baccarat [key], French card game formerly widely played in European casinos but now supplanted in popularity by chemin de fer. The banker plays against the hands he deals to two other players called punters. The winning hand is the one whose point total has the number closest to 9 as its last digit, face cards and tens counting nothing. Two cards are dealt to a hand with the privilege of a one-card draw. The term baccarat is supposed to mean “nothing” and is applied to hands whose point total ends with a cipher.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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