Atlassino Academy · Blackjack · Lesson 12
Seguro: a side bet, or insurance
One word, two bets: the seguro as the Córdoba and Entre Rios rulebooks offer it, a bet on your own second card, and as the PBA rulebook offers it, insurance against the dealer’s blackjack.
Your first card is an ace, and the dealer asks if you want the seguro. Is it insurance?
The short answer
At Córdoba and Entre Rios tables, no: the seguro is a side bet that your own second card will be a 10-value card, half your bet, paid 2 to 1. At PBA tables the seguro is insurance: offered when the dealer shows an ace, half your bet, paid 2 to 1 if the dealer makes blackjack. Both bets lose part of their stake on average — 7.47% at Córdoba tables, 7.47% at PBA tables — and leaving them costs nothing.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
“Seguro” sounds like protection, and that is the trouble with it. In two of the three rulebooks it protects nothing at all: it is a second bet on the next card you get. Here is what each version is, and what it costs.
One word, two bets
Three rulebooks use the word, and they do not mean the same bet by it.
| Córdoba | Entre Rios | PBA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the bet is on | That your own second card is a 10-value card. | That your own second card is a 10 or a face card. | That the dealer makes blackjack. |
| When it is offered | When your first card is an ace. | When your first card is an ace. | When the dealer’s face-up card is an ace, after the first round of cards and before the second: you decide holding one card. |
| How much goes on it | Half your bet. | Half your bet. | Half your bet. |
| What it pays | 2 to 1. | Double the stake. We read that as 2 to 1, the same as the first column; the guide does not say whether the stake itself comes back as well. | 200% of the stake: 2 to 1. |
| What it costs on average | 7.47% of the stake | 7.40% of the stake | 7.47% of the stake |
The quotes behind each cell are in the rulebook’s own words, in Spanish, with the section and the date we read it. Where a cell has no button, the line comes from the same quote as the cell above it.
At Córdoba and Entre Rios tables the seguro starts from your own first card. It needs an ace there, and it is settled on the next card dealt to you: a 10, jack, queen or king, and it pays; anything else, and it is lost. The dealer’s cards play no part in it.
What it costs
A bet paid 2 to 1 breaks even only if it comes in one time in three. Four ranks of thirteen count ten — the 10, jack, queen and king — and with your ace out of the shoe a 10-value card comes on 30.8% of second cards at Córdoba tables. That is just short of one in three, and the gap is the house’s share: the seguro loses 7.47% of its stake on average.
On an example bet of 10 units the seguro is 5 units, and it loses 0.37 units a time on average. Amounts are in betting units, not pesos: a unit can stand for any amount, and the arithmetic is the same at any scale.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
The price is the same whether you hold a good hand or a poor one, because the bet does not look at your hand. It looks at one card, and the arithmetic of that card is fixed before you sit down.
It does not change your hand
However it goes, the seguro is settled on its own, and your hand plays on to the end as it would have without it. So the chart for the hand — when to hit, stand or double — is exactly the same whether you took the seguro or not; the hard totals are a lesson of their own.
The real insurance
At PBA tables the seguro is insurance in the usual sense. It is offered when the dealer’s face-up card is an ace, after the first round of cards and before your second card, it is half your bet, and it pays 200% of the stake if the dealer makes blackjack. A dealer blackjack there takes your first bet — and half the bet paid 2 to 1 is exactly one bet, so with insurance a dealer blackjack leaves you even.
That is why it is called insurance, and it is still a bet. The dealer has a 10-value card under the ace on 30.8% of hands; 2 to 1 needs one in three, and the insurance loses 7.47% of its stake on average, whatever you hold. How the three rulebooks differ in their other rules is a lesson of its own.
At the table, with Maya
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
A side bet is still money from the same limit you set at the door. Decide that limit before you sit down, and count every seguro inside it.
Losing hands are not a debt the table owes you, and a side bet will not pay them back. If it stops feeling like a night out, the lines below are there for exactly that.
If it stops being fun
If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. Minimum entry age: each province sets its own. Where we found the rule or regulator that sets it, we cite it on the page; those we found set it at 18. More on responsible gaming.
Show all provinces
If you are thinking about suicide, call 135 or 0800 345 1435 from anywhere in the country
Practice: take it or leave it
Each hand is dealt at a table named above it, with the seguro as that rulebook offers it. Nothing here is scored. This practice is a reference: the hands come one after another, each with its reading underneath.
