Atlassino Academy · Other tables · Lesson 8

Chuck a Luck and Corona y Ancla: three dice

Two games of three dice from the national catalogue of games of Chile: Corona y Ancla, played on figures, and Chuck a Luck, played on the sum in a cage. Here is how each bet is paid, and what each costs.

About 13 minutes
Illustrated hosts: Leo and Maya
Last checked 4 November 2026

Three dice, two different games, and a layout of boxes in front of you. What does a chip on each box cost?

The short answer

In Corona y Ancla you put a chip on a figure, and it is paid once for each die that shows it. By our count that costs 7.87% of the chip on average. In Chuck a Luck you bet on the sum of the three dice: the Field costs 3.70%, Any Treble 13.89%, and Low and High 25% each, because the two commonest sums, 10 and 11, are paid by no bet at all.

Leo smiling, explaining with an open hand.

Leoformer dealer · rules and maths

Same three dice, two very different tables. One is played on pictures, the other on a sum. Every rule below is from one national catalogue, and every price from one count.

Two games, three dice

Next to craps, the dice section of the national catalogue of games of the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ) holds two games played with three dice. In both, the croupier sets the dice going, the players bet on what they will show, and the croupier then collects the chips that lost and pays the ones that are owed. Once “no más apuestas” has been called and the dice are moving, no bet can be placed, taken back, made smaller or made larger.

A throw that does not settle cleanly does not count: a die that falls to the floor in Corona y Ancla, or one that does not lie flat at the bottom of the cage in Chuck a Luck, and the throw is void. The limits of every game are posted in the room.

Corona y Ancla: one figure, three dice

The dice of Corona y Ancla have no pips or numbers. Each face carries a figure: the four card suits, a spade, a heart, a diamond and a club, plus a crown and an anchor. The same six figures are drawn on the layout, and you bet on the ones you choose.

The croupier shakes the three dice in a cup and throws them. The figures on the upper faces are the ones paid; the figures that do not appear, and those left on the side faces, lose. A chip is paid by how many times its figure repeats on the upper faces: 1 to 1 for one, 2 to 1 for two, 3 to 1 for three.

Corona y Ancla: a chip on one figureWhat a chip of 10 units is paid, and on how many of the 216 ways three dice can fall.
Your figure shows on	Paid	Throws of 216
Three dice	3 to 1: 30 units	1
Two dice	2 to 1: 20 units	15
One die	1 to 1: 10 units	75
No die	The chip is lost	125

The catalogue’s own example: chips on the anchor and on the heart, and the dice show one anchor and two hearts. The anchor is paid 1 to 1, the heart 2 to 1.

Your figure shows on at least one die on 91 of the 216 throws, 42.13% of the time. On the rest, the chip is lost.

Chuck a Luck: the sum in the cage

Chuck a Luck uses three ordinary dice inside a metal cage shaped like an hourglass. The croupier turns the cage at least twice, and the number that counts is the sum of the three upper faces.

There are four bets. Low is a bet on the sums from 3 to 9, High on the sums from 12 to 18, the Field on 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15 and 16, and Any Treble on any three of a kind. Low, High and the Field are paid 1 to 1, Any Treble 30 to 1, and when the dice add up to 10 or 11, every player loses.

Chuck a Luck: every sum of three diceWhich bets each sum pays, and on how many of the 216 ways three dice can fall it comes up. Any Treble is paid on three of a kind, whatever the sum.
Sum	Paid on it	Throws of 216
3	Low	1
4	Low	3
5	Low, Field	6
6	Low, Field	10
7	Low, Field	15
8	Low, Field	21
9	Low	25
10	Every bet is lost	27
11	Every bet is lost	27
12	High	25
13	High, Field	21
14	High, Field	15
15	High, Field	10
16	High, Field	6
17	High	3
18	High	1

Read down the right-hand column: 10 and 11 are the two sums that come up most often, 27 throws each, and they are exactly the two that no bet pays.

What each bet costs

The catalogue prints what each bet pays, not what it costs. The table below is our own count: all 216 ways three dice can fall, each bet settled by the catalogue’s pay table.

What each bet costsOur own count over all 216 ways three dice can fall, one chip on the bet each throw.
The bet	Pays	Paid on, of 216 throws	Of every 216 chips, the table keeps	Cost, on average
Field (Chuck a Luck)	1 to 1	104	8	3.70%
One figure (Corona y Ancla)	1, 2 or 3 to 1	91	17	7.87%
Any Treble (Chuck a Luck)	30 to 1	6	30	13.89%
Low (Chuck a Luck)	1 to 1	81	54	25%
High (Chuck a Luck)	1 to 1	81	54	25%

The spread is wide for one set of dice. A chip on the Field loses a little; a chip on Low or High loses a quarter of itself on average, because the two sums they leave out are the two that come up most. Any Treble pays the most and is still dearer than the Field: a large payout on a rare throw is not a low price.

