Atlassino Academy · Blackjack · Lesson 11

One game, three rulebooks

The same blackjack as the Córdoba, PBA and Entre Rios rulebooks deal it: where the small print parts, and what each difference does to the house’s share.

  • About 20 minutes
  • Illustrated hosts: Leo and Maya
  • Last checked 19 October 2026

Three rulebooks in Argentina deal blackjack with a blackjack paid 3 to 2 and a dealer who stands on 17: those of Córdoba, PBA and Entre Rios. Played by the chart, do the three tables cost the same?

Before we start: what would you say?

Nothing is scored here. We come back to it at the end.

The short answer

No. Played by its own chart, the Córdoba table keeps 2.08% of every bet and the PBA table 0.37%: the first is several times as dear. The payout and the dealer’s rule are the same in both. The price moves on the small print: whether you may double a 10, whether your ace stays flexible, what a 10 on a split ace is paid and what a dealer blackjack takes from a double. The Entre Rios figure, 1.44%, rests on two rules its guide leaves out.

Leo rests a hand on the middle of three plain closed booklets lying on the rail of a blackjack table, while Maya compares them; on the felt one chip, two face-up cards, and the dealer's face-up card beside a face-down one.
Leo smiling, explaining with an open hand.

Leoformer dealer · rules and maths

People say “blackjack” as if it were one game. In Argentina it is one game written down three times, by three different publishers, and the three versions do not agree on the details. This lesson puts the three side by side and works out what each detail is worth.

What the three rulebooks share

The rules most players read first are the same in all three: a blackjack is paid 150% of the bet, which is 3 to 2, and a hand that finishes above the dealer’s is paid the bet again. The dealer stands on any 17 in the two rulebooks that say so. In all three, the dealer’s second card is dealt face down and stays down until the players have finished their hands. None of the three lists giving up half the bet among the player’s options.

The ruleCórdobaPBAEntre Rios
A blackjack is paid150% of the bet: 3 to 2.150%: 3 to 2.150%: 3 to 2.
The dealer on 17Stands on any 17.Stands on any 17.Not stated in the guide.
The dealer’s second cardFace down until the players have finished.Face down until the players have finished.Face down until the players have finished.
Giving up half the betNot among the player’s options in any of the three.

The quotes behind each cell are in the rulebook’s own words, in Spanish, with the section and the date we read it.

Where they part

Below the headline rules the three rulebooks go their own ways. The table lays every rule out side by side, in the words our strategy engine uses for it. Where a rulebook says nothing, the cell says so and names the reading our figures take. For the soft 17 and for what a dealer blackjack takes, that is the dearer reading. For doubling after a split, and in the Entre Rios guide for the number of decks and how far a pair may be split, it is not: the chart assumes a double after a split is allowed, six decks and up to four hands, and each of those is a little cheaper for you than the strictest reading.

The ruleCórdoba · Lotería de CórdobaPBA · IPLyCEntre Rios · IAFAS
DecksAt least eight decks; the chart counts eight decks.Eight decks.Not stated; the chart starts at six.
The dealer on a soft 17Stands.Stands.As posted at the table; the chart starts at “hits”, the dearer rule.
A blackjack is paid3:2.3:2.3:2.
Your blackjack against the dealer’sA push.Paid 50% of your bet.A push.
DoublingTwo cards totalling 11 only.Two cards totalling 10 or 11 only.Two cards totalling 11 only.
Doubling after a splitNot stated; the chart assumes yes.Not stated; the chart assumes yes.Not stated; the chart assumes yes.
SplittingUp to 2 hands.Up to 2 hands.Not stated; the chart assumes up to 4 hands.
Splitting acesNot stated; the chart assumes once, one card each.Once, one card each.Not stated; the chart assumes once, one card each.
A 10-value card on a split ace21, not a blackjack: paid 1 to 1.A blackjack, paid 3:2.21, not a blackjack: paid 1 to 1.
An ace on a split 10Not in the document.A blackjack, paid 3:2.Not in the document.
The dealer’s second cardDealt face down and turned over after the players; a dealer blackjack takes every bet on your hand, doubles and splits included.Dealt face down and turned over after the players; a dealer blackjack takes only your original bet.Dealt face down and turned over after the players; the document does not say what a dealer blackjack takes from a double or a split, and the chart counts every bet lost, the dearer reading.
A double or split against a dealer blackjackNot in the document.Only the original bet is lost.Not in the document.
An ace in your first two cardsYou declare it 1 or 11, and the choice stands for the rest of the hand.Not in the document.Not in the document.
A side bet on your second cardAfter a first-card ace, 50% of your bet that your second card is a 10-value card; pays 2 to 1. It is not insurance against a dealer blackjack.Not in the document.After a first-card ace, 50% of your bet that your second card is a 10-value card; pays 2 to 1. It is not insurance against a dealer blackjack.
InsuranceNot in the document.When the dealer shows an ace, half your bet against a dealer blackjack; pays 2 to 1.Not in the document.
Giving up half the betNot among the player options the document lists.Not among the player options the document lists.Not among the player options the document lists.

