Blackjack, Roulette and Baccarat: A Beginner’s Guide

Three Games, Three Different Rhythms

Blackjack, roulette and baccarat are the three table games you’ll see most often at Rexbet, in both RNG and live dealer form. Each has its own rules and pace, and none requires prior experience to sit down and play. This covers the basics of all three, plus the bet types worth knowing before you start.

Blackjack: Beat the Dealer’s Hand

The goal in blackjack is simple: get your hand’s total closer to 21 than the dealer’s without going over. Number cards count as their face value, face cards count as 10, and an ace counts as 1 or 11, whichever helps your hand more. You’re dealt two cards and choose to hit (take another card), stand (keep your total as is), double down (double your bet for exactly one more card), or, where the table allows it, split a pair into two separate hands. The dealer then plays their own hand under a fixed rule, typically hitting until they reach at least 17. If your total beats the dealer’s without busting past 21, you win; a tie usually pushes your bet back to you.

Blackjack Side Bets

Some tables offer optional side bets like Perfect Pairs, which pays if your first two cards form a pair, or 21+3, which pays based on your first two cards plus the dealer’s up-card forming a poker-style hand. These settle independently of the main hand and carry their own separate odds.

Roulette: Betting on Where the Ball Lands

Roulette is a bet on which numbered pocket a spinning ball lands in. You can bet directly on a single number (a straight bet) for the largest payout, or spread your bet across groups of numbers, a split, a street, a corner, for a smaller payout with better odds. Outside bets cover broader categories: red or black, odd or even, or a range of numbers, each paying close to even money.

Why the Wheel Type Matters

A European wheel has 37 pockets: numbers 1 through 36 plus a single zero. An American wheel adds a second, double-zero pocket, bringing the total to 38, one extra losing pocket spread across the same set of bets. Where you have a choice, a European or French wheel is the better bet mathematically on even-money wagers, purely because of that difference. See our Table Games page for how Rexbet lists wheel types across its roulette tables.

Baccarat: The Simplest Decision Tree

Baccarat deals two hands, called Player and Banker, each starting with two cards. Card values work differently than in blackjack: aces count as 1, number cards count at face value, and 10s and face cards count as zero. Only the last digit of the hand’s total counts, so an 8 and a 7 (totaling 15) counts as 5. You bet on which hand, Player or Banker, will have a total closer to 9, or on a tie between them, before any cards are dealt. Fixed drawing rules then decide automatically whether either hand draws a third card; there’s no decision to make once your bet is placed.

Live or RNG

All three games are available both as RNG versions, where you set the pace, and as live dealer tables streamed from a studio. See our Live Casino page for how a live round runs, betting windows included, and Table Games for the full RNG lineup and wheel types.

Starting Small

If you’re new to any of the three, demo mode on the RNG versions is a low-pressure way to learn the bet types and pace before playing for real or joining a live table. Demo Play vs Real Money Casino Games covers what that looks like in practice.