Hopping the 7 in Craps

Morning Stickman,

I was reading through one of your articles and I wanted to enquire the following:

The hopping 7s naturally seem to be a large investment should the shooter throw out 15 numbers and up. What if the person betting played the hopping 7s every roll and in addition, played the place bets. Therefore if the shooter was on a roll, the bettor would be covering the 7s from the payouts of the place bets. The only time the bettor would take a hit was if a 2, 3, 11 or 12 came out.

Obviously the math would have to be tweaked so the amounts that were bet would be low enough that initial investments could be covered and should the shooter 7 out, all losses could be recovered with a profit.

Is there merit in this theory?

Thanks,
HB

Hi HB,

People have been trying for decades to come up with a method of betting that will garner a profit at the craps tables. In fact many so-called pundits and self-proclaimed "experts" have developed and sold systems that are hailed as being able to do just that -- make a profit from craps by betting a particular way.

In a random game of craps no betting system will give the player a profit in the long term.

Each and every bet on a craps table has a built in house edge. The one exception is the odds bet behind a pass line, come, don't pass, or don't come bet. The house edge for these bets are collected from the base part of the bet.

Adding place bets to the hopping 7 bets only adds the edge from those bets to your total loss. However, the house edge on place bets is less than on a hopping 7 bet, so betting less of the total amount on the hopping 7s and more on place bets would reduce your loss. But why not just place the best bets from the beginning? They are the pass with odds, don't pass with odds, come with odds, and don't come with odds. Depending on the amount of odds bet, these bets have a house edge of less than one percent. Your money will last you at least 14 times longer than betting the same amount on the hopping 7 with a house edge of just under 14 percent.

The only way to win at craps is to develop a controlled throw. If you are going to play a random game of craps, put your money on the bets that have the lowest house edge. Your fun at the tables will last much longer that way.

All the best at the tables,
Jerry "Stickman"