No Commission Baccarat removes the 5% fee on Banker wins, which sounds like a gift until you read the small print on the table: when Banker wins with a total of 6, a Banker bet pays only half. That one exception is the entire difference from classic Baccarat, and it costs a little more than the commission it replaces. This version also adds two pair side bets. The cards, the eight-deck shoe and the drawing rules are the same Punto Banco you would find anywhere.
How to play
Chips and spots. Chips come in 10, 50, 100 and 500. The table has five betting spots in a row: Player Pair, Player, Tie, Banker, Banker Pair. Each one takes up to 1,000 credits, in steps of 10 (small enough steps that the half payout on a Banker 6 is always a whole number). Tap a spot to add the selected chip. Clear, Rebet and Deal work as you would expect.
How a hand is scored. Picture-cards and tens are worth nothing, aces one, everything else its pip value. Add them up and drop the tens digit: a 6 and a 9 make 5. The higher total wins, with 9 the best possible.
Drawing. Two cards each, dealt Player first. A total of 8 or 9 on either side is a natural and the round ends there. Otherwise, Player hits on 0 to 5 and stands on 6 or 7. Banker’s decision depends on its own total and on the Player’s third card; the full chart is on the Baccarat page, and the game always applies it automatically. You never choose whether to draw.
When Banker wins with 6, the result line says so (“Banker wins with 6… Banker bets pay half”) so you can see why the payout was smaller.
Payouts
| Bet | Pays | House edge |
|---|---|---|
| Player | 1 to 1 | 1.24% |
| Banker | 1 to 1, but 1 to 2 when Banker wins with 6 | 1.46% |
| Tie | 8 to 1 | 14.36% |
| Player Pair | 11 to 1 | 10.36% |
| Banker Pair | 11 to 1 | 10.36% |
Player and Banker bets are returned when the hand ties. The pair bets are independent of who wins: Player Pair pays if the Player’s first two cards share a rank (two sevens, two queens), and Banker Pair works the same way for the Banker’s first two cards. Suits do not matter. Every edge above is calculated exactly for eight decks in the game’s own tests.
Commission or no commission?
Here is where the numbers matter. Banker wins about 45.86% of hands. In the classic game every one of those wins pays 0.95, which leaves the house 1.06%. In this game most Banker wins pay a full 1 to 1, but about 5.39% of all hands are Banker wins on 6, and on those you collect half. Put together, the Banker bet here carries a 1.46% edge, roughly 0.4 points worse than paying commission.
So which feels better? Paying no fee on most wins is tidier, and the payouts are round numbers. Over a long session, though, the commission table costs you less on Banker. Interestingly, Banker and Player have swapped places: at this table, Player (1.24%) is the cheapest bet, slightly ahead of Banker.
Strategy
Favour Player. It pays even money with no exceptions and has the lowest edge in the game.
Banker is fine, just slightly worse. If you like backing Banker, the gap to Player is small, about 0.2 of a point.
Treat the pairs as a lottery ticket. At 11 to 1 they hit about one hand in thirteen, and over time they give back around ten credits of every hundred bet. A small pair bet beside a main bet is entertainment; a big one drains your credits fast.
Skip Tie. At 14.36% it is the most expensive bet on the layout.
Don’t chase the road. The bead strip of recent P, B and T results above the cards shows history, not a trend. The next hand comes from a shuffled shoe, which is refreshed when fewer than 16 cards remain.
If you enjoy No Commission Baccarat, try No-Zero Roulette or Ochko next.
