Punto Banco

← Back to Rules

Punto Banco is one of the oldest and most popular games in casinos all over the world. It is especially popular among high-rollers and Asian gamblers. Although the game seems serious and elegant, it is actually very simple.

Objective

The goal of the game for the player is to draw a two- or three-card hand with a value closer to 9 than the banker’s hand.

Cards

The game is played with a six-deck shoe with a standard deck of 52 cards. The decks are shuffled after each hand.

Cards in Punto Banco are valued in the following way:

• An Ace is counted as 1.
• The cards from 2 through 9 have their face values.
• 10, Jack, Queen, and King are counted as 0.

The value of a hand is simply the sum of point values of all cards in the hand. But only the last digit of the total is used, so all hands in Punto Banco have values in the 0 to 9 range, inclusive. The hand containing 9, A, A is valued as 1 (9 + 1 + 1 = 11, the last digit is 1). If the hand contains (9, 7), its total value is not 16, but 6.

Betting Tips

Betting Limits

• Min/Max sign indicates minimum and maximum amount that can be placed on each betting field.
• Move your pointer over the Min/Max sign to view the paytable when in the game.

Play

Play begins with placing a bet. Place your bet on the banker’s hand to win and/or on the player’s hand to win and/or on a tie result. Thus, bets can be placed on Banker, Player and Tie betting areas.

Click DEAL. You and the banker are both dealt two cards. If necessary, a third card is dealt to the player and banker or both (see Third Card Rule).

Third Card Rule

• If either Player’s hand or Banker’s hand totals 8-9, the hand is called "Natural". In this case, both the Player and the Banker must stand.
• If the Player has an initial total of 0-5, the Player draws a single card. If the Player has an initial total of 6 or 7, he stands.
• The Banker’s play depends on the Banker’s initial hand, on whether the Player has drawn a card, and on what card the Player has drawn:
  • If the Player hasn’t drawn a card, the Banker draws if he has 0-5, and stands if he has 6-7.
  • If the Player has drawn a 2 or 3, the Banker draws if he has 0-4, and stands if he has 5-7.
  • If the Player has drawn a 4 or 5, the Banker draws if he has 0-5, and stands if he has 6-7.
  • If the Player has drawn a 6 or 7, the Banker draws if he has 0-6, and stands if he has 7.
  • If the Player has drawn an 8, the Banker draws if he has 0-2, and stands if he has 3-7.
  • If the Player drew an ace, 9, 10, or face-card, the Banker draws if he has 0-3, and stands if he has 4-7.

Payouts

If you bet on the player and the player wins, your bet pays 1 to 1.

If you bet on the banker and the banker wins, your bet pays 1 to 1 minus 5% bank commission.

If both the player’s hand and the banker’s hand have equal totals, the game result is a ‘tie’. If you have placed a bet on the tie result, your bet pays 8 to 1. Non-tie bets are returned to you if a tie occurs.

RTP (Return to Player) for this game varies from 85.56% to 98.94% depending on the stake made.

Malfunction voids all plays and winnings!

← Back to Rules