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

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

Decide the money and the time for the evening before you sit down, and leave the table when either runs out. A throw that took your chip is not a debt the next throw owes you.

If the money on the table starts to feel like money you need, stop for the evening. The box below is there for exactly that.

If it stops being fun

If gambling stops being fun, the SCJ self-exclusion applies in every casino in the country. Minimum entry age: 18 (age of majority under Law 19.221; Law 19.995 bars minors from gaming rooms). The casino may ask for an official ID. More on responsible gaming.

Show all regions

+56 2 2589 3000All regions · Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego — Central Telefónica

Practice: pay the figures, settle the cage

Level 1 shows three dice of Corona y Ancla and your chips on the figures, and asks what they come to. Level 2 shows the three dice of Chuck a Luck and your chips on the sums. The 10 units on each box is an example bet, not a suggested bet.

Nothing is bet here, and nothing is random. Each question is a set picture of dice, and the answer is worked out from the same rules as the rest of the page.

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

Corona y Ancla

Die 1anchor
Die 2heart
Die 3heart

anchor10 units
heart10 units

What do your chips come to on balance?

20 units lost on balance Not this one. A chip is lost only when its figure shows on none of the three upper faces.
20 units paid on balance Not this one. A figure that shows on more than one die is paid once for each die, not once in all.
30 units paid on balance The anchor shows on one die, paid 1 to 1; the heart shows on two dice, paid 2 to 1.

In Corona y Ancla each chip is on one figure. It is paid once for every die whose upper face shows that figure: 1 to 1 for one die, 2 to 1 for two, 3 to 1 for three. A figure that does not show loses its chip.

Chuck a Luck

Low10 units

What do your chips come to on balance?

10 units lost on balance The sum is 10, and on 10 or 11 every bet on the layout is lost.
Nothing on balance Not this one. Nothing is returned in Chuck a Luck: a chip is either paid or lost.
10 units paid on balance Not this one. Each bet is paid only on the sums it covers.

In Chuck a Luck only the sum of the three dice counts. Low pays on 3 to 9, High on 12 to 18, and the Field on 5 to 8 and 13 to 16, each 1 to 1; Any Treble pays 30 to 1 on three of a kind; and when the sum is 10 or 11, every bet on the layout is lost.

Every question in the practice run is worked out the same way: the dice are put through the same rules as the rest of the page, and the answer comes out of that, not out of anybody’s memory.

How the practice run works

Where the questions come from. Every answer is worked out when the page is built, by the pay tables of the national catalogue of games. The wrong answers are named mistakes: a figure paid once although two dice show it, a chip taken for lost when its figure did show, a low sum taken for Low when it is 10, and Any Treble’s payout given to an ordinary bet.

One strip, and no rounds. Every square on the strip is one question of this lesson, and all of the squares are there from the start. Your first answer fills the square it belongs to; when the squares of one level are full, the next level begins by itself. Practising a question you got wrong turns its cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count, because only first answers count.

Your progress stays in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.

How it’s worked out

Rules, numbers, sources and hosts

Where the rules come from. Everything on this page follows sections IV.2 (Corona y Ancla) and IV.3 (Chuck a Luck) of the national catalogue of games of the Superintendencia de Casinos de Juego (SCJ), one set of rules for every casino in Chile. Which rooms put out these tables is not in any document we read.

Numbers. Every price and every count is worked out exactly: each of the 216 ways three dice can fall, each bet settled by the catalogue’s pay table. The count for a figure in Corona y Ancla is the same for each of the six figures. Nothing here is typed in by hand.

Our readings. The catalogue’s Low is every sum from 3 to 9 and its High every sum from 12 to 18, with no exception written for three of a kind, so a throw of three twos is counted as Low and three fives as High. No document we read prints how many throws a table makes in an hour, so there is no price of an hour here.

Sources. Every rule on this page carries a button with the sentence it rests on, in the catalogue’s own Spanish, the publisher who wrote that sentence and the date we read it.

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. Every bet on both tables has a price. Knowing the price lets you choose what you pay; nothing on this page changes how the dice fall, and nothing here says how an evening at the table would end.

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