Faro
Faro is a gambling game which was hugely popular in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, especially in the Old West. Faro’s popularity was because not only is it easy to learn, it has a very low house edge compared to other games like Blackjack. Unfortunately, that low rate of return for the house led many unscrupulous dealers to cheat. Crooked dealing boxes and stacked decks were common in the days of Faro.
Faro is closely related to Basset, a game played in France up to 1691, when it was banned. Faro arose as a legal alternative, until it, too, was banned, although it spread to England and from there to the United States, where it continued to remain legal. It remained popular in the United States until around World War I. Though it began a period of steady decline after the war, Faro continued to be dealt in some Nevada casinos until 1985.
Object of Faro
The object of Faro is to win money by successfully predicting which cards will be dealt as “winning” cards.
Setup
Faro requires one standard 52-card deck of playing cards. While plastic playing cards weren’t invented until long after Faro lapsed into obscurity, you can take advantage of modern technology and use Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards in your Faro game.
You will also need a dealing box, or shoe, as well as a Faro layout. A Faro layout consists of thirteen cards, one of each rank. Traditionally, the cards displayed are the thirteen spades, but there’s no reason any other suit couldn’t be used. In Faro’s heyday, the layout was often simply thirteen cards from another deck glued to a board. Fancier establishments used actual layouts printed or painted on felt. A abacus-like device called a casekeeper was used to keep track of which cards had already been dealt. A pencil and paper can easily substitute for it, however.
Finally, you need something for players to bet with, i.e. chips. Normally, Faro chips do not use a typical denominational color scheme. Instead, to ensure different players’ bets are not confused, the game is usually dealt with differently-colored chips for each player, as in Roulette. You’ll also need coppers, which are small lammers used to “copper a bet” (see below). Faro coppers were, in more formal games, small black hexagonal chips; in less formal ones, pennies were common. The dealer declares the maximum and minimum betting limits. They may change these at any time, depending on how much money they are willing to risk.
Shuffle the deck and allow one player to cut it. Place the deck in the shoe and discard one card, turning it face up. This card, called the soda card, has no bearing on game play.
Game play
Placing bets
Players place their bets on the layout. Players may place any number of bets on whatever cards they wish. In order to make betting easier and keep the layout less cluttered, bets may also be placed in such a way so they cover multiple cards. Possible bets are shown in the image to the right (click to expand):
- Red chip: A bet in this position bets only the card covered, in this case the 9.
- White chip: A bet in this position covers the two cards the chip is between. In this case, one chip covers the jack and 3, and other the 3 and 4.
- Green chip: A bet in this position (i.e. the outside corner of a card) covers the card it is touching and the second card in the direction of the chip; that is, it skips one card. In this case, the green chip is covering the queen and 10.
- Black chip: A bet in this position (i.e. the inside corner of a card) covers the card it is touching, the one above it, and the one next to it. In this case, the 10, 4, and 9 are covered.
- Purple chip: A bet in this position covers the four cards surrounding it. This purple chip covers the 5, 6, 8, and 9.
- Yellow chip: A bet in this position is betting that the winning card on the next turn will be even.
- Orange chip: A bet in this position is betting that the winning card on the next turn will be odd.
- Blue chip: A bet in this position is betting that the winning card on the next turn will be higher than losing card.
- Yellow-green chip: A bet in this position covers the card it is closest to and the card diagonal to it, in this case the 3 and the 10.
By default, all bets are bets that the card or cards wagered on will win. To bet that a card or cards will lose, the player places a copper on the bet.
The turn
Once players have had an adequate amount of time to bet, the dealer draws two cards from the shoe. This pair of cards is called a turn. The first card drawn is the banker’s card, and is placed to the right of the shoe. The second is the player’s card, which is placed to the left of the shoe. The banker’s card is considered a loss, and any money wagered on the card of the same rank on the layout is removed from the layout and placed in the bank. Likewise, the player’s card is considered to have won, and any money wagered on that rank of card is paid out from the bank at even money. (If any of the relevant bets have been coppered, they are, of course, paid out if the card lost and collected by the bank if the card won.)
Multiple-card bets win or lose if any of the covered cards win or lose. If one card involved in a multiple-card bet wins and another loses, the bet pushes. Any bets on cards other than the two dealt on the turn remain on the layout, neither winning nor losing.
If the two cards dealt are of the same rank, this is called a split. When a split is dealt, the banker collects half of the money wagered on that rank.
Once the bets have been settled, the two cards are then marked as having been played (and whether they won or lost) on the casekeeper. Players may then change their bets before the next turn.
Calling the turn
Play continues in this manner until all there are only three cards remaining (one last banker/player pair and an unmatched card, called the hoc card). These three cards will be known to the players, thanks to the casekeeper. Players then bet on the exact order the cards will be dealt, which is called calling the turn. If the order is successfully predicted, the wager is paid out at 4 to 1. When the last three cards include a pair and an unmatched card, it is called a cat-hop and winning bets are paid out at 2 to 1. If the last three cards are three of a kind, no bet on the last three cards takes place.
Bets calling the turn are placed on the edge of the losing card facing the winning card. The bet is heeled in such a way that it tilts toward the winning card. If there would be ambiguity because the third card (the one the player is calling as the hoc card) is between the desired winning and losing cards, the bet is heeled toward the outside edge of the layout to signify the bet goes “around” the hoc card.
After the last turn and hoc card are dealt, the deck is shuffled and returned to the shoe, the next soda card is dealt, and the game resumes.
Where can you find the lay out felt or mat for different games like Faro and Red Dog Poker
Hey Mark,
Back when Faro was popular, the layouts were usually painted onto the table by hand. There are a few modern reproductions made to resemble an Old West Faro layout, like one by River Junction Trade Co.
We’ve never used a layout for our Red Dog home games. If you’re wanting a casino-style Red Dog layout, you may try contacting casino-supply companies to see if they can hook you up.
If two cards are bet and one is the winner and the other is the loser how are they paid?
On a single multi-card bet.
Hey John,
In this case, the bet is a push (it is neither paid off nor collected).