Despite being one of the most popular games of its time, Faro is now almost entirely forgotten, especially by the typical casino player.
The accepted backstory of the game is that it came from France, around the 17th century, where it was known as Pharaon since this is the French word for Pharaoh, and cards often had a picture of a Pharaoh printed on the back. So you can see how the name ended up being Faro to those farther West.
It had its heyday in the Wild West, where it was frequently played in saloons and no doubt caused a fair few fist fights too, but by the 1950s it had been more or less retired.
That said, it was popular in casinos for a time, with the odd casino in Reno even offering the game up until the 80s, but it would be a miracle to find it these days.
It was a particular favourite of the legendary high stakes gambler Nick ‘the Greek’ Dandolos, and he quite famously lost an awful lot of someone else’s money playing it in the 1930s.
Other famous names from history to have enjoyed the game are Casanova, who mentioned it often in his writing, and Wyatt Earp and ‘Doc’ Holliday, who both worked as Faro dealers when they first arrived in Tombstone. Faro, in Yukon, Canada, is even named after the game.
Faro hasn’t been completely consigned to the history books though, with those who enjoy niche games seeking out others who want to play and hosting their own games, and the odd free version available online if you look hard enough.
If you fancy it yourself, then here is how to play.
Layout
In Faro, the way the game is set out is known as the tableau.
The game can either be played with an extra suit of cards to create the tableau, or with the layout printed onto a cloth or felt that is then laid over a table.
The cards are laid out snaking around from left to right, going high to low. Kings are high and Aces are low in Faro, so as you can see in the image, the pattern starts with the King on the top left row, working its way along to number 8, with number 7 standing alone between the two rows, then number 6 dropping below the 8 before the lower cards work their way backwards.
The dealer sits opposite the players, across the table, with a shuffled single deck of cards face down to begin with.
One other piece of equipment on the table is the ‘case keep’.
This is a bit like an abacus, with each of the 13 possible cards displayed with four beads each, representing the four cards displaying that value in the deck.
As a card is drawn, a bead is moved across to show players who are paying attention how many of a certain value card are still in the pack; so if the number 5 had come up twice in the game so far then the case keep would show two beads next to the number 5.
Interestingly, even if all four cards of a certain value have been drawn, a player can still bet on it.
This would be incredibly foolish and probably only happened when people weren’t paying attention, but however it might end up happening, the first person to spot it, be they player or dealer, simply needs to call “dead bet”, and they can claim the stake for themselves.
Technically any number of players can play a game of Faro, but this would realistically be limited by the space available.
Dealing the Cards
The dealer in Faro is also the banker, but they never actually play the game themselves. This reduces claims of cheating.
In later years, cards would be dealt from a spring loaded shoe, so that each time a card is drawn another is made ready, but no one can see which cards are underneath the top card. Back in the days of the cowboys, however, it would probably have been a little more free and easy.
There are four different ‘types’ of cards in this game:
- Soda – First card drawn in whole game
- Loser – First card drawn each turn
- Winner – Second card drawn each turn
- Hock – Last card drawn in whole game
The key thing to note here is the difference between a game and a turn.
Because there are 52 cards in a deck, after accounting for the soda and the hock, that leaves the possibility of 25 turns per game since each turn requires 2 cards.
To begin the game, the shuffled deck is turned face up so a single card is showing.
The soda is simply the first card drawn in the game and it is immediately discarded.
Now, bets are placed and the first turn begins, with a losing card being drawn followed by a winning card.
Bets on the losing card are lost, bets on the winning card are paid out, and bets on any other cards are left in play.
Before each new turn there is a new round of betting where more bets can be added or old bets changed, so those bets left in play can be removed, left to run, or changed to another card or bet type.
This makes Faro a very fast paced game since everyone bets at the same time and only two cards are drawn per turn, so each turn is over and done with very quickly.
However, since the game is played with a single deck, the game as a whole has a through line, because players can adapt their betting from turn to turn depending on which cards have been drawn already and which are left in the pack.
Therefore, a clever player can use their nous to improve their betting strategy pretty effectively, more so as the game goes on.
After turn 24, there will be 3 cards remaining in the deck.
The presents a unique betting opportunity that is only available at the end of each game, but we will cover that in the next section.
Once this final turn and therefore the whole game is over, the cards are reshuffled and a new game can begin.
Betting
Betting takes place before each turn.
Every player has their own chips (technically, these are called ‘checks’), provided by the house and given a set value usually between 50 cents and $10, but they are also given a single penny. The chips are used to bet for a number being drawn, but the penny can be used to bet against a card.
To bet on a number the player simply places a chip in favour of it by covering the card with their chip.
However, to bet against a number being drawn, the player must place their chips and then place their penny on top of those chips. This means they can only bet against a number once per turn.
In our example image above we used 20p coins instead of pennies, because we didn’t have any pennies, but it serves the same purpose.
Some versions of the game also allow players to cover multiple cards with a single chip, by placing it in the middle of the board with the corners of the four cards they want to bet on being equidistant. Equally, a player can bet on two cards by joining them with a chip, or bet on the three cards at the end (the 8, 7, and 6) by placing a chip in the middle of them. Similar to how you would bet on a roulette table.
Bets are paid out after each turn, so any bets on the losing card will be collected by the dealer, and any bets on the winning card will be paid out.
Any bets on numbers that did not come up are left in play, but players can decide to take them off the table or move them around in between turns.
One additional bet type is the high card bet. This is a bet that the winning card will be higher in value than the losing card, and players must place their chips next to the deck to make this bet.
As previously mentioned, at the end of the game there will be 3 cards remaining.
As well as betting on them as normal, players can also bet on the order in which these cards are drawn, with an increased payout too, which makes for an exciting end to each game before the cards are reshuffled and the next game begins.
The bet types and their payouts are as follows:
Bet Type | Payout |
---|---|
For | 1:1 |
Against | 1:1 |
High Card | 1:1 |
Last 3 Cards | 4:1 |
Bets placed on more than a single card are paid out at the same rate; so a single chip covering four different cards still pays out at 1:1 and therefore has four times the chance of winning, but equally, it has four times the chance of losing, which is why the payout is the same.
If the winner and loser cards are the same value (two 7s for example), the dealer takes half of the stakes on that card and leaves the rest to ride. The player does not win anything in this situation.
This is actually one of the few advantages of the house in Faro, which is a comparatively player friendly game, and may explain why it went out of fashion.
Other games were more profitable, so these took Faro’s place on the casino floors.