Doubling Down
A player may double on their first two cards other than a Blackjack. When a player doubles, only one more card is dealt and the original bet has to be matched. Essentially, the player bets the hand can be won with one more card. You can "double down" after "splitting" a pair.

Insurance
When the dealer's up card is an ace, the player is offered "insurance". Taking insurance means the player makes a second bet (of half the original bet) that the dealer's face down card is a ten card. If this is the case, the player is paid 2 to 1 on the insurance bet and the initial bet loses as it is beaten by the dealer's Blackjack. If the dealer does not have a natural Blackjack, the insurance bet is lost and the hand is played out as normal.

Even Money
If the player (you) has a Blackjack and the dealer's up card is an Ace, the player is offered 'even money'. Taking even money means the player will be paid 1 to 1 on the Blackjack and not 3 to 2 as normal. Taking even money means the player believes the dealer's face down card is a ten card. If the player chooses not to take even money and the dealer reveals a Blackjack, both hands tie. If no even money is taken and the dealer has no Blackjack, the player is paid at 3 to 2.

*The Dealer has none of these options.

The object of baccarat is to predict if the player or the banker's hand will get a point value closest to 9, keeping in mind that all ten-value cards count as zero and Aces count as one. The hand with the highest point value wins.

The highest total any baccarat hand can have is nine. A two-card total of nine is called a "natural" and cannot lose. An eight is the second-best hand and is called a "natural". If both the player and banker are dealt identical hands, it's a stand-off (a tie) and neither the banker nor the player hand wins.

You do not receive any cards, or play against anyone but to predict which hand will beat the other.

The player and the banker are each dealt a two-card hand. Following standard baccarat rules, a third card is dealt to the player and/or the banker.

European Baccarat has two key differences in rules as compared to American Baccarat:

• The player has the option of standing or drawing on 5.
• The banker (controlled by dealer) has an option on whether to draw a third card, although in practice the casino generally follows the rules of play for American baccarat.

The casino finances the banker hand. Example: The Banker funds $1,500. If a player bets $1,000 and the second player bets $500, the next players are not allowed to bet now any more.

When a player wants to cover the entire banker's bet, he calls out "banco" and no other players are allowed to bet during that round.

Players who choose to bet with the bank to win are charged the same 4 or 5 percent of their winnings, like in any other version of baccarat.

Blackjack was derived from the french game vingt-et-un or twenty-one. Until about the mid 1950's, it was believed that the game was alot like baccarat and the house had the edge because the player played first.

In 1956, a paper was published by Baldwin, Cantey, Maisel, and McDermott in the "Journal of the American Statistical Association" laying out a set of recommendations for the play of the game, these recommendations were very close to today's basic strategy. The following year, they published a manual for the public with this system of play, but it attracted little interest until, Edward O. Thorp(PhD), saw the paper and understood that there were parts of the game that had been missed in the past. The first being that the composition of the deck changed with each card dealt, also, some combinations of the remaining cards favoured the house and others favoured the players.

In 1962, Dr. Thorp published his now famous book, "Beat the Dealer", which contained a simple yet profound message that decks of cards have memory. Each hand is dependent on the makeup of the deck at that time and by paying attention to the cards already played, the player can almost predict what will be appearing in the deck next.

The Blackjack Computer

With the help of a computer, Thorp did a statistical analysis called the Monte Carlo simulation and discovered that 10's and Aces remaining in the deck put the player at an advantage, while 5's and 6's being left in the deck put the dealer at an advantage. Thus, card counting was born.

If the player could keep track of the cards left in the deck, they could decide how to bet on each hand. For example, if there are many 10's and aces left they would be smart to bet high, and if there are lots of fives and sixes left they might want to bet low.