Baccarat Card Values Explained: A Beginner's Guide to Scoring

Curious how baccarat hands are scored?

Many beginners hit a baccarat table only to feel lost when cards start hitting the table. Hand totals appear random. Rules seem overly complicated. Before they know it… they’ve lost money without knowing how they got there.

Let’s set the record straight:

Baccarat is one of the easiest casino games to learn. Once you understand card values everything else will click into place. And learning how to play baccarat starts with learning how hands are scored, not by memorizing strategy charts.

Ready to play baccarat online already? Then this beginner-friendly guide is where you should start. It covers every card value, how scoring works, and how to read a hand result in seconds.

Let’s dive in.

What Are the Baccarat Card Values?
How Baccarat Scoring Works
How To Read a Baccarat Hand
The Three Bets You Need To Know
Why Baccarat Is Worth Playing
The Bottom Line

Table of Contents

What Are the Baccarat Card Values?

Every card used in baccarat has an individual value. As with most casino games, it’s not what you think.

Here’s every card valued correctly:

Aces = 1
Cards 2 through 9 = face value (2 is worth 2, etc.)
10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings = 0

This is the part most beginners get wrong.

10-value cards are worth nothing in baccarat. A King has no value. A Queen has no value. And the same goes for 10s. It’s this single rule that makes scoring baccarat hands so unique. Learn it. Then forget about it.

How Baccarat Scoring Works

Hold up…

Just because card values add up to 10+ doesn’t mean the hand total does too.

Hand totals in baccarat can only ever equal 0 through 9. The highest possible hand is a 9. Once a hand value hits 10 or higher, only the SECOND digit is used.

Some quick examples:

A 7 + 6 equals 13 → hand value is 3
A 9 + 5 equals 14 → hand value is 4
A 10 + 8 equals 18 → hand value is 8

Think of it as dropping the first number. Some players prefer subtracting 10 from all totals above 9. Regardless, they equal the same thing.

Remember: The highest possible hand value is 9.

Hands totaling 9 are known as “naturals.” It’s the best hand either side can receive. A natural 8 is the second-best hand possible. Whenever the Player or Banker hand is dealt a natural on the FIRST two cards, NO additional cards are drawn.

How To Read a Baccarat Hand

Knowing card values, reading a baccarat hand is quick. Let’s use some sample hands to show what it looks like correctly:

Example Hand 1 (Player side)

Card 1 = King → Worth 0 points
Card 2 = 7 → Worth 7 points
Hand Value = 7

Example Hand 2 (Banker side)

Card 1 = 5 → Worth 5 points
Card 2 = 9 → Worth 9 points
Total Value = 14 → Drop the 1 → 4

Player wins with a 7 beating the Banker’s hand totaling 4.

Easy, right?

Whichever side has the hand value closest to 9 wins. If both hands tie with the same total value, then a Tie occurs. That’s literally all there is to reading a baccarat hand result — no fancy math needed.

The Three Bets You Need To Know

Figuring out card values is great. Knowing how to read baccarat hands is better. But what about placing bets? Here’s where most beginners get lost.

Truth is, there isn’t much too learn. Only three betting options are available:

Player Bet – Bet that the Player hand will win. Pays EVEN MONEY (1:1).
Banker Bet – Bet that the Banker hand will win. Pays EVEN MONEY (1:1) with a 5% commission.
Tie Bet – Bet that both hands will tie EVEN. Pays 8:1 or 9:1 depending on the table.

It’s important to know…

Place bets on the Banker hand whenever possible. The commission doesn’t change the overall house edge (still just 1.06% making it THE best bet in the casino). The Player bet is second best at 1.24%. Remember when we said the tie bet offered an ugly house edge? This is it (over 14%).

Got it? Great. Stick to Banker or Player. Sure the Tie bet can offer huge payouts, but those are few and far between. From a statistical standpoint, betting on a Tie is one of the worst things you can do at the baccarat table.

Why Baccarat Is Worth Playing

Everyone knows baccarat is popular. Few people realize HOW popular it truly is.

Recent numbers from Macau show the game making up 80–90% of their revenue from total casino gaming. This figure puts baccarat at the forefront of casino games in the world’s largest gambling hub by a landslide. And those numbers are growing year after year. In fact, Macau’s mass market industry saw over $20 billion in GGR from baccarat alone in 2024.

Yeah. Baccarat is that popular.

Endless rows of tables packed in busy casinos. Multiple versions flying through online casinos. Why? Quite simply: baccarat is easy to learn. You don’t have to make complicated decisions once your bets are placed. Each hand is dealt automatically following the game’s strict set of drawing rules. Best of all, baccarat offers players one of the LOWEST house edges in all of casino gaming.

Which brings us to online casinos. Speed Baccarat. Lightning Baccarat. Live Dealer games. Anything and everything that allows players to make bets quicker are seeing grows moves toward the online gambling market. With some variants doing entire rounds in under 30 seconds.

Table-based or online, baccarat card values don’t change. You can forget the values above at your own risk. They’ll be used in every game you ever play.

The Bottom Line

Don’t worry about memorizing card values. Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to remember:

Aces equal 1 point.
Cards 2–9 equal their face value.
All 10-value cards equal 0 points.
Hand totals can only go 0 through 9.
If a hand total exceeds 9 drop the first digit.
The hand closest to 9 wins.

That’s literally all there is to baccarat card values.

Learn these rules. Practice using them on actual hands. Before you know it, deciding between a Player or Banker bet will become second nature. All the rest just falls into place naturally… and quite quickly too.

Trust us: baccarat is THAT simple.