Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Baccarat Betting

In A Hard Day's Night, Paul's
grandfather John, played by Wilfred Brambell, uses an invite sent to Ringo to visit a posh new casino. He spends most of his time at the Baccarat table, where despite his unfamiliarity with the game (a joke involves him yelling "Bingo" and the croupier correcting him with the term "Banco"), he wins a tidy sum, which is then seized by the casino to pay off his exorbitant bar bill.

James Bond 007

Baccarat chemin-de-fer is the favoured
game of Ian Fleming's secret agent creation, James Bond. He can be seen playing the game in numerous novels – most notably 007's 1953 debut, Casino Royale, in which the entire plot revolves around a game between Bond and SMERSH operative Le Chiffre (the unabridged version of the novel includes a primer to the game for readers who are unfamiliar with it). It is also featured in several filmed versions of the novels, including Dr. No, where Bond is first introduced playing the game; Thunderball; the 1967 version of Casino Royale (which is the most detailed treatment of a baccarat game in any Bond film); On Her Majesty's Secret Service; For Your Eyes Only; and GoldenEye.

In the 2006 new movie adaptation of Casino Royale, however, Baccarat is replaced by Texas hold 'em poker largely due to its great popularity in America at the time of filming.

The Saint

In the 1968 episode 'The Ex-King of Diamonds', Boris Willoughby Goddard attempts to win
enough money to purchase missiles to mount a coup by gambling at Baccarat using cards marked with an infra-red dye that he can identify with a coloured monocle.

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