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Specialty Games

Live Pok Deng: Our Review, How and Where to Play

SA Gaming by SA Gaming

Pok Deng is a live dealer casino card game released by SA Gaming in 2022. The game borrows heavily from baccarat and is played by comparing 2-card hands, with the highest ones digit wins even money.

Pok Deng has an RTP of 98.35% with a minimum bet of $1 and a $500 maximum wager. The game is available on both desktop and mobile and is completely unique in online casinos.

Even though the game itself is centuries-old, SA Gaming was the first to implement it into a live dealer format. As such, we highly suggest that you read our guide on how to play Pok Deng below.

Live Pok Deng
  • Excitement
  • Design & Sound
  • Streaming Quality
  • Interactivity
  • Win Potential

Live Pok Deng Review

Game Specifications
Game name Live Pok Deng
Game provider SA Gaming
Game type Specialty Games
Streaming from Colombia
RTP 98.35%
Bet range €1 - €500
Max win 11:1
Side bets Yes
Supported platforms Desktop Mobile Tablet
Supported OS Android Apple Windows
Languages Arabic Arabic English English Hindi Hindi Indonesian Indonesian Japanese Japanese Korean Korean +5
All supported languages
  • Arabic Arabic
  • English English
  • Hindi Hindi
  • Indonesian Indonesian
  • Japanese Japanese
  • Korean Korean
  • Malay Malay
  • Mandarin Mandarin
  • Spanish Spanish
  • Thai Thai
  • Vietnamese Vietnamese

Pok Deng is a gambling card game originating in Thailand. It’s also sometimes called Pok Kao or Pok Paet Pok Kao, both of which refer to the numbers eight and nine, which are crucial to winning. Not much is known about the history of Pok Deng, but it’s been around for a while. Played in both the casinos and streets of Bangkok, it’s an exciting chance-based game for those that like to have a lot of options.

Strangely enough, Pok Deng has never been adapted to be played online before. SA Gaming are the first to do it, which is not surprising considering the company’s focus on the Asian market. Although this new release will probably find the most success in live casinos in Asia, it’s also a great opportunity for the rest of the world to try something new.

Pok Deng reminds us of Baccarat in some ways. Namely, the objective of the game is to compare 2-card hands and cards are valued in a similar way. It’s still a speciality game, though, currently unique in the live casino business.

Key Highlights

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Exciting card-based gameplay not available in any other live casino game
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Play up to 5 main bets and 5 side bets in every round
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1:1 payouts for most winning bets, and a 2:1 payout on special wins
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Possible 2:1 losses on some losing hands (read the rules below)
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Pairs side bet available for each of the 5 hands
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Detailed roadmaps and statistics are on the right of the screen

How to Play Pok Deng

Pok Deng is played with eight standard decks of 52 cards. Each new shoe is shuffled and a few cards are burned, which is standard practice in most card-based games.

The goal of the game is for a Player’s hand to have a higher value than the Banker’s hand. Five Player hands are in play in every round, and you can bet on any number of them. Place the chips on one or more of the hands to bet before a round starts. Note that you have to have double your stake available in your account to place a bet – we’ll explain why later.

Hand values are calculated the same way as in baccarat. It helps to know how to play baccarat, but we’ll explain quickly.

  • Aces count as 1
  • Cards 1-9 count as their face value.
  • Tens, Jacks, Queens, and Kings count as 0

Importantly, only the last digit of any point total counts as the hand value. For example, if a hand is showing 7 and 5 for a total of 12, the hand value counts as 2.

According to Pok Deng rules, the closer your hand is to a total of 9, the better.

If you place a bet and the corresponding hand has a higher hand value than the banker, you win even money.

If the Banker’s hand is higher than the Player hand(s) you bet on, you lose your stake.

If the Player and Banker hands have the same value, the game results in a tie. Your full stake is returned to you.

Other Pok Deng Rules

Because of how Pok Deng works, there are other rules you need to keep in mind.

  • First of all, winning with a special combination (listed below), a pair, or a flush (two consecutive cards of the same suit, such as a 3 and 4 of Hearts) means you win 2:1
  • However, if the banker wins with one of these, you lose double your initial stake. This amount is withheld as soon as you place your bet. Keep that in mind, and make sure you have enough money in your casino account
  • If you win, tie, or lose without the Banker showing a pair, flush, or special combination, this withheld amount is simply returned to you
  • If you win with a pair, flush, or special combination, but the Banker hand value is 0 or 6, you only win 1:1 instead of 2:1. This rule sounds strange, but we assume it’s where the house edge in Pok Deng comes from

This might sound a bit confusing right now, but it all makes sense as soon as you play Pok Deng.

Note that this applies to the main bet alone. The Pairs bet is completely separate, and we’ll explain how it works below.

