Baccarat played by Bond and Trench.
Baccarat (/bɑːkəˈrɑː/; French: [bakaʁa]) is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup (round of play) has three possible outcomes: "player" (player has the higher score), "banker", and "tie". There are three popular variants of the game: punto banco, baccarat chemin de fer, and baccarat banque (or à deux tableaux). In punto banco, each player's moves are forced by the cards the player is dealt. In baccarat chemin de fer and baccarat banque, by contrast, both players can make choices. The winning odds are in favour of the bank, with a house edge of at least 1 percent.
James Bond is a keen player of baccarat and it features as a plot device in a number of films and books.
Books[]
Fleming Books[]
Casino Royale[]
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Bond shown playing baccarat on a book cover.
The Casino Royale was noted for its baccarat tables. Royale's renaissance came after the Second World War. Encouraged by the post-war revival of Brighton and Nice, in 1950 Royale-les-Eaux was identified as a potential source of revenue by a Paris syndicate which invested funds on behalf of exiled Vichyites. The Casino, the public gardens and the two main hotels were refurbished and Paris jewellers and couturiers were given rent-free sites on which to establish branches.[1] For the year in which the events of Casino Royale take place, the Société des Bains de Mer de Royale has succeeded in securing bookings from "a considerable number of the biggest operators in America and Europe", and leased some of the baccarat tables to a group of Egyptians, the Mahomet Ali Syndicate.[2] Le Chiffre, a KGB agent must pay off his debts to his masters by winning the money at Casino Royale's baccarat table. After Bond takes all of Le Chiffre's money in a high-stakes game of baccarat, Vesper is kidnapped by Le Chiffre's thugs, who also capture Bond when he tries to rescue her. Both are rescued after Le Chiffre is assassinated by a SMERSH agent, but only after Bond has been tortured.
Thunderball[]
Bond and Felix Leiter go to the casino to scope out the men in Largo's party. Largo is at the baccarat table with Domino watching over his shoulder. Bond goes up to the table and takes the seat next to Largo. He challenges Largo by matching his bet. Bond's two cards are a nine and a ten, for a total of nine, the best possible hand. Largo loses by one. Then, Largo bets against Bond. Bond wins again, six against five. Then, Largo takes the bank again, and again Bond bets against him. It seems almost personal. Bond casually uses the word "specter" to see how Largo reacts and Largo's face changes instantly and his manner hardens at the quip, giving Bond and Leiter another clue. After Bond left the casino, Leiter recognized one of Largo's companions as Kotze, a physicist from East Germany.
Post-Fleming Works[]
The Facts of Death[]
Bond goes to a Greek casino that is about two hours away from Athens and battles Konstantine Romanosin a game of baccarat. He defeats Romanos and catches the attention of a pretty Greek woman named Hera Volopoulos, who is also a card carrying member of the Decada.
Novelisations[]
GoldenEye[]
In the summer of 1995, Bond was in Monte Carlo for his five-year evaluation, proctored by a specialist named Caroline. During a drive on the Grand Corniche, Bond entered a street race with a woman in a yellow Ferrari 355. Caroline demanded that he stop, and after saying goodbye to her at the Nice airport, went into one of the many Casinos and found the girl from the Ferrari at the Baccarat table. After winning the hand, he found that she was a Georgian named Xenia Onatopp
Comic Books[]
Serpent’s Tooth[]
Bond is informed by Cruzado that 009 was investigating a corporation called Paradiso Industries, which he suspected it was a front for a biomedical research specializing in genetics, headed by a North American mogul named Indigo. Posing as a Scottish biogeneticist, Derek Pentecost, Bond confronts Indigo at a casino off the shores of Lima he runs and beats him at a game of baccarat, only to capture the mogul's interest who insists to get to know the man who cleaned him out better. Bond, as the supposedly Dr. Pentecost, convinces Indigo to hire him, unveiling he is 'stationed in the same field work', which the latter accepts and arranges a meeting for him the next day.
Casino Royale[]
Features the common baccarat elements from the Fleming novel.
Bond Films[]
Official[]
Dr. No[]
At the classy Le Cercle casino in London, James Bond plays Baccarat with a crowd of people. Sylvia Trench sits across the table. It should be noted that Trench can be credited with giving the cinematic Bond his most iconic catchphrase; at the Chemin table, when Bond asks her name, she replies: "Trench, Sylvia Trench" and when she asks Bond his, he replies in the now-familiar style, mimicking (perhaps playfully mocking) Trench's own cadence. The two flirt, but Bond receives a note and excuses himself from the game. Sylvia follows him, and he invites her to lunch the next day.
Thunderball[]
In Nassau, Bahamas, in an exclusive casino, Largo meets James Bond for the first time and engages in a first playful duel with him in the form of baccarat.
