What is Peek Baccarat and How to Play It?
Few things are as exciting as a new variant of baccarat. Especially if it’s from Evolution, and especially if it works to give players more control! We’re referring to Peek Baccarat, the newest live dealer baccarat table available across many online casinos.
Evolution Peek Baccarat adds a mechanic that allows you to change your baccarat bet after seeing some of the cards for that round. It’s quite exciting and can be very profitable in the hands of a skilled player.
What is Peek Baccarat?
Peek Baccarat is a variant of casino table baccarat that allows additional options mid-round. You can currently play it live online with Evolution, one of the world’s biggest live casino software providers, who added Peek Baccarat tables in 2022.
Peek Baccarat allows players to see between 1 and 4 cards after the initial draw. You can then decide to double or even triple your bet if the cards are favorable.
Interestingly, Peek Baccarat is much older than Evolution’s take. It was first developed in brick-and-mortar casinos, and Evolution licensed the ruleset. Of course, they had to tweak the mechanics a bit to make them suitable for live casino baccarat. Just be aware that you might run into different rules in land-based casinos.
Beyond that, Peek Baccarat rules are identical to most tables across the industry.
- Peek baccarat uses 8 standard decks of playing cards.
- Hand closest to 9 wins, and standard third card rules apply.
- 5% commission on all Banker cards, including Peek hands.
- An extra 20% commission is taken on all bets because of the Peek feature.
- The RTP for the main bet is 98.80%, which is slightly lower than standard commission baccarat.
How to Play Peek Baccarat
If you’re still not sure about how Peek Baccarat works, here’s a step-by-step guide. We’ll explain in detail how to use the Peek function to increase your profits.
Note that the majority of the game works like any other casino baccarat game. As such, it helps to know how to play baccarat in the first place.
- Sit down at a Peek Baccarat Evolution table and bet as usual. You can bet on Banker, Player, or a Tie. Our suggestion is to bet on Banker and avoid Tie.
- Note that a 20% commission is charged on all bets.
- The dealer will then place 4 cards on the table, 2 on Banker and 2 on Player. They will then reveal some of the cards.
- You will now have the option to double or triple your stake. If the cards reveal that your hand is strong or that the opposing hand is weak, it’s a good idea to increase your stake.
- Once the time to increase bets is over, the dealer reveals the rest of the cards.
- The Player and Banker’s hands are then compared and the one closer to 9 wins as usual.
In short, the advantage of Peek Baccarat is that you can find out some information on the hands and use it to potentially alter your bet. The 20% commission negates the statistical advantage, though, which is why the house edge is roughly the same as with standard Baccarat.
IF you’re not using the Peek bet feature, you should play at a standard baccarat table. Otherwise, you’re just wasting money with the 20% fee.