Special Combinations

Some special hands are stronger than their standard point total. If you win with one of these, you win 2:1. You also lose twice your stake if the Banker hand wins using one such combination.

We’ll list them below in order from strongest to weakest. All special combinations in Pok Deng are stronger than 7 but weaker than 8. Moreover, some special combinations are stronger than others. That’s why their values are described as decimal points between 7 and 8.

Here are all Pok Deng special combinations, listed from strongest to weakest.

Hand Value Combination Description
7.5 Ace-King Flush Ace and King of the same suit
7.4 Special Pairs Pair of 5, 6, 10, or Ace
7.3 Face-card Combo Two face cards of any suit. For example, J+K, Q+K, or K+K
7.2 Single Face-card with no points When your hand has a total value of 0 but contains one face card (J, Q, or K)
7.1 Flush with no points Any two cards of the same suit with a total value of 0
Live Casinos Best Tips for Pok Deng
  • 1
    Many baccarat strategies are surprisingly applicable to Pok Deng. For instance, you can do some light card counting because of how quickly cards are played through.
  • 2
    That said, the game is completely based on chance. A Pok Deng strategy revolves around managing your money. That can be trickier than with most games considering the whole “losing 2:1” business.
  • 3
    By our estimates, the Player Pair side bet is never a good idea due to the extremely low RTP.

Payouts

We described most of how Pok Deng works in our guide above. That includes how the payments work.

However, we’ll put all that info into a clear, readable table for you. The table includes the special cases where you lose double your stake.

Result Payout/Loss
Pok Deng Paytable
Player Hand Wins Win 1:1
Player Wins with Pair/Flush/Special Combination Win 2:1
Banker Hand Wins Lose 1:1
Banker Wins with Pair/Flush/Special Combination Lose 2:1
Player Pair Bet Wins Win 11:1
Player Pair Bet Loses Lose 1:1

Pok Deng RTP is 98.35% according to official SA Gaming data. That’s a pretty good rate by most standards – it beats out roulette and most other casino games except for blackjack and baccarat.

Now, there’s no official info for the RTP for the Pair bets in Pok Deng Live. However, it’s functionally the same as a Player Pair in baccarat with a payout of 11:1. That puts the RTP somewhere under 86%, so we don’t recommend playing it.

LiveCasinos

New to Live Pok Deng?

Special Features

Let’s go over some of the features of SA Gaming Pok Deng that we didn’t already cover.

First of all, there is a sort of side bet called Player Pair. As expected, this bet wins 11:1 if the corresponding hand draws two cards of the same rank. Note that all five Player hands have a separate Pair bet, which works much like in baccarat.

Moreover, you can find the results of the previous 20 rounds or so on the bottom left. The roadmap lists Banker hands at the top and all five Player hands under it.

Various sound, video, and interface settings can be found at the very bottom of the screen.

Languages

  • The dealers in Pok Deng by SA Gaming don’t really speak. The interface shows you everything you need to know quite effectively. So while technically the language it’s presented in is English, it doesn’t affect much.
  • However, the interface itself can be changed to one of several languages. SA Gaming are famously focused on East Asia, so the available languages include English, Mandarin, Thai, Vietnamese, Spanish, Malay, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, and Arabic.

Our Verdict of Pok Deng Live

Trying a new type of game for the first time is always exciting, and we can safely say we had fun with Pok Deng live. The game is sure to find great success with players from Malaysia, the Philippians, and other parts of Southeast Asia. More importantly, it will expose the rest of us to a whole new type of card game. Who knows – this might become one of your favorites!

SA Gaming presents Pok Deng in their typical style, which is admittedly not everyone’s cup of tea. The UI is massive and overbearing at times, but it provides clear and valuable info. All that info is important when you’re playing an unfamiliar game.

Last but not least, the house edge in Pok Deng is reasonably small (except for the Pair bets.) At the very least, that means you won’t regret trying it. We certainly haven’t – SA Gaming Pok Denk Live is one of the more interesting new releases in 2022. And that says a lot.

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Excellent

FAQ

Pok Deng is a gambling card game originating in Thailand. It centers around predicting whether the Player’s hand will have a higher value than the Banker’s hand. Cards are generally counted as in baccarat, but the rules are made more interesting by certain special card combinations.
The casino advantage in Pok Deng is 1.65%. That’s quite low for any casino table game. It’s worth noting, however, that this RTP rate assumes you’re playing optimally. In other words, stay away from the side bets unless you know what you’re doing.
SA Gaming has a live casino variant available across many casino sites. Our recommendation is Dafabet, one of the world’s leading Asian casinos.
Simply bet on one or more of the five Player hands before the round starts. If a hand you bet on has a stronger hand than the dealer, you win! Pok Deng is almost entirely based on luck, like most casino gambling games.

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