GoldenEye[]
Bond plays against Xenia Onatopp. He loses the first time, but wins the second. Onatopp is a formidable player of the game and scares off many of the other players.
The World Is Not Enough[]
Zukovsky's Le Casino L'Or Noir has baccarat tables.
Unofficial[]
Casino Royale (1954)[]
Clarence Leiter and James Bond discussing baccarat.
- Clarence Leiter: "His weak spot is gambling. You're going to play baccarat with him and your job is to clean him out."
- James Bond: "(Handling cards) For what reason?"
- Clarence Leiter: "To destroy him. He's been gambling with Soviet funds and he's lost eighty million francs. Now he's going to try and get it back by gambling high. He's bought the bank for tomorrow night with the last funds of the treasury of his party. He has twenty six million with which to win back the eighty he needs."
- ―Leiter describes the plan to deal with Le Chiffre
Clarence Leiter, remembers "Card Sense Jimmy Bond" from when he played the Maharajah of Deauville. While James Bond explains the rules of baccarat, Leiter explains Bond's mission: to defeat Le Chiffre at baccarat. Le Chiffre must escape bankruptcy and avoid upsetting his KGB bosses in a baccarat game against Bond. Valerie Mathis bails him out at one point, Bond wins and Le Chiffre tortures Bond to try and retrieve the money.
Casino Royale (1967)[]
Baccarat plays a central part in the plot, with Evelyn Tremble being an expert on the game. He is recruited to beat Smersh agent Le Chiffre. Having embezzled Smersh's money, Le Chiffre is desperate for money to cover up his theft before he is executed. Tremble arrives at the Casino Royale accompanied by Vesper Lynd, who foils an attempt to disable him by seductive Smersh agent Giovanna Goodthighs. Later that night, Tremble observes Le Chiffre playing at the casino and realises that he is using infrared sunglasses to cheat. Lynd steals the sunglasses, allowing Evelyn to eventually beat Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat. Lynd is apparently abducted outside the casino, and Tremble is also kidnapped while pursuing her. Le Chiffre, desperate for the winning cheque, hallucinogenically tortures Tremble, before being kiled by Smersh agents.
Video games[]
James Bond 007 (1998 game)[]
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The baccarat room.
Features baccarat in the Marrakech Casino which are favoured by Mr. Fez.
The rules of the Chemin-de-Fer variant[]
American Roulette (left) and Baccarat (right) in Zukovsky's casino.
Chemin de fer is a version which first appeared in the late 19th century. Its name, which is the French term for railway, comes from the version being quicker than the original game, the railway being at that time the fastest means of transport. It is still the most popular version in France.
Six decks of cards are used, shuffled together. Players are seated in random order, typically around an oval table; discarded cards go to the center. Play begins to the right of the croupier and continues counterclockwise.
Once play begins, one player is designated as the banker; this player also deals. The other players are "punters". The position of banker passes counterclockwise in the course of the game. In each round, the banker wagers the amount he wants to risk. The other players, in order, then declare whether they will "go bank", playing against the entire current bank with a matching wager. Only one player may "go bank". If no one "goes bank", players make their wagers in order. If the total wagers from the players are less than the bank, observing bystanders may also wager up to the amount of the bank. If the total wagers from the players are greater than the bank, the banker may choose to increase the bank to match; if he does not, the excess wagers are removed in reverse play order.
The banker deals four cards face down: two to himself and two held in common by the remaining players. The player with the highest individual wager (or first in play order if tied for highest wager) is selected to represent the group of non-banker players. The banker and player both look at their cards; if either has an eight or a nine, this is immediately announced and the hands are turned face-up and compared. If neither hand is an eight or nine, the player has a choice to accept or refuse a third card; if accepted, it is dealt face-up. Traditional practice – grounded in mathematics, similar to basic strategy in blackjack, but further enforced via social sanctions by the other individuals whose money is at stake – dictates that one always accept a card if one's hand totals between 0 and 4, inclusive, and always refuse a card if one's hand totals 6 or 7. After the player makes his decision, the banker, in turn, decides either to accept or to refuse another card. Once both the banker and the representative player have made their decision, the hands are turned face-up and compared.
If the player's hand exceeds the banker's hand when they are compared, each wagering player receives back their wager and a matching amount from the bank, and the position of banker passes to the next player in order. If the banker's hand exceeds the player's hand, all wagers are forfeit and placed into the bank, and the banker position does not change. If there is a tie, wagers remain as they are for the next hand.
If the banker wishes to withdraw, the new banker is the first player in order willing to stake an amount equal to the current bank total. If no one is willing to stake this amount, the new banker is instead the next player in order, and the bank resets to whatever that player wishes to stake. Many games have a set minimum bank or wager amount.