But in some ways craps is like an American fast-food restaurant with a secret menu, ways of combining standard ingredients that aren't listed on the big board but are known to customers and workers alike.
Hop bets are prime offering on craps' secret menu. There's not a space on the layout to illustrate them. You have to know they're available to make them.
The hop bet pays 15 to 1 plus the player receives one-third of his $3 hop 7 back ($1) when he wins the bet. Roll # 1 - hop 7 for $3 = lose $3 Roll # 2 - hop 7 for $3 = lose $3 total = $6 Roll # 3 - hop 7 for $3 = lose $3 total = $9 Roll # 4 - hop 7 for $3 = lose $3 total = $12 Roll # 5 - hop 7 for $3 = win $15 plus $1 bet return or $16 - net. The house edge for the easy hop bets include a 5.56% house edge for 16:1 payouts, a 11.11% house edge for 15:1 payouts, and a 16.67% house edge for 14:1 payouts. The house edge on hop bets are pretty bad, especially when a casino is stingy with its payoffs. In many cases, hop bets are sucker bets. Alternative rules and bets such as the Fire Bet, Crapless Craps, and Card Craps. California craps. How craps is played in California using playing cards. Craps game using cards at the Viejas casino in San Diego. Number of Rolls Table. Probability of a shooter lasting 1 to 200 rolls before a seven-out.
Hop Bet Strategy Despite not being on the table layout, the Hop bet is still considered one of the proposition bets on craps. As such, it is among some of the least advantageous options to bet on if you are looking for a fruitful outcome. Proposition Bets and Hop Bets are all one-roll bets located in the center of the layout. The Stickman places these bets on the appropriate betting area, and they win only if that specific combination of the number rolls on the next toss of the dice. These high paying bets are an exciting part of the game, with some of these bets paying as high.
WHAT IS A HOP BET?
When you want to be the next roll will bring two specific numbers on the dice, you want a hop bet.
For example, if you want to bet the next roll will be a 6 on one die and a 4 on the other, you ask the dealer for 6-4 on the hop, or 6-4 hopping.
There are two types of hop bets: Easy hops and hard hops.
An easy hop is when you're betting the dice will land on two different numbers. Combinations such as 4-3, 5-2, 6-3 or 3-2 alls would be easy hops.
If both numbers are the same, it's a hard hop. 6-6, 5-5, 4-4, 3-3, 2-2 or 1-1 hopping are all hard hops.
The difference is that there are two ways to win at craps on any of the easy hops and only one way to win on a hard hop.
If you bet 6-4 hopping, you win if the first die is a 6 and the second a 4, and also if the second die is a 6 and the first die is a 4.
If you bet 4-4 hopping, both dice have to land on 4. That's only one roll.
That you're twice as likely to win with an easy hop is reflected in the payoffs. Winners pay 30-1 on hard hops and 15-1 on easy hops.
HOPS TOTALS
If you want to bet total of the two dice as a one-roll bet, you can give the dealer the total and tell him it's on the hop. You then get all the combinations that yield that total.
For example, if you tell the dealer you want 10 hopping, you would win on 6-4, 4-6 and 5-5. If you want 9 hopping, you would win on 6-3, 3-6, 5-4 and 4-5.
That affects payoffs, since there are more possibilities. If you bet on 10 hopping, it's the equivalent of having half your bet on 6-4 hopping and half on 5-5.
Imagine you've wagered $2 on 10 hopping. That's the same as $1 on 6-4 and $1 on 5-5. So if the roll is 6-4, you're paid 30-1 on $1 and the house keeps the other $1. If the roll is 5-5, you're paid 15-1 on $1 and the house keeps the other $1.
So it goes on other hop totals. An 8 hopping is essentially is three bets, easy hops on 6-2 and 5-3 and the hard hop on 4-4. On any winner, you're paid for that portion while the house keeps the portion of the overall wager that corresponds to the other possibilities.
HOW AND WHEN TO MAKE HOP BETS
Unlike pass, don't pass, come, don't come and the field, you can't just put your chips down and make a hop bet. The dealer has to know what you're doing.
To make a hop bet, you place chips on the layout and tell the dealer what you want -- 5-3 hopping, or 4-2 on the hop.
