Chemin de Fer
Chemin de Fer
When baccarat was first introduced to France, the rules were somewhat different than they are today. While you’d probably immediately recognize the game as being similar to baccarat, the original version – called Chemin de Fer, which means “railroad” in French – uses a very different betting system and allows players to have some control over how their hands are played.
How to Play Chemin de Fer?
Typically, Chemin de Fer is played with a six deck shoe (modern baccarat is usually played with eight decks, though six decks is also common). At the beginning of the game, one player will be designated as the banker, while the other players become “punters” (or players).
The banker determines how much money they’re willing to risk on each round. Then, in order, each player gets a chance to decide if they’d like to “go bank” by wagering the entire amount of the banker’s stake. If no player goes bank, then each player gets a chance (in order) to wager as much as they’d like, up to the total of the banker’s stake. If the players wish to bet a combined amount that’s more than the banker’s stake, then the banker has the option of allowing this or not.
Once betting is complete, the banker deals out a hand for himself, as well as one for the players. The player who made the biggest wager gets to play the hand on behalf of all punters. In this form of baccarat, the cards are dealt face down; the player and banker each look at their cards separately. If either player has an eight or nine, both hands are immediately revealed and compared, as in modern baccarat. If this doesn’t occur, the player has the choice of accepting a third card or standing.
One unique feature of Chemin de Fer is that players can choose whether to take a card or stand on their own, rather than following set rules. However, there are some traditional rules that are followed here; players are expected to always take a card with 0-4, and stand with 6-7. Only with a hand of 5 are players truly free to make their own decisions. If the player takes a third card, that card is dealt face up. After the player makes their decision, the banker can then choose to take a card or stand.
At this point, both hands are revealed. Hands are scored just as in modern baccarat, with aces counting as one, cards between 2-9 counting as their face value, and tens and face cards are worth 0. Only the final digit of a score matters, so hands of 3, 13, or 23 are all worth 3 points. The best hand is a 9, and the worst is a 0.
If the player hand wins, each player wins even money from the banker, and the next player in order becomes the banker. If the banker wins, his winnings go into the bank, and the banker keeps his role (in the case of a tie, a new hand is dealt with the same bets remaining live).
After any hand he wins, the banker may choose to quit and allow a new player to take over as banker. The first player willing to put up a bank of the same size as the last banker’s stake gets to take over the banker role. If no player is willing to put up that amount of money, the next player in order becomes the banker, and can choose to stake as much money as they like.
Play Baccarat Online
Chemin De Fer is a variation of Baccarat that is actually kind of dead. That’s surprising and sad in the same time, because ‘ ‘Chemmy’’ used to be the first Baccarat type of all. Now, the most popular variation of the game is American Baccarat, also known as Punto Banco and this one is available at all casinos – online and offline.s.
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