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Córdoba · rules published by Lotería de Córdoba
Dealer
You
Your first card is an ace. The dealer offers the seguro: half your bet that your second card will be a 10-value card, paid 2 to 1. Take it?
The answer: Leave it.
Here the seguro is a bet on your own second card, not insurance against the dealer: it pays 2 to 1 if the card is a 10-value card, and fewer than one second card in three is. On average it loses 7.47% of its stake.
puede desafiar al pagador que la segunda será una figura ( K, Q, J o 10 ), para lo cual deberá colocar otra apuesta igual a la mitad de la postura original fuera del casillero, si acierta gana en proporción 2 por 1Free translation: may challenge the pagador that the second card will be a face card (K, Q, J or 10), for which he must place another bet equal to half of the original stake outside the box; if he is right he wins at odds of 2 to 1
Lotería de Córdoba · Reglamento del juego «Black Jack» · section Otras apuestas, 4) Desafío o seguro · readThe other hands work the same way: the same word at a table dealt by another rulebook, and every figure worked out by the same engine.
How the practice works
The hands. All four are fixed, not dealt: each is a moment where one of the rulebooks offers its seguro, or does not. Every figure comes from the same engine as the figures on this page.
No score. There is no round and no threshold. Your answers stay in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
Further reading
18+ under each province’s rules · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page
Further reading
- Reglamento del juego «Black Jack» · Lotería de Córdoba S.E.Córdoba’s full rules for blackjack: eight decks, the dealer stands on 17, a blackjack pays 150 %, and how doubling, splitting and insurance work.
- Resolución 1452/12, Anexo I: Black Jack modalidad carta descubierta (Reglamento del Juego) · Instituto Provincial de Lotería y Casinos de la Provincia de Buenos AiresThe Buenos Aires province rulebook for its face-up blackjack, including the rules for opening pairs, aces and tens.
- Black Jack / Juegos tradicionales de casinos (DOC-H8-GCA-CSJ-001 V00) · Instituto de Ayuda Financiera a la Acción Social, Entre RíosA one-page player guide from Entre Ríos, approved 20 August 2021.
- Información sobre juegos vivos o de paño: juegos carteados · Instituto Provincial de Juegos y Casinos de Mendoza (SAPIA)Mendoza’s public information on card games: blackjack terms, payouts and the dealer’s fixed rule.
How it’s worked out
Rules, numbers and hosts
Which rules. Each column follows one published document: the blackjack rulebook Lotería de Córdoba publishes for its casinos, the player guide IAFAS publishes, and the rulebook IPLyC publishes for the casinos of its province. Every rule carries a button with the document’s own sentence, its section and the date we read it. We do not say which rulebook any particular room follows on any particular night.
Numbers. Every share is worked out when the page is built, by our blackjack engine: the chance of a 10-value card with the cards already seen taken out of the shoe, on eight decks where the rulebook says eight and on six where the guide gives no number, and the average result of a stake paid 2 to 1 on it. Amounts are in betting units for the example bet named beside them.
Hosts. Maya and Leo are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former floor supervisor and a former dealer, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.
No promise. Blackjack is played against the house, and every bet on this page keeps a share for it. Leaving the seguro saves that share; it does not make the game free.
The seguro in Córdoba
puede desafiar al pagador que la segunda será una figura ( K, Q, J o 10 ), para lo cual deberá colocar otra apuesta igual a la mitad de la postura original fuera del casillero, si acierta gana en proporción 2 por 1Free translation: may challenge the pagador that the second card will be a face card (K, Q, J or 10), for which he must place another bet equal to half of the original stake outside the box; if he is right he wins at odds of 2 to 1
Section Otras apuestas, 4) Desafío o seguro
Lotería de Córdoba · Reglamento del juego «Black Jack» · read
The seguro in Entre Rios
puede asegurar que su segunda carta será un 10 (diez) o una figura (J,Q,K), realizando una apuesta adicional (Seguro) que será la mitad de la postura original.Free translation: may insure that his second card will be a 10 (ten) or a face card (J,Q,K), by making an additional bet (Seguro) that will be half of the original stake.