Each cell with a source button rests on the rulebook’s own sentence. “Not stated” and “the chart assumes” mark the gaps: the Entre Rios guide does not say how many decks or what the dealer does with a soft 17, so its figures assume six decks and a dealer who draws on a soft 17.

The ace you declare

At a Córdoba table an ace among your first two cards does not stay flexible. The dealer asks you to declare it as 1 or as 11, and the choice stands for the rest of the hand. So there is no two-card soft hand at that table: an ace and a 6 is either a 17 that stops or a hard 7 that plays on.

The same two cards, declared two ways. An ace that comes later in the hand is not covered by the rule and counts either way.

Everywhere else, an ace and a 6 is a soft 17: you can take a card without any risk of going over 21, because the ace drops back to 1 if it has to. Soft hands are built on that free card, and the declared ace takes it away. Of all the ways the Córdoba rulebook differs from the PBA one, this rule costs the most: 0.80% of every bet.

Doubling on 11, or on 10 and 11

Two of the rulebooks allow a double only on two cards that make 11. The PBA rulebook allows it on 10 as well. In both Córdoba and PBA the double gets exactly one card, dealt face down.

A 10 against a dealer’s 2 to 9 is a hand the chart doubles wherever it can, so the Córdoba rule takes that move off the table. It costs 0.50% of every bet, the second largest of the differences.

What a dealer blackjack takes

Because the dealer’s second card stays face down until you have played, a dealer blackjack is discovered after you have doubled or split. The rulebooks then disagree on what it takes. At a Córdoba table it takes every bet on your hand, the double and the split included. At a PBA table it takes only your original bet, and the second bet comes back. The Entre Rios guide does not say, and our figures count the dearer reading, every bet lost.

This is the rule that changes the chart most visibly. Holding 11 against a dealer’s 10, the PBA chart doubles and the Córdoba chart hits: the same cards, a different move, because at one table the second bet is at risk from a dealer blackjack and at the other it is not.

The PBA rulebook has one more rule here of its own: a player blackjack against a dealer blackjack is paid 50% of the bet. The Córdoba rulebook and the Entre Rios guide call the same hand a tie.

A 10 on a split ace

Split a pair of aces and draw a 10-value card to one of them, and the hand totals 21 in two cards. At Córdoba and Entre Rios tables that hand is an ordinary 21, paid 1 to 1. At a PBA table it is a blackjack, paid 150%, and so is an ace drawn to a split 10.

Every rulebook that says how far you may split allows one split per hand. The 150% on a split ace, together with a dealer blackjack that takes only the original bet, is why the PBA chart splits aces even against a dealer’s ace.

A bet on your second card, and insurance

Two rulebooks offer a side bet when your first card is an ace: half your stake, placed outside the betting spot, that your second card will be a 10-value card, paid 2 to 1. Córdoba calls it the desafío o seguro, Entre Rios the seguro. It is a bet on your own card, not on the dealer’s.

The PBA rulebook offers insurance instead: when the dealer’s face-up card is an ace, half your bet against the dealer making blackjack, paid 2 to 1. Different bets, and the same price: both pay 2 to 1 on a 10-value card, and both lose about 7.47% of what is put on them on average. Neither changes the chart for the main hand, and the chart never takes either one.

What each rule is worth

Played by the full chart, the three rulebooks leave the house these shares of every bet.

