- Faro can be played by any amount of people. Betting chips will be required. Faro is played with one pack of 52 cards, plus a complete suit of 13 cards from an extra deck. The extra 13 cards are placed on the table and are used for players to indicate which card or cards they are betting on. The casino banker, as insurance against cheating, typically uses a ‘faro-box,’ or dealing box.
- The dealer/banker sets the betting limit and the stakes on offer. Players place bets on a selected card or cards by putting their chips onto the relevant cards on the table -- for example, a player might put half of his chips on the Jack and the other half on the three, but any combination is acceptable. The dealer then cuts and shuffles the playing pack, which are placed face-up in a stack in the faro-box. The top card is discarded. This is referred to as the "soda" card.
- The next card on top of the playing pack is placed in front of the dealer. This is the "loser" card. If, for example, the loser card is the three of clubs, any chips that were wagered on three go to the banker at this stage. The card that is now on top of the playing pack is the "winner" card. If any player bet on the winner card, they win their bet, at the stakes agreed by the banker. The dealing of a winner and loser card is called a "turn" and there are 25 turns in each game. Any bets placed on cards that neither won nor lost stay on the table. However, players can reassign some or all of their chips to different cards before the next turn, if they wish.
- It is possible that the loser card and winner card in any one turn might be the same, for example, the six of diamonds might turn up as the loser, followed by the six of hearts as the winner. In this instance, the dealer calls a "split" and takes half of the chips that were staked on the six card. This was the casino's only guaranteed way of making money on a game of Faro, if it was honestly run.
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