Si acierta, se le pagará el doble del seguroFree translation: If he is right, he will be paid double the seguro
Section Seguro
IAFAS · Black Jack / Juegos Tradicionales de Casinos (DOC-H8-GCA-CSJ-001 V00) · read
The seguro in PBA
Es la apuesta optativa que tiene el Apostador cuando la CARTA SUPERIOR de la Banca fuera un AS, asegurando su apuesta original ante la posible conformación de un Black Jack.Free translation: It is the optional bet that the Bettor has when the UP CARD of the Banca is an ACE, insuring his original bet against the possible formation of a Black Jack.
La apuesta de SEGURO deberá ser el 50 por ciento(50%) de la apuesta original y abonará, en caso de que la Banca forme Black Jack, el doscientos por ciento (200%).Free translation: The SEGURO bet must be 50 percent (50%) of the original bet and, if the Banca makes Black Jack, it will pay two hundred percent (200%).
Cuando el Tallador, luego de dar la primera ronda de naipes, descubre unFree translation: When the Tallador, after dealing the first round of cards, turns up an
como CARTA SUPERIOR, llamará a SEGURO. Luego de una pausa, cerrará las apuestas a SEGURO y continuará con la segunda ronda de naipesFree translation: as the UP CARD, he will call SEGURO. After a pause, he will close the bets on SEGURO and continue with the second round of cards
Section Cap. 9, 9.3.6, 9.6.6.4, 9.10.5
When the seguro is called in PBA
Es la apuesta optativa que tiene el Apostador cuando la CARTA SUPERIOR de la Banca fuera un AS, asegurando su apuesta original ante la posible conformación de un Black Jack.Free translation: It is the optional bet that the Bettor has when the UP CARD of the Banca is an ACE, insuring his original bet against the possible formation of a Black Jack.
La apuesta de SEGURO deberá ser el 50 por ciento(50%) de la apuesta original y abonará, en caso de que la Banca forme Black Jack, el doscientos por ciento (200%).Free translation: The SEGURO bet must be 50 percent (50%) of the original bet and, if the Banca makes Black Jack, it will pay two hundred percent (200%).
Cuando el Tallador, luego de dar la primera ronda de naipes, descubre unFree translation: When the Tallador, after dealing the first round of cards, turns up an
como CARTA SUPERIOR, llamará a SEGURO. Luego de una pausa, cerrará las apuestas a SEGURO y continuará con la segunda ronda de naipesFree translation: as the UP CARD, he will call SEGURO. After a pause, he will close the bets on SEGURO and continue with the second round of cards
Section Cap. 9, 9.3.6, 9.6.6.4, 9.10.5
The stake in PBA
La apuesta de SEGURO deberá ser el 50 por ciento(50%) de la apuesta originalFree translation: The INSURANCE bet must be 50 percent (50%) of the original bet
Section Cap. 9, 9.6.6.4
A dealer blackjack in PBA
En caso que el Apostador haya DUPLICADO LA APUESTA, si la Banca forma Black Jack, perderá la APUESTA ORIGINAL, o sea el cincuenta por ciento (50%) del monto total apostado.Free translation: If the Bettor has DOUBLED THE BET, and the Banca makes Black Jack, he will lose the ORIGINAL BET, that is, fifty percent (50%) of the total amount wagered.
Si no se excediese en una de las posturas, perderá la apuesta original, o sea el cincuenta por ciento (50%).Free translation: If he does not go over on one of the hands, he will lose the original bet, that is, fifty percent (50%).
Section Cap. 9, 9.6.4.1, 9.6.3.1.1
The seguro in Córdoba
puede desafiar al pagador que la segunda será una figura ( K, Q, J o 10 ), para lo cual deberá colocar otra apuesta igual a la mitad de la postura original fuera del casillero, si acierta gana en proporción 2 por 1Free translation: may challenge the pagador that the second card will be a face card (K, Q, J or 10), for which he must place another bet equal to half of the original stake outside the box; if he is right he wins at odds of 2 to 1
Section Otras apuestas, 4) Desafío o seguro
Lotería de Córdoba · Reglamento del juego «Black Jack» · read
The seguro, as the country’s rulebooks describe it
SEGURO: Es la apuesta optativa que tiene el Apostador cuando la CARTA SUPERIOR de la Banca fuera un AS, asegurando su apuesta original ante la posible conformación de un Black Jack.Free translation: INSURANCE: This is the optional bet available to the Bettor when the Banca's UP CARD is an ACE, insuring his original bet against the possible formation of a Black Jack.