Córdoba2.08% of every bet
PBA0.37% of every bet
Entre Rios1.44% of every bet, on the guide’s gaps filled as the table below says

Each share is for the rulebook’s own chart, worked out by our engine; the Entre Rios guide does not say how many decks or what the dealer does with a soft 17, so its figures assume six decks and a dealer who draws on a soft 17.

To see where the gap between Córdoba and PBA comes from, take the Córdoba rulebook and change one rule at a time to the PBA version, leaving everything else alone.

The Córdoba ruleThe PBA rule in its placeThe house’s share thenWhat the Córdoba rule costs
The ace in your first two cards is declared once, as 1 or 11The ace counts 1 or 11 as the hand goes on1.28%0.80%
Doubling only on 11Doubling on 10 or 111.58%0.50%
A dealer blackjack takes doubles and splits tooA dealer blackjack takes only the original bet1.97%0.12%
A 10 on a split ace is 21, paid 1 to 1A 10 on a split ace is a blackjack, paid 3 to 21.89%0.19%
Your blackjack against the dealer’s is a tieYour blackjack against the dealer’s is paid 50%1.97%0.11%

One rule changes in each row; the mark on each bar is the Córdoba share. The rows do not add up exactly to the gap between the two tables, because the rules work on the same hands: the costs overlap.

The Entre Rios figure moves with its two gaps. If its dealer stands on 17, as at the other two tables, the share is 1.22%; with eight decks as well, 1.24%. Which of those is true at a given table is a question for the table, and the guide does not answer it.

The same hand, a different move

Most of the chart is the same at all three tables: stand on 17 or more, stand on 13 to 16 against a dealer’s 2 to 6, hit them against a 7 or more. These are the hands where the three charts part.

Your handThe dealer showsCórdobaPBAEntre Rios
Hard 102 to 9HitDoubleHit
Hard 1110HitDoubleHit
An ace and a 79 to an aceStandHitHit
A pair of 3s2HitSplitHit
A pair of 4s6HitSplitSplit
A pair of 5s2 to 9HitDoubleHit
A pair of 8s10 or an aceHitSplitHit
A pair of acesan aceHitSplitHit

Every cell is the chart our engine works out for that rulebook; “Double” means double if the table allows it and hit otherwise. At the Córdoba table the ace in your first two cards is declared, so “Stand” on an ace and a 7 means declaring 11, and “Hit” on a pair of aces means playing them as one hand. The Entre Rios column counts six decks and a dealer who draws on a soft 17, the two rules its guide leaves out.

The hard totals on their own, decision by decision, are a lesson of their own.

Maya with a hand on her chest, speaking gently and seriously.

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

A cheaper rulebook is still a game that costs money, and the difference between two tables is small next to how far one evening can swing either way. Decide the money and the time before you sit down, and stop when either one is used up, whichever table you are at.

Losing hands are not a debt the table owes you. Putting more down to get it back only makes the evening dearer. 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
0800-666-6006Buenos Aires City (CABA) · Línea de orientación por juego problemático (LOTBA) · Monday to Friday, 9 to 17
0800-444-4000Buenos Aires Province · Programa de Prevención y Asistencia al Juego Compulsivo (IPLyC)
0800-777-2983Cordoba · Línea 0800-777-AYUDA (Lotería de Córdoba) · 24 hours
0800-268-5640Santa Fe · Línea gratuita de la APRECOD (Santa Fe) · Every day, 8 to 24
0800-888-2202Entre Rios · Departamento Juego Responsable (IAFAS, PREVENJUEGO)
0261-424-7536Mendoza · Programa de Juego Responsable (IPJyC) · Monday to Friday, 8 to 14
0800-888-5836Misiones · Programa de Juego Responsable del IPLyC S.E. (0800-888-LUDO)
0800-888-2008Chaco · Línea de Juego Responsable (Lotería Chaqueña)
0299-403-8900Neuquen · Líneas de contacto, orientación y tratamiento (IJAN, juego responsable) · Monday to Friday, 8 to 15
0800-222-1700Rio Negro · Línea de Orientación al Jugador Problemático (Lotería de Río Negro)
02901-433515Tierra del Fuego · Departamento Juego Responsable (IPRA, Ushuaia)
0800-555-7678Tucuman · Juego Responsable, Ley 8986 (Caja Popular de Ahorros)
0800-999-1314San Juan · Línea gratuita del Programa Provincial de Juego Responsable (Caja de Acción Social) · Monday to Friday, 08 to 12

If you are thinking about suicide, call 135 or 0800 345 1435 from anywhere in the country

Practice: three tables, one hand

Each hand is dealt at a table named above it. Some hands come twice, at two tables: the cards are the same, the rulebook is not, and the move can change with it. Every figure is the average result of a move as a share of the bet, from the same engine as the tables on this page.

