Playtech offers live dealer versions of Roulette, Three Card Brag, Blackjack, Hi-Lo, Casino Hold’em and Baccarat. The stream quality is quite decent and they have a pretty good variety of games offered and they do provide language support including but not limited to English, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Spanish (both Espanol and Castilian dialects) and Mandarin. Being able to communicate with the dealer in your native language is quite convenient especially if you are not bilingual, and this is a nice move to make their games accessible to a larger market.
Roulette
Playtech has many different variations on this classic gambling game. Now obviously they all involve a dealer spinning the wheel and you trying to predict where it lands, but they did have some interesting twists to keep things interesting.
One version of the game they have is Age of Gods Roulette. Age of Gods is a popular online slot that has had a number of sequels. In this roulette game the dealer actually dresses up like a character from the game and there is a 1% rake on bets that goes towards funding a potential age of gods jackpot. Other than that it is pretty much like your traditional single zero roulette game with all of the traditional paytables such as 35:1 for a straight up hit on a number and 1:1 if you bet red/black or odd/even.
Another version of live dealer roulette that Playtech offers is Prestige Roulette. Here the game-play isn’t changed at all, but the ambience is altered, as the game is cast in neon lighting and they use multiple camera angles to enhance the player’s anticipation prior to the ball dropping. Playtech also provides Speed Roulette, which as the name indicates goes at a faster pace in order to get more bets made during a shorter period of time.
Blackjack
Unlimited Blackjack is a variant where an unlimited number of players can bet on the same hand. The game is dealt from an eight deck shoe and there are five spots that you can bet on. Despite multiple people playing the same hand, you are still in control of your destiny, because if you stay then your total just freezes at whatever it is that you chose to stay at while other people continue to take cards.
It is a bit of an odd concept to get used to but the nice thing is you never have to wait for a seat you can always just sit down and play. There are also two side bets for perfect pair and 21+3. With the perfect pair, you are trying to make a pair, and there are higher payouts for coloured pair and a perfect pair. A normal pair will pay 6:1, two cards of the same colour will pay 12:1, and two cards of the exact same suit and rank will pay 24:1.
You can also bet on the dealer’s hand to make a pair with the dealer pair side bet. With 21+3 you are trying to make a poker hand, using your two cards and the dealer’s upcard. This pays for suited three of a kind, straight flush, three of a kind, straight, or flush.
Payouts:
• Suited three of a kind pays 100:1
• Straight Flush 40:1
• Three of a kind 10:1
• Flush 5:1
The rules for Unlimited Blackjack are:
• No re-splits, dealer stands on soft seventeen and double after split allowed.
• The dealer does not check for blackjack (despite taking a hole card), but you only lose your original bet if you split or double down against a dealer ten, but if you split or double down against an ace and they get blackjack then you lose all your bets. So you do not want to double down or split against an ace.
• Another interesting rule is that if you have a basic strategy split, your only options are to split or surrender and receive 80% of your bet back. In this case, you should surrender AA v A and 88 v A, T and 9.
• You should also surrender 66 v 2. 66 v 2, which is a basic strategy split, returns around -.212560 and surrendering at this reduced rate returns -.20 which is marginally better. Overall this is a fairly decent set of rules and competitive with what else exists on the market, but it would be nice if they added the option to surrender.
Baccarat
Playtech also offers live dealer Baccarat games. Baccarat is a pretty straightforward game where you want to pick which hand gets closer to nine without going over. If you go over you have to start all over again at zero, which is to say a total of ten is actually worth zero.
There are also different drawing rules depending on your hand, which basically boil down to the higher your total the less likely you are to draw a card. If you have six or seven you are going to stand, and if you have eight or nine this is a natural hand and neither side draws any more cards. Otherwise, you will draw to three cards.
Baccarat is very popular because it is a quick paced game without any real decisions aside from where you want to bet. Most of the action goes down on player or banker. Originally it used to be a bit of a skill game in that you would decide whether you wanted to draw a card or not, but now it is dealt face up and there are no decisions to make. Because banker actually wins slightly more frequently than player, you will have to pay a small commission to the house if you bet on banker and win. Playtech also offers no commission baccarat, where if the banker wins with a three-card six you only get a half win. You can also bet on a tie, which is that both the player and banker hand end up with the same number. This pays out 8:1 but the house edge on this bet is quite high because ties do not happen frequently. Playtech offers a few varieties of Baccarat which is quite nice.
Aside from the main game, they have a few versions with different side bets. For example, you can bet on player pair or banker pair, which pays 11:1 (the actual odds are of course 12:1 against as there are thirteen different ranks), or either pair, which pays 5:1 if either the banker or the dealer makes a pair. You can also bet on perfect pair which pays 25:1.
Another side bet they have is Egalite Extra, where you are predicting that the player and banker tie with a specific total. The payouts for this bet are quite high because there is very little chance of it actually happening.
The payouts are as follows:
• Player and Banker tie at 0 pays 150:1
• Player and Banker tie at 1 pays 215:1
• Player and Banker tie at 2 pays 220:1
• Player and Banker tie at 3 pays 200:1
• Player and Banker tie at 4 pays 120:1
• Player and Banker tie at 5 pays 110:
• Player and Banker tie at 6 pays 45:1
• Player and Banker tie at 7 pays 45:1
• Player and Banker tie at 8 pays 80:1
• Player and Banker tie at 9 pays 80:1
Live Casino Hold’em
Another Playtech live casino offering is Casino Hold’em. Based on the popular poker game, in Casino Hold’em you are playing against the house, not other players. You first have to place an ante bet. Then, just like in the version of Texas Hold’em that you play against other players, there is a flop. At this point, you have to decide whether to call or fold your bet.
To call, you need to put up twice whatever you started with in your ante bet. If you decide to call then the turn and river are dealt, and the dealers cards are exposed. Another rule is that the dealer must have a pair of fours or better to qualify. If the dealer does not qualify then you win your ante bet. If the dealer does qualify and you beat the dealer, then you win your ante bet and your call. The ante bet pays according to a specific paytable.
• Royal Flush : 100 to 1
• Straight Flush : 20 to 1
• 4 Of A Kind : 10 to 1
• Full House : 3 to 1
• Flush : 2 to 1
• Straight or lower : 1 to 1
In addition to to the ante bet, there is an optional side bet called the AA bet. With the AA bet you are betting on whether the best five card poker hand you can make using your hole cards and the community cards is as good as or better than a pair of aces.
The AA side bet pays as follows :
• Straight or Lower : 7 to1
• Flush : 20 to 1
• Full House : 30 to 1
• Four of a Kind : 40 to 1
• Straight Flush : 50 to 1
• Royal Flush : 100 to 1
The best strategy in this game is to play most of the time. You want to fold only the worst 18% of hands when you have no pair, no draw, and undercards in the hole. The house edge on this game is around 2% and 3% for the AA side bet.