Section Capítulo 9, Black Jack modalidad carta descubierta: Reglamento del Juego (9.1 a 9.14)
Seguro: Si el jugador recibe un "As" en su primera carta, puede asegurar que su segunda carta será un 10 (diez) o una figura (J,Q,K), realizando una apuesta adicional (Seguro) que será la mitad de la postura original.Free translation: Insurance: If the player receives an "Ace" as his first card, he may insure that his second card will be a 10 (ten) or a face card (J,Q,K), by placing an additional bet (Insurance) equal to half of the original bet.
IAFAS Entre Ríos · Black Jack / Juegos Tradicionales de Casinos (DOC-H8-GCA-CSJ-001 V00) · read
DESAFÍO O SEGURO : El apostador que ha recibido como primera carta un "AS", puede desafiar al pagador que la segunda será una figura ( K, Q, J o 10 ), para lo cual deberá colocar otra apuesta igual a la mitad de la postura original fuera del casillero, si acierta gana en proporción 2 por 1, de lo contrario sigue su mano original hasta la decisión final en forma corriente.Free translation: CHALLENGE OR INSURANCE: A bettor who has received an "ACE" as the first card may challenge the dealer that the second will be a face card (K, Q, J or 10), for which the bettor must place another bet equal to half of the original stake outside the box; if right, the bettor wins at a proportion of 2 to 1, otherwise the original hand continues in the ordinary way until the final decision.
Lotería de Córdoba S.E. (portal) · Reglamento del juego «Black Jack» · read
Asegurar/seguro: jugada que consiste en apostar a que el crupier obtendrá blackjackFree translation: Insuring/insurance: a play consisting of betting that the dealer will get blackjack
After the seguro in Córdoba
puede desafiar al pagador que la segunda será una figura ( K, Q, J o 10 ), para lo cual deberá colocar otra apuesta igual a la mitad de la postura original fuera del casillero, si acierta gana en proporción 2 por 1Free translation: may challenge the pagador that the second card will be a face card (K, Q, J or 10), for which he must place another bet equal to half of the original stake outside the box; if he is right he wins at odds of 2 to 1
Section Otras apuestas, 4) Desafío o seguro
Lotería de Córdoba · Reglamento del juego «Black Jack» · read
The seguro in PBA
Es la apuesta optativa que tiene el Apostador cuando la CARTA SUPERIOR de la Banca fuera un AS, asegurando su apuesta original ante la posible conformación de un Black Jack.Free translation: It is the optional bet that the Bettor has when the UP CARD of the Banca is an ACE, insuring his original bet against the possible formation of a Black Jack.
La apuesta de SEGURO deberá ser el 50 por ciento(50%) de la apuesta original y abonará, en caso de que la Banca forme Black Jack, el doscientos por ciento (200%).Free translation: The SEGURO bet must be 50 percent (50%) of the original bet and, if the Banca makes Black Jack, it will pay two hundred percent (200%).
Cuando el Tallador, luego de dar la primera ronda de naipes, descubre unFree translation: When the Tallador, after dealing the first round of cards, turns up an
como CARTA SUPERIOR, llamará a SEGURO. Luego de una pausa, cerrará las apuestas a SEGURO y continuará con la segunda ronda de naipesFree translation: as the UP CARD, he will call SEGURO. After a pause, he will close the bets on SEGURO and continue with the second round of cards
Section Cap. 9, 9.3.6, 9.6.6.4, 9.10.5
A dealer blackjack in PBA
En caso que el Apostador haya DUPLICADO LA APUESTA, si la Banca forma Black Jack, perderá la APUESTA ORIGINAL, o sea el cincuenta por ciento (50%) del monto total apostado.Free translation: If the Bettor has DOUBLED THE BET, and the Banca makes Black Jack, he will lose the ORIGINAL BET, that is, fifty percent (50%) of the total amount wagered.
Si no se excediese en una de las posturas, perderá la apuesta original, o sea el cincuenta por ciento (50%).Free translation: If he does not go over on one of the hands, he will lose the original bet, that is, fifty percent (50%).
Section Cap. 9, 9.6.4.1, 9.6.3.1.1