Craps Yo Eleven
Even if you’ve played craps, you still might be fuzzy about “horn” bets. We can help.
The primary use for the 'Yo' (eleven) is to give the pass line player something extra on the come out. Since the Yo is a one-roll bet, some gamblers toss the dealers a 'dollar Yo,' which means that if the shooter throws an eleven on the very next roll, the player wins $15, but if anything else rolls, he loses his dollar. When the shooter throws an 11, the stickman usually shouts, “Yo,” which is short for “yo-leven.” The words “eleven” and “seven” sound alike, especially in a noisy casino where half the people at the table have been drinking.
Horn bets are commonly referred to as “not especially smart bets,” also known as “sucker bets,” mainly because the house edge is high-ish compared to other bets on the craps table. Who cares, though, right? Horn bets are a blast and keep the game interesting.
The horn bet is found in the middle of the craps table where the proposition, or just “prop,” bets are. A horn bet is a bet split between the numbers 2, 3, 11 or 12. A $4 horn bet is a bet of $1 on each number.
If one of your numbers hits, the 2 and 12 pay 30-to-one and the 3 and 11 pay 15-to-1. Horn bets are a one-time roll, by the way.
The layout says 16-for-1 and 31-for-1 on horn bets, but they keep a buck to replace your bet. The house is sneaky like that.
That’s the basic horn bet. You can always toss out a $5 chip, and rather than getting $1 back, you can ask the dealer (the stickman, specifically) to double up the bet on one of the numbers.
To double up on the 11, for example, the bet is “horn, high yo.” “Yo” is used rather than 11, because 11 sounds too much like “seven,” and craps players are superstitious like that. With a “horn, high yo,” $1 is put in 2, 3 and 12, and $2 goes on 11.
A “horn, high 12” bet puts the $2 on 12 and $1 on the other numbers. A “horn, high aces” bet means the $2 goes on the 2, with $1 on the other numbers. There’s probably a name for the bet where $2 goes on the 3, but we have no idea what it is. If we did, it would mean we have a gambling problem. (It’s “horn, high ace-deuce.”)
Now for the bad news: The “horn, high aces” and “horn, high 12” bets have a house edge of 12.78%, and the “horn, high ace-deuce” and “horn, high 11” bets have a 12.22 % house advantage. Translation: It’s only a sucker bet if it doesn’t pay!
Craps Yo Eleven Bar
So, now you know. And, yes, there will be a quiz. But quizzes about craps are the most fun kind of quizzes.
If you head to the crap table you will hear the dealers making all kinds of different calls, and if you are not familiar with the lingo you could get lost at the table before the dice are even rolled. Luckily we have put together this little list so you are ready to go as soon as you hit the table.
TWO: “Craps,” “eye balls,” “two aces,” “rats eyes,” “snake eyes,” “push the don’t,” “eleven in a shoe store,” “twice in the rice,” “two craps two, two bad boys from Illinois,” “two crap aces,” “aces in both places,” “a spot and a dot,” “dimples.”
THREE: “Craps,” “ace-deuce,” “three craps, ace caught a deuce, no use,” “divorce roll, come up single,” “winner on the dark side,” “three craps three, the indicator,” “crap and a half, flip side ‘O Yo,” “small ace
deuce, can’t produce,” “the other side of eleven’s tummy,” (Here’s an example of an old-time crap dealer, Judd, who invents a call that made its way across Nevada to a carpet joint that I’ve worked in. It doesn’t
make sense, like many of the calls, so your confusion is fitting.) “three craps, the middle,” “two-one, son of a gun.”
FOUR: “Double deuce,” “Little Joe,” “little Joe from Kokomo,” “hit us in the tu tu,” “ace trey, the easy way,” “two spots and two dots.” FIVE: “After five, the field’s alive,” “thirty-two juice roll” (OJ’s jersey number), “little Phoebe,” “fiver, fiver, racetrack driver,” “we got the fever,” “five fever,” “five, no field five.”
SIX: “Big Red, catch’em in the corner,” “like a blue chip stock,” “pair-o-treys, waiter’s roll,” “the national average,” “sixie from Dixie.”
SEVEN: “Seven out, line away,” “grab the money,” “five two, you’re all through,” “six ace, end of the race,” “front line winner, back line skinner,” “six one, you’re all done,” “four-three, woe is me,” “seven’s a bruiser, the front line’s a loser,” “six-ace, you lost the race,” Six-ace, in your face,” “up pops the devil,” “Benny Blue, you’re all through,” “one roll, no butter,” (A seven rolled right after making the point), “three-four, now we’re poor,” “three-four, we’ve lost the war.”
EIGHT: “A square pair, like mom and dad,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Donnie and Marie,” “the windows,” “eighter from Decatur.”
NINE: “Center field,” “center of the garden,” “ocean liner niner,” “Nina from Pasadena,” “Nina Niner, wine and dine her,” “What shot Jesse James? A forty-five.”
TEN: “Puppy paws,” “pair-a-roses,” “pair of sunflowers,” “the big one on the end,” “fifty-five to stay alive,” “two stars from mars,” “sixty-four, out the door.”
Craps Yo 11
ELEVEN: “Yo leven,” “yo levine the dancing queen,” “six five, no jive,” “it’s not my eleven, it’s yo eleven.”
Craps Yo Eleven Play
TWELVE: “Craps,” “boxcars,” “atomic craps,” “a whole lot of crap,” “craps to the max,” “12 craps, it’s crap unless you’re betting on it,” “all the spots we got,” “all the spots and all the dots,” “all the crap there is,” “outstanding in your field,” “triple dipple, in the lucky ducky,” “midnight,” “double saw on boxcars,” “Crapus Maximus.”