Explore the intricacies of the Korean-inspired live casino card game from Pragmatic Play, Seotda Baccarat. Join us to learn about its design, gameplay mechanics, and payout potential.
Continuing their winning streak of blending unexpected gambling games to create new experiences, Pragmatic Play launched Seotda Baccarat.
Where Gates of Olympus Roulette combined slots and live dealer roulette, this custom game infuses Korea’s Seotda card game with Western Baccarat for a wholly new live casino experience.
Up to twenty players play the Korean card game at a time, each betting on whether their dealt cards will make a winning hand.
Unlike Baccarat, where the goal is to be “closest to 9”, Seotda focuses on winning hands, which include ranked pairs, special hands, and high-value bright cards.
The game is also played with beautifully hand-painted cards known as Hwatu decks. These decks are rich and bold, lined in bold red and featuring animals, people and other regional imagery.
There are also valuable cards that contain the word ‘bright’ (光) in a circle. These come into play with their own win conditions.
Pragmatic Play honoured the essence of Korean Seotda and paired it with some of the game mechanics of Baccarat to deliver the live casino market an incredible new game category.
Live dealer Seotda Baccarat is played with a custom 20-card Hwatu deck, with 3 being Bright cards. This is a pivotal departure from the 8-deck shoes online Baccarat players are used to.
Rather than playing against one another, players now bet on whether their dealt 2-card hand, no third card reveal, will outscore the dealer's hand. This increases game speed, reduces friction, and makes it easy for new or experienced gamblers to pick up and play.
The gameplay loop for Seotda Baccarat offers a more streamlined experience than that of either original game. The process now is simple: predict whether the Banker or Player will have the winning hand, play a side bet if you choose to do so, and then wait for the outcome.
There is no 3rd card reveal if player cards come to 10 or if the hand values are a draw, as in Baccarat. And unlike Korean Seotda, no multiple game rounds are trying to create a winning hand.
What you have is what you’re dealt. And then the chips fall where they may.
What makes this new genre of casino game so much fun to learn is the combination of winning hands and points-based outcomes.
The best outcome of a round of Seotda Baccarat is to be dealt as high ranking hand. The highest possible rank is what is known as Bright Pairs. Bright Pairs are those cards with the 光 symbol and are ranked as follows:
There is a special circumstance where some Bright Pairs do not automatically win the round.
Next up are straightforward pairs of matching values. Since this release doesn’t have Baccarat's roll over to zero when card values reach a total of 10, the highest base pair you can be dealt is two 10s. The lowest winning pair would therefore be two 1s.
Once again, it is worth mentioning that there is a special hand that will beat all pairs from 1 to 9:
No pairs? No problem. You can still get lucky and win by pulling any of the six preset “Special Combinations”. In descending order of strength, these are:
When there are no Pairs or special combinations, wins and losses come down to who has the highest point value. Possible point scores range from 0 to 9, and use the same rollover process as Baccarat.
When the value of the two dealt cards is counted, any value over 10 is dropped. This means two 10s are worth 0, while a 10 and a 9 are worth the max count score of 9.
To make this live casino game even more intriguing, the development team have added side bets, boosted payouts, and player-friendly return-to-player (RTP) rates:
To experience the ins-and-outs of this fast-paced Korean-inspired live dealer card game, join any of our recommended Pragmatic Play online casinos. Here you can claim a generous welcome bonus, and play Seotda Baccarat for the first time.
Blackjack
Slots
Roulette
Baccarat
Craps
Poker
