The word “baccarat,” pronounced bah-caw-rah, comes from the Italian word for zero. This is a reference to the zero value given to both tens and face cards in this game. Although originally only popular in European casinos, where it was first introduced in 15th century France, baccarat has become popular in casinos across the globe and Internet.

Baccarat is played with six or eight complete decks of cards. All cards from the ace through nine are valued according to their number. Both face cards and tens have a value of zero. When any combination of two cards is equal to more than ten, ten is subtracted and the remaining total is the card count. For example, if four and eight are drawn for a sum of 12, the count is two (ten from 12).