Live VIP Baccarat: Our Review and How to Play

Live VIP Baccarat by Playtech is a live dealer baccarat game released in 2017. It boasts an RTP of 98.76%. The game is available on both desktop and mobile and houses one of the more exclusive VIP baccarat tables in Playtech’s portfolio.

Playtech has several offers for live baccarat fans. From Progressive Baccarat to Golden Dragon and No Commission variants, everyone can find a Playtech baccarat table to suit them. As this Playtech VIP Baccarat review will show, this title was intended for high-stakes play and VIP panache.

Playtech’s Asian studio in Manila seems like a perfect setting for the exclusive variant of the casino classic. Brought to you thanks to impeccable live stream, an intuitive user interface, and decades of Playtech experience. VIP Baccarat is a high-stakes version of the original game, where the player that has made the largest bet on either Player or Banker has the opportunity to peak at the hidden cards and learn the outcome ahead of other gamers. The dealers will essentially squeeze the cards if you ask them to. It’s not a groundbreaking innovation, but it adds that little bit of zing that you’d expect at a VIP table.

Tables spread across the casino floor in Manila can accommodate seven persons each and they feature much higher wagering limits than standard tables. In addition to betting on the Player, Banker or Tie, VIP Baccarat supports another six side bets, thus providing the customers with additional betting opportunities.

Key Highlights

Exclusive tables at the Manila studio create a rewarding setting. Highest-staking player allowed to peak at hidden cards.

Perfect pairs side bets coming with some impressive payouts. 6 total side bets for extra excitement.

High-wagering limits ensure VIP gamers are catered to.

Seven-seat tables featuring experienced croupiers ready to chat at all times.

How to Play VIP Baccarat

The process of placing wagers is as simple as they get, with chips placed on the betting positions closest to you representing bets made on Player, and the next two placed on Banker and Tie respectively. A total of seven chip sizes is on offer to help you determine your desired stake.

The history panel is located in the upper right-hand corner and it allows you to see previous outcomes using standard road maps. Some players use these tracing indicators to try and predict the outcomes of future hands.

You can switch between two camera views using the options panel found to the right of the casino chips, with Chat, Help, Sound, Settings, and Full-Screen options also available here. Wagers can only be made while the ‘Place your bets’ sign is active, and Clear, Confirm and Rebet icons are in place to speed up the process.

Beyond that, it’s a fairly straightforward game of live online baccarat with standard rules. The card pile that gets closer to 9 wins. Aces count as one, while cards 10 and up count as zero. The third card is drawn in case a pile has a value between 0 and 5 after the initial two. As always, the third card rules give a slight edge to the Banker side. As such, all banker bets are subject to a 5% commission.

Depending on what the player with the highest stake is doing, rounds can be a bit slower than with other tables. After all, squeezing and peeking at cards takes time. Still, this isn’t a table for rushing. Just relax and enjoy the exclusive VIP treatment.

Live Casino Best Tips for VIP Baccarat

The idea of this game is the opposite of Speed Baccarat. The VIP table is for methodical, slow play with high stakes. Staking plans and similar baccarat strategies probably won’t do you much good.
The payouts for VIP Baccarat side bets are on the higher end among live baccarat games. While they’re not as strong in terms of RTP as Player/Banker bets, they’re worth the time if you know what you’re doing.

VIP Baccarat Payouts

VIP Baccarat by Playtech maintains a solid RTP rate thanks to its industry-standard payouts. The main bets are what you’d see with any high-quality live dealer baccarat, which is a good thing. However, the side bets are where the house edge usually gets out of control. Unfortunately, that’s also the case here, with most side bets well under 90% RTP.

The biggest exceptions are Big and Small, which hover in the 95-96% range. Tie bets are also to be avoided due to the 85.64%. RTP. Since this game is intended for experienced baccarat fans, you’re probably well aware of this issue with baccarat side bets.

Special Features

There are essentially two features that help this game to stand out. The first is a healthy range of side bets, which managed to spice up the classic live casino baccarat game. None of these are particularly original in the world of online baccarat, so let’s run through them quickly.

Player/Banker Pair: this side bet predicts that the relevant Player or Banker pile will receive a pair as its first two cards. All pairs are acceptable as long as it’s on the correct pile.
Either Pair: Same as the above, but it doesn’t matter which side draws a pair. Pays out considerably less, though.
Perfect Pair: this wager predicts a fairly unlikely Perfect pair – two cards of the same suit and value. This bet is the way to the highest payout if you win VIP Baccarat
Big/Small: use this bet to predict the total point difference between Player and Banker at the end of the round. Big wins if the difference is 5 or 6, while small wins if it’s 4 or less.

Lastly, there’s also the way in which this game gives off the impression of exclusive VIP baccarat tables. Essentially, every Playtech VIP Baccarat table has one dealer and two assistants. At the end of each round, the player who wagered the biggest amount on Player and the player who put up the biggest stake on Banker get to decide how the cards are flipped. If you’re the highest-staking player, you’ll see the squeeze card option on the side of the screen.

As per the players’ instructions, the dealer assistants will squeeze the cards or peek at them. You’ll also see a private stream from smaller cameras. That way, the VIP players know the outcome before anyone else.

Languages

The baccarat tables in Playtech’s Manilla studios mostly target the Asian market. That said, the primary streaming language for VIP Baccarat is English. However, you can change the UI settings to display a different one. There are more than 20 world languages available here, including Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, and Slovak.

Our Verdict of Live VIP Baccarat

You don’t have to be a high roller to play VIP Baccarat, but the game has been designed for this exclusive group of online gamers and that is evident every step of the way.

While premium video feed quality is nothing less than we expected from Playtech, high betting limits and a special advantage given to the highest staking player make VIP Baccarat extremely popular among the gamers that tend to wager large amounts of cash.

If you think that describes you, we can recommend this title easily. To be clear – anyone looking to play live table baccarat can play this one and enjoy themselves.

However, with all the Playtech tables available, you don’t want to miss out on one that might suit you better. On its own, though, this is a well-made and overall satisfying live dealer baccarat game.