While Playtech creates many types of online casino games, it has recently been stepping up its production of live dealer games. In our Grand Baccarat review, we will look closely at one of Playtech’s many live baccarat games. The provider, which has been developing online casino games since 1999, has established itself as one of the industry’s top companies. Grand Baccarat runs 24/7 and uses English as its main language.
Here are some of the top online baccarat in the UK where you can play Grand Baccarat from Playtech.
The Grand Baccarat live game follows the standard rules of baccarat. In this game, you are betting on which of two hands (the player’s or banker’s), gets the closest to 9, with tie bets also available. Baccarat is a game of luck in that there is nothing you can do to influence the outcome.
When a round starts, the dealer starts by dealing two cards to each of the hands. In baccarat games, aces are worth 1, the cards 2-9 are worth their face value and 10s and royals are worth 0. If a hand’s value is two digits, you remove the left digit. For example, if your hand has 7 and 8, you would add them together to get 15 and remove the 1 to get a total value of 5. If your hand has 5 and K, its total value would be 5 since the K acts as 0.
After dealing the cards, if at least one hand has a total value of 8 or 9, the round ends in a player/banker win or a tie, depending on the hands’ values.
If neither starting hand is worth 8 or 9, the dealer checks the rules to see whether the player’s hand should receive a third card or not. After doing this, the dealer looks at the rules again to see what should happen to the banker’s hand. Then the dealer confirms the result of the round.
Grand Baccarat accepts bets ranging from £1 up to £1,000 and has an RTP of 98.94% that is the same as other live baccarat games.
Playtech has launched around a dozen live baccarat games. These mostly follow the standard rules of the game, though some of them have extra features and slight gameplay changes. To get an idea of what these are like, check out the descriptions below.
When you play this live baccarat game, the banker bet’s payout is 1:1 instead of the usual 0.95:1. The 5% commission that applies to this bet in most games is not in use. To make up for this, if the banker wins with a hand value of 6, the payout goes down from 1:1 to 0.50:1.
Mini Baccarat sticks to the regular rules and offers the usual bets, though its minimum bet size is lower than other games. This is to cater for budget players and beginners who might not want to place large wagers.
What sets this live baccarat game apart from others is that it has a squeeze feature. The dealer slowly reveals or ‘squeezes’ the final card of the initial draw, which adds excitement and tension to the gameplay.
There are no bonus rounds in Grand Baccarat, though the game does have some side bets you can place. These are entirely optional and if you want to place one or more of them, you have to place one of the three main bets too.
For this side bet, you are betting on the player or banker’s first two cards being a pair, i.e. of the same rank. The payout for this bet is 11:1.
The Either Pair bet covers both hands and if at least one of them has a pair of cards of the same rank, you win a 5:1 payout.
You win the Perfect Pair bet if the first two cards of either hand match in both their rank and suit. This bet’s payout is 25:1.
For the Big bet to win, the game needs to end with five or six cards in play. If this happens, the Big bet pays 0.54:1. The Small bet pays 1.50:1 if there are exactly four cards in play when the game ends.
The egalite bet pays if the game ends in a tie and its payout depends on the matching value of the two hands. You can place this bet without placing one of the game’s main three bets (player, banker or tie).
The payouts that Grand Baccarat uses are the standard ones for baccarat games. In the tables below, you will see the payouts for the three main bets as well as the side bets.
Bet |
Summary |
Payout |
Player |
Pays out when the player’s hand wins |
1:1 |
Banker |
Pays out when the banker’s hand wins |
0.95:1 |
Tie |
Pays out when the result is a tie |
8:1 |
Bet |
Summary |
Payout |
Player/Banker Pair |
Pays out when the player/banker’s starting hand has two cards of the same rank |
11:1 |
Either Pair |
Pays out when either starting hand has two cards of the same rank |
5:1 |
Perfect Pair |
Pays out when a starting hand has two cards of the same rank and suit |
25:1 |
Big |
Pays out when the game ends with five or six cards in play |
1:1 |
Small |
Pays out when the game ends with exactly four cards in play |
3:2 |
Egalite |
Pays out when both hands have the same total value |
Ranges from 45:1 for a value of 6/7 to 220:1 for a value of 2 |
Like other live dealer games from Playtech, Grand Baccarat runs every hour of the day. The game uses English-speaking dealers, though you can adjust the UI interface so that it is in another language. There are over a dozen options for this including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, Hindi and Greek.
Here are the main highlights of Grand Baccarat:
Multiple optional side bets available.
Communicate with the dealer and other players using live chat.
Use roadmaps to look at results from previous games.
Rounds are quicker than other live baccarat games.
User-friendly and easy to play.
Playable on a wide range of computers and mobile devices.
Grand Baccarat is a great live version of baccarat that fans of the game are sure to appreciate. It has a fancy golden theme and follows the standard rules of baccarat, with multiple optional side bets available to place alongside the main bets. Like other live baccarat games from Playtech, the overall quality of the game is high and the streaming quality in particular is pretty good. Grand Baccarat is an immersive, enjoyable live baccarat game that looks fantastic and is fun to play.
Rating: 8.5
Below are a few common questions players might have about Grand Baccarat.