Nothing here is scored. This practice is a reference: the hands come one after another, each with its reading underneath.

The practice table needs JavaScript. Here is one hand from it, with the answer.

Córdoba · rules published by Lotería de Córdoba

Dealer

KKK

You

6655

What does the chart for this table’s rules say?

The answer: Hit.

Under these rules the dealer’s second card stays face down until every player has finished, and a dealer blackjack then takes every bet on your hand, the double included. Against a 10 that happens often enough to make a plain hit worth 2.3% more than doubling. Every figure is the average result of the move as a share of your bet, over every way the rest of the hand can go.

dará una segunda carta descubierta para cada una de las apuestas y una para sí cubierta.

Free translation: will deal a second card face up for each of the bets and one face down for himself.

Una vez determinados los puntajes de los apostadores, el pagador definirá el suyo de acuerdo con las siguientes reglas

Free translation: Once the bettors' scores have been determined, the pagador will settle his own according to the following rules

Descubrirá su segunda carta y efectuará la sumatoria de ésta y la primera.

Free translation: He will turn up his second card and add it to the first.

Cuando el pagador finalice con su juego, descubrirá la carta tapada del jugador y comparará el puntaje obtenido con el suyo, valiendo para la definición lo establecido en el punto catorce (14) del Desarrollo del Juego.

Free translation: When the pagador has finished his play, he will turn up the player's face-down card and compare the score obtained with his own, the provisions of point fourteen (14) of the Game Procedure applying to the settlement.

Lotería de Córdoba · Reglamento del juego «Black Jack» · section Desarrollo del juego, 8), 12) y 14); Otras apuestas, 1) · read

The other hands work the same way: the same question at a table dealt by another rulebook, and every figure worked out by the same engine as the tables on this page.

How the practice works

The hands. All ten are fixed, not dealt: each is a position where the three rulebooks’ charts part, or a side bet one rulebook offers. The right move is the chart’s cell for that table’s rules, and every amount is the average result of the move over every way the rest of the hand can go.

No score. There is no round and no threshold. Your answers stay in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Check yourself

Maya with a finger raised and a knowing look.

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.

A question marked “New situation” asks you to use the lesson on a case it did not show.

1At a Córdoba table you hold an ace and a 7 and the dealer shows a 10. The dealer asks how you count the ace. What does the chart say?

Show the answer

Answer: Declare it 11 and stand on 18. At this table the ace in your first two cards is declared once. Declared 11, the hand is 18 and stands; declared 1, it is a hard 8 that has to start again. Against a 10, 18 is the better of the two by 6.5% of the bet.

  • Declare it 11 and stand on 18 Against a 10, 18 standing still is worth −24.1% of the bet, 6.5% better than playing on from a hard 8.
  • Declare it 1 and take a card on 8 From a hard 8 the hand is worth −30.6%: once the ace is declared 1 it cannot come back as 11.
  • Keep the ace open and decide after the next card Not at this table: the choice is made when the dealer asks, and it stands for the rest of the hand.
2At a PBA table you hold a 6 and a 5 and the dealer shows a 10. What does the chart say?

Show the answer

Answer: Double: a dealer blackjack would take only the first bet. Under the PBA rules a dealer blackjack takes only your original bet. So the second bet of a double is safe from it, and doubling 11 against a 10 is worth 5.9% of the bet more than hitting. At a Córdoba table the same hand is a hit.

  • Hit: against a 10 the dealer may have blackjack That is the right reasoning at a table where a dealer blackjack takes the double too. Here it takes only the first bet, and the double is worth 5.9% more than a hit.
  • Double: a dealer blackjack would take only the first bet Right for this table: doubling is worth +17.8% of the first bet against +11.8% for a hit.
  • Stand: let the dealer go over 21 Standing on 11 is worth −54.0%: no card can take 11 over 21, so standing gives up a free card.
3Two tables deal blackjack, one by the Córdoba rulebook and one by the PBA rulebook. Which leaves the house the larger share of every bet, played by the chart?

