With "How many baccarat hands in a shoe?", the key is the order in which cards come out. Baccarat looks formal and plays simply: two hands, called player and banker, are dealt, and the bettor backs one of them or a tie. Nobody at the table makes a decision about drawing, because a fixed rule decides whether each hand takes a third card. Knowing the point values and that rule makes every round easy to follow, from the first card to the result.
When the player stands, the banker follows the same rule as the player: draw on five or less, stand on six or seven. When the player has drawn, the banker's decision depends on its own total and on the value of the player's third card. A banker total of two or less always draws, seven always stands, and totals from three to six draw only against certain third cards. A printed table sets out each case.
Cards from two to nine count at face value, aces count one, and tens and picture cards count nothing. A hand's total is the last digit of the sum, so a seven and an eight make five. The highest possible total is nine. Two cards totalling eight or nine are a natural, and a natural on either side ends the round at once with no further cards drawn. The hand closer to nine wins the round.
Baccarat tables display scoreboards, often called roads, that record the result of every recent round in grids of coloured marks. Many players read patterns into them and bet on streaks continuing or breaking. Each round is dealt from a shoe that does not remember the last one, so the boards describe the past and predict nothing. They are useful for following a table, and harmless as long as no betting plan is built on them.
Pair bets and other extras sit beside the main boxes, each paying at the rate printed on the layout for that particular wager.
The banker hand wins slightly more often than the player hand, so a winning banker bet pays even money minus a small commission.
A two card total of eight or nine on either side is a natural, and it ends the round immediately with no more cards drawn.
Each box on the layout carries its own minimum, and the table limits show the smallest accepted stake for player, banker, tie and pair bets.
If the player stood, banker draws on five or less; otherwise banker always draws on two or less, stands on seven, and between three and six follows a printed table.
No: the roads only record past rounds in coloured marks, and since the shoe has no memory of earlier hands they forecast nothing.