aim is to obtain nine points or get as close to nine as possible. What’s most fun about this setup is the sense of collaboration between players. That’s right! Since players have no influence over each other’s game whatsoever, punto banco creates a unique feeling of solidarity among players.
How to play punto banco
In punto banco, cards are worth a certain number of points:
- Zero points: king, queen, jack, ten
- One point: ace
- Face value: all cards two to nine
The maximum number of points is nine. If your total exceeds nine, only the last digit counts. This means that if you, for example, have a total of twelve points, this ultimately amounts to two. There are three ways to place a bet:
Baccarat Card Games
- Punto: payout equals your bet.
- Banco: payout equals your bet, unless banco wins with a score of six points. In the latter case, bets pay out at 2:1.
- Equality: a less likely scenario, where bets pay out at 8:1.
The croupier alternately deals four cards, face up. Two cards are placed in the punto area and two in the banco area. Whoever obtains nine points or gets closest, wins!