Live dealer Seotda Baccarat from Pragmatic Play
This is Pragmatic Play’s live dealer Seotda Baccarat table. It merges baccarat with the popular Korean gambling game of Seotda. Fast paced, reasonably simple once you become familiar with the cards and hand ranks and offering returns that put it near the top of the theoretical returns table.
The game is clearly aimed at the Korean playing market with native speaking Korean dealers running the action.
Seotda Baccarat went live mid May 20206 and can now be played at most casinos carrying Pragmatic’s tables, including 888, Dublinbet and Stake.
How to play Seotda Baccarat
The basic premise of the main game is the same as baccarat. You’re betting on whether the Banker or Player positions will be dealt the higher hand (or a Tie). The game’s playing interface with roadmaps showing outcome history mirror Pragmatic’s regular baccarat tables. But Seotda Baccarat uses a different deck of cards to decide winning hands.
The deal is faster also as there are no third cards dealt in this game. Just two cards to the Player and two cards to the Banker.
Hwatu deck
Rather than regular playing cards, Seotda is played with a 20-card Hwatu deck. This deck consists of 20 cards with each card representing a month from January to October and carrying a points value (two cards per month, numbered 1 to 10).
There are three special cards in the deck known as Bright Cards, marked with a special character. One of the 8, 3 and 1 cards are marked as Bright Cards.
Seotda Baccarat hand ranks…
1. Bright Pairs (Gwang-daeng)
Hands made of two Bright cards are called Bright Pairs. Bright Pairs are the highest-ranking hands, beating all others.
The 3/8 Bright Pair is the top ranking hand, followed by 1/8 then 1/3.
2. Pairs (Daeng)
Next come regular pairs…in descending order from 10/10 down to 1/1.
3. Special Combinations
There are a bunch of designated ‘Special Combinations’ that will rank higher than a regular points total.
As an example, a 1/2 combination is the highest ranking special combination. While only adding to 3 it would a beat a regular points total greater than 3.
4. Points total
These are the lowest-ranking card combinations. The numbers on the two cards are added up, and the last digit is the points value, 9-0 (as per regular baccarat). The higher the hand’s points value, the higher the ranking.
Playing the main game
Baccarat players will be in familiar territory here. During betting time your choices are Player, Banker or Tie.
The dealer then deals 2 cards to the both Player and Banker positions with the highest ranking hand winning. The deal each round is from a freshly shuffled 20-card deck.
Banker/Player wins pay even money, unless the win is a Bright Pair in which case the payout is elevated (see below table). Tie pays 13:1.
A points total win….
A Special Combination (1/9 ) beating a points total 8…
Seotda Baccarat Payouts and Returns
With a theoretical return to player rate of 98.82% on Banker and Player bets, this is a relatively high returning game. For context, Baccarat which is one of the highest returning live games, has an RTP of 98.94%.
Note also, a win with a Bright Pair pays better than even money. A 3/8 Bright Pair win pays 8:1. The other Bright Pairs pay 3:1.
Main game…
| Bet | Result | Payout | RTP |
| Banker | Best hand Bright Pair 1/8 or 1/3 Bright Pair 3/8 |
1:1 3:1 8:1 |
98.82% |
| Player | Best hand Bright Pair 1/8 or 1/3 Bright Pair 3/8 |
1:1 3:1 8:1 |
98.82% |
| Tie | Tie | 13:1 | 97.38 |
Side bets…
A bunch of side bets are offered in addition to the main game with payouts shown below. For example, a side bet on ‘Banker Pair’ will pay 60:1 if a pair of 10s is dealt to the Banker position, whether that position wins the hand or not.
| Bet | Result | Payout | RTP |
| Player/Banker Pairs | Pair 10s Pair 9s Pair 8s Pair 7s Pair 6s Pair 5s Pair 4s Pair 3s Pair 2s Pair 1s |
60:1 30:1 27:1 24:1 8:1 8:1 6:1 6:1 3:1 3:1 |
97.37% |
| Player/Banker Bright Pair | 3/8 1/8 or 1/3 |
80:1 50:1 |
96.32% |
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