Playtech Baccarat Review
A popular choice for players coming to online gaming from the delights of Asia’s land-based casinos is the classic table game of Baccarat. The favoured variant of this game is sometimes known as Punto Banco, and it is this style of Baccarat that is to be found if you find Playtech’s RNG version of this venerable casino card game.
The presentation of Playtech’s Baccarat is clean and rather attractive to our eyes, with an on-table ‘colour’ button even letting you toggle the virtual baize colour to a shade that suits your mood. Less attractive in our opinion is the (typically) tedious background muzak that’s supposed to add atmosphere to play – there are three options to choose from in the settings menu but ‘off’ is the only one we would approve!
Once you’ve set the tone to your preferences, you’ll find the recreation of real-world Baccarat gaming very agreeable indeed, with smooth animation and accurate perspective enhancing the experience. This is a Flash-only game though, so be aware that that will preclude you enjoying this on a lot of popular mobile devices – an HTML5 only version is long overdue we think.
Turning to the unique betting opportunities of this Playtech version, you’ll find the traditional Baccarat bets of Player, Banker and Tie are augmented with some interesting side bets to tickle your fancy. First you’ll find a quartet of side bet options inspired by the popular Perfect Pair side bet often found on modern Blackjack tables.
These cover discrete bets on the initial Player or Banker hands being a pair, or more specifically a ‘perfect pair’, which means a pair of the same suit. Secondly you’ll find the more Baccarat specific Big and Small bets. These focus on the combined score of the Banker and Player hands, and pay out if that score is 4 (Small) or 5 or 6(Big). Having these choices is a nice route to extra action on this table, and the RTP figures for those additional side bets make them far more attractive options than the notoriously poor value of the Tie bet on Baccarat.
Verdict
This is a very good RNG version of Punto Banco Baccarat, with our only serious criticism lying with its lack of an HTML5 version at time of review to satisfy our mobile needs. The additional side bets are unique to this Playtech version and add a further dimension to play that we suspect many fans of this game will enjoy. If you favour RNG table games over the trend for Live Dealer versions, then finding Playtech’s Baccarat amongst your chosen casino’s inventory should but a smile on your face.
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