After the next roll, the dealer will pay you if you win or the house will keep your chips if you lose.
You can make hop bets before any roll, but it's rare to make them on the comeout roll.
Novices will notice there is a period for betting before the stickman pushes the dice to the shooter for the next roll. Once the shooter has the dice, you can't make any more bets. But until the dice are to the shooter, you can put your chips on the layout and ask the dealer for your hop.
ODDS AND PERCENTAGES
There are 36 possible rolls of two dice, with one way each to make 2 or 12, two ways each to make 3 or 11, three ways each to make 4 or 10, four ways each to make 5 or 9, five ways each to make 6 or 10 and six ways to make 7.
With easy hops, two of those rolls are winners. That leaves 34 ways to lose and two ways to win. Expressed as odds against winning, that's 34-2, or 17-1.
Looking at hard hops, there's only one potential winner and 35 losers for each hard hop wager. Odds against winning are 35-1.
Turning to the house edge, we have to consider not only the chances of winning, but the payoffs.
Easy hops pay 15-1, compared to those true odds of 17-1.
If you bet $1 each on 36 rolls in which each number came up once, you would win twice. On each win you would keep the $1 wager and collect $15 in winnings.
Add the two $15 wins and the two $1 bets you keep and at the end of the trial you have $32 of the $36 you wagered. The house keeps the rest.
Divide the $4 the house keeps by your $36 in wagers, and you get 0.1111. Multiply by 100 to convert to percent, and the house edge is 11.11 percent.
On hard hops, the payoff is 30-1. Per 36 rolls, you win once, keeping a $1 wager and claiming $30 in winnings for a total of $31. The house keeps $5.
Divide that $5 by $36, and you bet 0.1389. Multiply by 100, and the house edge on hard hops is 13.89 percent.
HOP BET PLAYING STRATEGY
Players seeking the lowest house edge in craps would avoid hops bets like the plague.
There are much better bets on the table. Pass and come have house edges of 1.41 perent while don't pass and don't come are at 1.36. All and be dropped to less than 1 percent with judicious use of free odds.
Place bets on 6 and 8 check in at 1.52 percent. All place bets, buy bets and bets where don't bettors lay the point numbers have lower edges than the 11.11 percent on easy hops and 13.89 percent on hard hops.
The hops are comparable to the center table one-roll propositions. The house edge on easy hops is lower than the 16.67 percent on any 7 and the same as on the one-roll any craps proposition, where you're betting the next roll will be 2, 3 or 12.
So what kind of bettor uses hops bets?
Mainly, hops are for players looking to make a big score on a single wager. Pass, come, don't pass and don't come pay even money. Winning place bets on 6 and 8 pay 7-6 odds.
The best bets, the ones that give you the best shot at long-term wins, do not yield big wins in one shot.
Hunch players and others hoping for a quick strike have hop bets among their favorites.
Alternatively, players who stick to the best bets overall sometimes will try to spice up their games during winning sessions by mixing in low probability, high yield bets such as hops. A pass and come player who is ahead might try for a quick bankroll boost with small hop bets.
However, hops are not part of any strategy designed for the best chance to grind out a profit for extended play.
SUMMARY
Hop bets are one-roll bets that the dice will land on the two numbers you call. They pay 15-1 if the two numbers you call are different or 30-1 if you bet both numbers will be the same.House edges of 11.11 percent on easy hops and 13.89 percent on hard hops are too high for a steady stream of hops bets to be profitable. To much exposure to edges like that will grind down your bankroll.
If you find fun in chasing long shots with big rewards on infrequent wins, then the hops might be part of your game. But keep your bets low, put more of your money in bets with lower house edges, and understand that the players who cut the house edge to the bone skip the hops altogether.
Playing a 'Hopping 7Â’s' Progression
By Jerry 'Stickman'
Periodically people ask me about craps betting systems. Almost all of them rely on the premise that certain numbers are due because they havenÂ’t appeared for a while. I normally tell them that in a random you cannot beat the math of the game. The house edge is the house edge. In the long term you will lose the amount of money played times the house edge.
For many that is enough, but every so often someone says they have won a lot of money on a particular system and want me to look further into it. So periodically I will devote an article to exploring some of these systems.
