Live Side Bet City is one of a handful of games released by Evolution Gaming in 2019. The provider has announced multiple fresh releases, some of which have already hit the live casino floor (like Free Bet Blackjack or Lightning Dice); Side Bet City is the latest to be launched in June. This game is a unique version of live casino poker with an extraordinary studio setting and unconventional set of rules, but still easy enough to pick up for players who are new to online poker.
The studio design is designed to transport the player straight back to 1985; there are lots of neon lights and the rectangle poker table looks like a bar of some swanky club. The game is played against the paytable rules, and not against the dealer or other players. Therefore, typical poker strategies don’t quite work here.
The swift, 80s-themed live poker variant from Evolution Gaming uses one deck of 52 cards. The cards are shuffled after each round. The table is open 24/7 and there is no limit to the number of players that can join at any one time. All the participants have a fifteen-second betting window to place their wagers, and only after they’re done with placing bets the dealer will proceed to lay out the cards from a manual shoe. Bettors can wager on one or more of the four bets – 3, 5 or 7-card hand, or on the ‘All Lose’ option. They are all very clearly presented below the video feed.
First, the dealer deals the initial three cards face-up. Thus, the 3-card result is revealed. Next, the dealer then adds the following two cards, revealing the result for the 5-card hand. Finally, the croupier will deal the remaining two cards and reveal the outcome of the 7-card hand. Various digital overlays will indicate over the course of the dealing which players have won their bets. The poker paytable is the same as always, only there are three sets of odds for each bet: Any Pair, Pair JJ-AA, Two Pairs, Three of a Kind, Straight, Flush, Full House, Four of a Kind, Straight Flush and Royal Flush. For the Royal Flush, the odds are 100:1 (3-card hand), 1000-1 (5-card hand) and 500:1 (7-card hand).
Just like previous Evolution’s products, Live Side Bet City performs exceedingly well across all devices. It is a retro game with all the advanced functionalities developed by the industry’s leading live casino solutions provider. It benefits from professional dealers, both female and male, as well as from a multitude of betting possibilities. The table limits are affordable too, so if you like poker, don’t think twice about Side Bet City.