How to Play Faro: A Classic Casino Game Explained

It’s no secret that gambling has been going on for centuries and it has always been seen as a great way to interact and socialise with other people. 

Hugely popular games such as roulette, baccarat, craps and blackjack have stood the test of time and are now firmly embedded as all-time casino favourites but one game that has faded into casino obscurity has been Faro. However, Faro is a legendary game to play.

Particularly popular in America, Faro was the game of choice during the boom of the American Wild West and was often played for high stakes. 

When the first casinos were created, Faro was one of the games that could be played but it’s largely believed to have faded into obscurity during the 1950s.

Despite it being mostly consigned to history, Faro still has many fans and it’s still a hugely enjoyable game to play. If this is the first time that you have come across it, here is how you play. 

How to play Faro

Setup 

The reason why Faro was so popular is its simplicity. Involving just one standard deck of cards, alongside the deck will be an additional thirteen cards which will be spade cards. 

These thirteen cards will start with the king spades and these cards will be dealt face up in two lines of six – king of spades – 8 of spades and then the Ace of spades – to the 6 of spades. The 7 of spades will sit to the right and straddle both lines. 

The standard deck of cards will remain face down, with chips and a penny given to all participants. 

How to Play 

With the game board now revealed, let’s discuss how you play. 

Each hand in the game is based on the dealer turning over two cards. The first card that is turned is a burn card and has no bearing on the hand, the second card determines what is a winning hand or what is a losing hand. 

Prior to the cards being revealed, players place a card on the turned up spade cards. 

The idea is to place a chip on the card that you think will be successfully turned up. If for example we place our chips on the seven of spades and that is the card that is drawn, our hand is a winner. If the card drawn is a five, our bet will be a losing one. However, the only way we will lose our chips is if the card we back to be turned over is turned over as the first card of the two that the dealer shows. If we bet on a 7 and the first card is a 7 our chips will be taken away. If the first card is a king and the second card is an 8, our chip will remain on the table. 

At the end of the deck there will be three cards left, players can bet on the order in which these cards will be drawn. If successful four times the stake will be won.

Aside from the end of the game, all bets are paid on a 1:1 basis, if a player bet $10 on the result and hit, they will be paid their stake back in full. If the losing card and winning card are the same value, then any winning hands will be paid at half the staked amount. 

Other strategies 

Rather than bet on the outcome of the card, players can also bet on whether the winning card that the dealer draws is higher than the losing card. For example if the first card which the dealer shows is a 6 and someone has bet that the second card they show is higher and the card is revealed to be a 9, that bet would be a winner. 

You can also bet on the result of that first losing card. Players do this by placing a chip and a penny on the outcome of the card that they think will be drawn first. 

As the deck dwindles down, all cards will be kept on the table, so that the players playing know what has been drawn and what is still in the deck.