This article will look at a 'Hopping 7Â’s' progression.
Here is the system as it was stated to me.
- Start over with each new shooter.
- Wait seven rolls before starting the progression
- When the bet hits, take the bet down along with the win.
- Start with a $3 bet. Starting with the first bet, the progression is: 3, 3, 6, 9, 15, 24, 39, etc. always adding the previous two bets together to determine the next bet in the progression.
Here is a table that shows the bet, amount invested, win amount (taking the bet down), and profit.
What we have here is a Fibonacci progression. This and the Martingale progression are well known in betting systems. In 'up as you lose' progressions, the thought is that when your number hits you will recoup your losses and garner a little profit. The Fibonacci progression is the less aggressive of the two.
Either of these progressions works as long as two things are true. The first is you must have adequate bankroll to make it through the inevitable losing streaks you will encounter. The amount you require can be very substantial. The last row in the above table represents the 17th roll without a 7. While 17 rolls without a 7 appearing may be somewhat unusual, it is not that uncommon.
If the shooter goes 20 rolls without a 7 appearing, the bankroll required is almost $2,000.
If the shooter rolls just five more numbers without throwing a 7, the total invested is over $20,000.
And what is the shooter is extremely lucky and throws just 5 more numbers without a 7? Our hapless system player will have just over $225,000 invested.
If he should win on the 30th roll, he will win $233,000+, so maybe he thinks it is worth it.
If our lucky shooter goes five more rolls without a 7, however, the investment skyrockets to almost $2.5 million. I donÂ’t know about you, but if I had that kind of money, I wouldnÂ’t risk it on a craps game.
The second consideration before using this system is something called table maximum. Virtually every craps game has a maximum bet ranging from $2,000 and up. Most of them are $10,000 or less. That means in the unusual but very possible case of someone going 25 rolls without a 7, this player is out his entire investment of over $20,000 and he cannot continue.
The math of the hop bet says that a player will lose 11.11 percent of all money wagered on a random shooter. That is what the math says. LetÂ’s see what some simulations say. I ran several simulations specifying a random shooter through an excellent software program called Smart Craps from DeepNet Technologies.
The first simulation did not put any limits on the maximum bet. It assumed an unlimited bankroll and no maximum bet limit at the craps table. It was very interesting watching the running edge percentage as the simulation progressed. For the first several seconds the expectation was a little over 103%. This means that if someone were playing this system and had the same results as the simulation, they would more than double their bets!
This came to an abrupt halt after about 96,000 rounds. At this point the simulation terminated because it couldn’t handle the size of the bet being placed – over 2.2 billion dollars. It may have taken a while, but the long term hit at about 96,000 player rounds.
Next I put some limits on maximum bet size. I started with 1.1 billion dollars. If the simulation hit the limit, it would restart the progression; that is, wait for seven rolls without a 7, then begin betting the progression. After 10 million rounds, the expectation was 59 percent for the house! During the 10 million rounds the $1.1 billion limit was reached 7 times. This was much worse than what the math would indicate, but with such a large limit, the long term had most likely not yet been reached.
Three more simulations were run with limits of $10,000, $3,000 and $2,000. The results more closely matched the mathematical expectations.
As you can see, all of these fell much closer to the calculated expectations.
So what does this show? You may be lucky and win for a period of time. You may even win for a long period of time. You could also be very unlucky and lose very big for a while. Eventually, however the math will catch up with you.
Craps Layout With Hop Bets For Sale
In the long run, you cannot beat the math of the game with random shooters. You will lose the house edge of your bets times the amount bet. Accept the fact and bet the low house edge bets. Your bankroll will thank you.
Craps Table Layout Hop Bets
May all your wins be swift and large and all your losses slow and tiny.
Jerry 'Stickman' is an expert in craps, blackjack and video poker and advantage slot machine play. He is a regular contributor to top gaming magazines. The 'Stickman' is also a certified instructor for Golden Touch Craps and Golden Touch Blackjack. For more information visit www.goldentouchcraps.com or www.goldentouchblackjack.com or call 1-886-738-3423. You can contact Jerry 'Stickman' at stickmanGTC@aol.com