How to Play Faro
Description
The game that fuelled the American frontier — players bet on which rank will win and which will lose with each turn of the dealer's cards. The most player-friendly odds of any banking game of its era.
Also known as: Pharaoh
Objective
Bet on which card will win the next draw, competing against the banker.
Setup
Any number of players, plus one banker. One suit's thirteen cards are laid out face up on the table, in numerical order, as the betting layout.
Players buy in for chips.
Rules
Everyone places chips on whichever rank they want to bet on from the layout.
The banker draws two cards at a time from a shuffled deck — the first card drawn loses (bets on that rank pay the banker), the second card drawn wins (bets on that rank get paid out).
Bets can be moved between draws, split across multiple ranks, or left in place to build toward a bigger win.
Winning
Winning bets are typically paid even money.
Play continues, draw after draw, until the deck runs low — the final few cards can carry special bets on the exact order they'll come out.