Show the answer

Answer: Córdoba, by a wide margin. Córdoba: 2.08% of every bet against 0.37%. The two rulebooks agree on the payout and on the dealer’s 17; the difference is in the declared ace, doubling only on 11, split aces and what a dealer blackjack takes.

  • Córdoba, by a wide margin Played by its chart, the Córdoba table keeps 2.08% of every bet, against 0.37% for the PBA table.
  • PBA, because its dealer’s blackjack counts against your double It is the other way round: at the PBA table a dealer blackjack takes only the original bet.
  • Neither: both pay a blackjack 3 to 2 and both dealers stand on 17 Those two rules are the same, and they are the rules most people read first. The share moves on the small print: doubling, the declared ace, split aces and what a dealer blackjack takes.
4At an Entre Rios table your first card is an ace, and you are offered the seguro for half your bet. What is it a bet on?

Show the answer

Answer: That your own second card will be a 10-value card. The Entre Rios guide describes it as a bet that your second card will be a 10 or a face card, half the size of your bet and paid double. It has nothing to do with the dealer’s cards. On average it loses 7.40% of what you put on it, counted on six decks because the guide does not give the number.

  • A refund of half your bet if the hand goes wrong Nothing comes back on a hand that goes wrong; giving up half the bet is not among the options at any of the three tables.
  • That the dealer has a blackjack That is insurance, and it is what the PBA rules offer instead, when the dealer’s face-up card is an ace.
  • That your own second card will be a 10-value card Right: the bet is placed when your first card is an ace, and it is decided by your next card, not the dealer’s.
5A friend says: “Blackjack here pays 3 to 2 and the dealer stands on 17 everywhere, so one table is as good as another.” What would you tell them? new situation

Show the answer

Answer: The headline rules match, the small print does not, and the small print moves the price. The rules people read first are the same in all three rulebooks. The rules that move the price are further down: Córdoba keeps 2.08% of every bet played by the chart and PBA 0.37%. That is the difference between two rulebooks, not between a good evening and a bad one: every table keeps a share, and no table is free.

  • The tables differ only in how much you can bet Table limits decide how much each hand takes from your pocket, not the share the house keeps of it. The rulebooks themselves differ.
  • The headline rules match, the small print does not, and the small print moves the price Right. Córdoba keeps 2.08%, PBA 0.37%, and the Entre Rios figure rests on two rules its guide leaves out.
  • Agree: with 3 to 2 and the dealer standing on 17, the tables cost the same Two rules out of a dozen are the same. The ones that differ decide whether you may double a 10, whether your ace stays flexible and what a dealer blackjack takes.

And the question at the start

No. Played by its chart, the Córdoba table keeps 2.08% of every bet and the PBA table 0.37%, several times as much at the first. Most of that gap is two rules: the declared ace and doubling only on 11.

Further reading

18+ under each province’s rules · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page

Further reading

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 rulebook IPLyC publishes for the casinos of its province, and the player guide IAFAS publishes. Every rule on this page 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 and every figure is worked out when the page is built, by our blackjack engine, for the rulebook’s full chart with the cards shuffled after every hand. In the table of what each rule is worth, exactly one rule changes in each row. Where a document is silent the engine takes one reading and the page names it. On the soft 17 and on what a dealer blackjack takes it is the dearer one: for Entre Rios, a dealer who draws on a soft 17 and a dealer blackjack that takes every bet on the hand. On the rest it is the reading the chart is built on, a little cheaper than the strictest one: a double after a split allowed at all three tables, and for Entre Rios six decks and up to four hands. Read strictly, those gaps would put each share somewhat higher. Our checks recompute each figure from the engine rather than reading it back from this page.

What is deliberately absent. There is no price of an hour: that needs a measured pace of hands, and no document we could read gives one for these tables. There are no amounts in money, only shares of the bet. And there is no ranking of casinos: a rulebook is a set of terms, not a recommendation.

Hosts. Leo and Maya are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former dealer and a former floor supervisor, 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 table on this page keeps a share of every bet. Knowing which rulebook is dearer does not make any table free, and nothing here says how an evening will end.

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