EVOLUTION LIVE LIGHTNING BACCARAT

An Introduction to Lightning Baccarat

Live Lightning Baccarat is the result of Evolution Gaming merging traditional Baccarat with their “Lightning” multiplier functionality, to deliver supercharged payouts for this popular Asian card game.

Before each game round between 1 to 5 cards from a virtual 52 card deck are randomly selected to become the Lightning Cards. Each selected card is allocated a random multiplier of either 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or 8x.

Get dealt one or more of these in your winning hand and the payout will be multiplied by that amount.

To fund the game a 20% Lightning Fee is added to each players total bet.

Normal Baccarat Rules apply to the game.

It’s played with an 8 deck shoe with the winning hand being the closest to 9. Ties and pairs side bets are available and they also benefit from the Lightning Payouts.

A full set of Baccarat Roadmaps which details the past history of the shoe is is helpful in seeing when the winning Lightning Hands occurred.

Lightning Baccarat Tips

Before you start to play, there are a few things you need to know about Lighting Baccarat.

• A 20% Fee is added to your main bet when betting time has closed. This is used to “fund” the Lightning payouts.
• The game is played to normal Baccarat Rules. The Lightning Cards are selected using an RNG engine before any cards are dealt.
• Payouts for Winning hands with a Lightning Card for Ties and Pairs is less than traditional Baccarat.
• The maximum multiplier possible is 310,720 on a Tied Hand, but payouts are capped at a maximum of €500,000.
• The RTP for Lightning Baccarat is slightly less than normal Baccarat.
• There is no “Strategy” to get a winning Lightning Hand. Follow my Baccarat Betting Strategy for an approach on how to play.

How to Play Live Lightning Baccarat

The game round starts with players selecting to bet on whether the Banker or Players hand will win. There is also the option to bet on whether the hand will result in a tie.

An additional optional side bet of Banker / Player Pair can be made, which if won results in an enhanced payout, regardless of the outcome of the main hand.

Once Betting time has completed, a 20% Lightning Fee is added to the players total bet.

Playing Interface Information

Playing Strategy for Lightning Baccarat

There’s two elements to the game:

1. The Main Baccarat hand.
2. The Lightning Cards.

I’d like to explore the term Strategy and see if it’s possible to develop a winning or playing stratgey for lightning Baccarat.

Lightning Baccarat Main Hand Strategy

I’d say there is definitely Playing strategies you can adopt for the main hand. However, there is no such thing as a guaranteed winning strategy, if there was we’d all be millionaires and the casinos would be broke.

But I do believe you need an approach to the game and a structure around how you bet. Just chucking money on the table is foolhardy and will see your balance disappear before you know it.  I’ve created an Baccarat Betting Strategy and had some success with it.  There are others, but this is my take on it.

Playing & Strategy Video Review

Lightning Baccarat Cards Strategy

If 5 Lighting cards are selected, there will be 40 in the Shoe, which means you have a 1 in 10 chance of being dealt one. This means the odds of a Lightning Card being dealt to one of the betting positions is about every 2-3 game rounds. More if fewer Lightning cards are selected.

So it’s reasonable to say that for the Lightning Baccarat Cards, there is no strategy:

• There is no way you can predict how many cards will be selected.
• There is no way to determine what multiplier values will be applied.
• Then there’s no way to predict whether any of the cards will be dealt to a hand and whether that hand will win!

However, if you like to bet using probabilities, you could determine that:

• If one lightning card is selected, there would be 8 in the Shoe with a 1 in 52 chance of being dealt.
• Two lightning cards would give 16 in the Shoe and a 1 in 26 chance of being dealt.
• Three Cards with give 24 and a 1 in 17 chance
• Four Cards give 32 cards in the show with a 1 in 13 probability of being dealt.
• Five Cards gives 40 cards with a 1 in 10 chance of being dealt.

But you have to factor in the discarded cards from previous game rounds, so the probability of a card being drawn is further reduced.

Use this information as you see fit :-)

I advise treating the Lightning Cards as a side bet, which costs you 20% of your total bet to play. If you win, you win. If you don’t, you don’t.

Playable Devices

Lightning Baccarat can be enjoyed on all device types.

The larger Playing Interface for the desktop an be viewed in two modes. Full Screen or the Classic View which is intended for players with slower bandwidth.

Mobile Users get to play in both Landscape and Portrait views and will auto switch between orientations depending of how the device is being used.

Tablet users will find that the interface has be optimised for Landscape Orientation.

Summary

Multipliers are being added to many games. Lightning Baccarat is the first Evolution card game to receive this capability.

The question is Do the Multipliers add anything to the game?

My answer is yes they do, if you treat them as an additional side bet.

Playing Baccarat on the Lightning Table means you’ll be paying for the privilege of having the Lightning Cards. You can’t opt out – if you don’t want to play, choose a non Lightning Table to play on.

The 20% fee can be hefty but if the Side Bet comes in, you will be laughing.

Just take a look at the RTP table to see the impact of the Lightning Cards on the player return.

Lightning Baccarat RTP

Other Lightning games from Evolution

If you like the “lightning” concept, EVolution has a range of lighting games you might like to try.

In no particular order, they are:

• Lightning Roulette
• XXXtreme Lightning Roulette
• Lightning Dice
• Lightning Ball
• Lighting Blackjack