How to Play Faro

Setup

Give each player betting chips and a penny. Any number of people can play Faro, but just use different color poker chips for each player so you can tell your bets apart. Hand everyone a penny as well that they can use to make alternative bets later on too.

Lay out all of the cards of 1 suit face-up on the table. Traditionally, you would put spades out on the table, but you can use any suit you want. Set the Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in one row and King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, and 8 in a row directly below the first. Set the 7 card on the end of the rows next to the 6 and 8. You’ll place your chips on the cards when you want to make a bet. If you’re playing at a casino, the card ranks will be printed on the table.

Shuffle a full deck of cards. Use a standard 52-card deck with all 4 suits and choose someone to be the dealer, also known as the banker. Mix the cards up really well and be careful not to let any of the other players see the order of the cards. If you want a more secure way to prevent people from peeking at the cards, load the deck into a dealing shoe. A shoe is a container you can draw the cards from while still keeping the deck hidden.

Discard the top card of the deck face-up in the middle of the table. The first card of the deck is called the “soda” and doesn’t count toward any bets in the game. Take the soda card off of the deck and set it to the side for everyone to see. Variation: Keep the soda card face-down and hidden from other players. That way, they won’t be able to count cards and their bets will be more of a gamble.

Gameplay

Place a betting chip on which card rank you think will be drawn second. Start with the player to the left of the dealer. Make a guess at which card you think the banker will draw from the deck during the round. When you make your decision, take one of the chips from your stack and place it on top of the card rank in the middle of the table. You only need to bet on the rank of the card. The suit doesn’t matter for your bet. Multiple players can bet on the same card rank.

Flip over the top 2 cards of the deck for the losing and winning rank. After all the bets have been placed, have the dealer reveal the top card of the deck to determine the losing rank. Then, they’ll flip the next card from the deck to determine the winning rank for the current round.

Win your bet if you chose the winning rank. If you placed a chip on the rank that won the round, you win at 1 to 1 odds, meaning you get an amount equal to the bet you made plus your original bet back. Take any chips you won back into your own personal stack. If you placed your bet on the losing rank, then you lose them to the banker. If the winning and losing cards are the same rank, then you win back half of your bet. If no one wins the bet, all of the bets stay on the table and you continue playing.

Set the winning and losing cards face-up in the middle of the table. Place the losing card next to the soda card you discarded at the start of the game. Place the winning card on top of the soda card, but keep its rank visible so all of the players can see what’s already been drawn. As the game goes on, you’ll see what cards have already been drawn, so you can make a better guess on which cards will come out of the deck next.

Change, remove, or add to your bets for the next round. After the first round, leave any bets that didn’t win or lose on the cards in the middle of the table. Go clockwise around the table choosing if you want to add another chip to a bet you already made, put a chip on a second card rank, move your chips to a different rank, or remove an old bet back to your personal stack of chips. You can place a bet on multiple ranks on the same turn. There’s no limit to how many chips you can have on a card rank.

Play rounds until the deck runs out. Keep taking turns betting and revealing 2 cards at a time to go through the deck. Players can choose to stop playing or come back in whenever they want as long as there are still cards left in the deck. Once you reveal the last cards, you can end the game or reshuffle all of the cards to start again.

Special Bets

Put your chip in between 2 or 4 cards to bet on multiple ranks. Instead of choosing only 1 card rank, set your chip in the spaces between the cards. If you place the chip in the middle of the 2 rows so it touches the corners of 4 cards, then you place your bet on all of them. If any of the cards are the winning rank, you still win at 1 to 1 odds, but you lose if any of the cards are the loser. If you placed bets on multiple cards and one is the winner and another is the loser, then it’s considered a “wash” and your chips stay on the ranks.

Place a penny on your betting chip to bet on the loser. Instead of choosing which card you think will win, set your penny on one of your bets if you think the rank will lose the round. If the losing card matches the rank you bet on, you win your bet at 1 to 1 odds. You can bet on the losing rank and the winning rank in the same turn.

Make a bet that the winning card is higher than the losing one. Rather than betting on the exact rank of the cards, you may have better odds of betting on the high card. Set your chip next to the dealer and say, "High Card." If the winning card has a higher rank than the losing card, you win at 1 to 1 odds. Faro boards at casinos will have an area marked “High Card” for you to place your bets.

Call a “dead bet” if someone else bets on a rank that’s been drawn 4 times. If 4 copies of the card have already been revealed, then there aren’t any more in the deck. Keep your eye on the cards that have already been drawn and what players have bet on. Anyone that notices a bet on a rank that can’t be drawn anymore can say “dead bet,” and immediately earn the value of the bet. Keep an eye on your own chips as well so you don’t lose any of your bets.

Bet on the order of the final 3 cards for increased odds and payout. At the end of the game, there will be 3 cards left in the deck. Rather than betting on the winner and loser, look at the cards that have already been revealed and guess which card will come out first, second, and third. If you guess the order exactly, then you win your bet at 5 to 1 odds. For example, if you bet 1 chip on the order and got it right, you would win 5 chips and your original bet back.