Poker, even though it has been around for what seems like forever, has taken the pop culture world of gambling by storm with is own list of celebrities, groupies and the like. Trends always come and go so my prediction is that the game of Baccarat may be soon dealing its own version of gaming celebrities.

As you probably already know the famous 007’s game of choice is baccarat. “Casino Royale” the newest of the James Bond movies was adapted from Ian Flemmings novel with the same title. In Flemming’s version, the British Bond out bets the Russian Le Chiffer – (Le Chiffer’s name being a play on the game Baccarat Chemin de Fer). However, if you’ve gotten a chance to see the movie, you’ve noticed that this version passes on that idea and opts for a showdown between the 2 at a game of poker.

This change is enough to take notice of pokers popularity but, back in reality, Macau, the new casino hot spot, Baccarat seems to be the game of choice. The Sands Macao casino claims that it has the most gambling tables of any other casino in the world, and most of them are baccarat. Also the newer Wynn Macau Casino has 200 gambling tables and again, baccarat is the dominant table on the floor.

Across the ocean in North America on the Las Vegas strip some of the most important players are Asian and most of them high rollers betting up to millions of dollars inside the VIP salons on baccarat.

If you want to take an early jump on my predicted new gambling trend you might want to start brushing up on your game. Here’s a list of online casinos that can clean up your skills or get you started:

- Bettor’s Luck
- Online baccarat
- Golden Tiger
- Bodog
- Latest casino bonuses

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.