Baccarat was a James Bond favorite because it’s long been considered the most recognizable high-roller game in Europe. Casino Royale was the first book in the series penned by Ian Fleming, and it was written in the early 1950s. Baccarat was the game of choice for the time.

The Bond image has always been about being the best at the hippest game. In Casino Royale, Bond was out to beat the movie villain’s baccarat game. Fleming claims he got the idea from a night at the casino in Portugal when he was cleaned out by a German agent playing Chemin de Fer. That game is a form of baccarat, although different from the version we know in today’s casinos.

Now that poker is all the rage, Bond is not only an expert baccarat player but also an ace poker player. The new version of Casino Royale had Bond playing poker instead of baccarat.